Who’s To Blame For Lousy Patient Adherence?

Who’s To Blame For Lousy Patient Adherence?

September 19th, 2011 // 12:27 pm @ jmpickett

This may depend upon who one asks, but a majority of pharmacists apparently believe they have only themselves to blame. At least that is the outcome of new survey, which finds that 76 percent of pharmacists say they have the most responsibility for patient adherence and compliance. Another 16 percent cite physicians, while only 5 percent point to manage care and 3 percent finger drugmakers.

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Yet, sufficient incentive programs appear to be lacking to encourage pharmacists to spend more time on patient compliance and adherence. Although some drugmakers and insurers offer,programs to pay pharmacists for medication counseling sessions with patients, only 24 percent participate, according to the survey by Industry Standard Research, a market research firm.

In fact, only 14 percent are very familiar with these programs and another 34 percent are somewhat familiar. But 20 percent have never heard of these programs at all. ISR, by the way, canvassed 86 US pharmacists, of which 64 percent work in large retail chains, 33 percent work in independent pharmacies and 3 percent work as compounders. Hospital pharmacists were not queried.

“One thing that has come to light through our research was the disproportionate number of pharmacists who indicated that they were not incentivized to promote adherence, compliance, or refills,” ISR president Andrew Schafer says in a statement. “On top of that, those who would benefit the most from such programs, pharmaceutical manufacturers and managed care organizations, have shown less than satisfactory performance in providing pharmacists with necessary information and materials when a program is in place.”

For those wondering what pharmacists think of drugmakers and managed care, well, this is a mixed bag. Two-thirds of the pharmacists are satisfied with pharma; of course, this means one third are not. And only 46 percent of pharmacists are satisfied with managed care. Given the tension that is often described by pharmacies, though, this actually seems higher than what one might have expected.

Source: Pharmalot