The Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (JAPhA) is publishing an article this month based on a recent metadata study conducted by researchers from the University of Mississippi. The research is a retrospective analysis of the impact of MedSync on adherence. Not surprisingly, the article details the statistically significant improvements in the patient adherence of chronic medications for those adult patients enrolled in medication synchronization (“MedSync”) programs. Those of you who offer and perform MedSync, likely already know this.
For those of you who may be new to MedSync, it is so much more than just an “auto-refill” function. It conveniently aligns all of a patient’s eligible medications to a single pick-up day. There are several different ways, operationally, to offer MedSync. Based on the statistics, the most impactful model is called the appointment-based model or ABM. What separates ABM from other MedSync models is that in the ABM model, the patient experience includes a pharmacist guided conversation reviewing the medications that the patient is taking, addressing topics such as medication side effects, results, and even barriers to adherence. These consultations occur when initially enrolling the patient in MedSync and at each subsequent, scheduled pick up date.
Beyond improved patient outcomes, MedSync has the added benefit impacting the of internal operational efficiency of the pharmacy. Given the appropriate technology partner, MedSync can create a more efficient proactive workflow instead of the typical, reactive, patient call driven work flow. Additional pharmacy-side benefits to implementing a time-tested, proven MedSync program include; reducing inventory days’ supply on hand, streamlining staff scheduling and the enhancing implementation of medication compliance packaging programs (also tied to improved adherence), a reduction in inbound pharmacy calls and an increase in overall patient satisfaction.
If you are evaluating MedSync and you are looking for patient adherence statistics to support the decision, the article is worth the read. In their conclusion the researchers offered up this final suggestion, that we at MarkeTouch agree wholeheartedly with…“In this meta-analysis of the impact of med sync on adherence, med sync was associated with statistically significant improvement in adherence. Policy makers and payers should consider reimbursement to pharmacies to support med sync programs in efforts to combat medication nonadherence and improve health outcomes.”
If you are considering adding MedSync to your patient adherence and pharmacy operations tool-kit, give MarkeTouch a call, because not all MedSync technology solutions are the same. MarkeTouch has been helping thousands of pharmacies sync millions of patients since 2013 with our unique medication synchronization service, Optimum MedSync. Increase your enrollment opportunities with the ability to perform real-time synchronization, offer your pharmacy team and patients of multiple automatically calculated sync types. Add Optimum MedSync to your home delivery and compliance packaging offerings and finally, implement a service that facilitates keeping your MedSync patients, synced.
Until next time, take care.
Rebecca
Read more Blog Posts