miércoles, 16 de septiembre de 2009

USA: US$ 290 billiones "costo" anual por uso incorrecto de medicinas.


The study attributes the mistakes to high costs, unpleasant side effects, confusing regimes, forgetfulness and other patient behaviours, such as feeling too good to need medication.


It outlines four solutions which could reduce the problem:
  • Creating healthcare teams - incorporating nurses, pharmacists and other clinicians in supporting medication adherence;

  • Patient engagement and education - involving primary care providers and pharmacists to ensure patients know the importance of taking their medication properly;

  • Payment reform - changing reimbursement incentives away from rewarding volume and towards rewarding good patient outcomes, which would encourage providers to invest in resources, such as counselling services, to improve medication adherence; and

  • Leveraging health information technologies - using technology such as e-health records and e-prescribing, to give providers secure knowledge of the patient’s current medications and when prescriptions are due to be refilled.



Modern Healthcare
August 11, 2009

The New England Healthcare Institute has released a study showing that patients who do not adhere to their prescriptions cost the healthcare system about $290 billion a year. One-third to one-half of patients—especially those with chronic illnesses—improperly follow prescriptions, leaving themselves vulnerable to hospitalizations and medical risk. The larger spending could be avoided if patients adhered to medication orders given by physicians, according to NEHI's report, Thinking Outside the Pillbox: A System-wide Approach to Improving Patient Medication Adherence for Chronic Disease...

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