Improving Medication Adherence and Patient Experience

During the July 13th Operational Excellence webinar we learned about how to improve medication adherence and the patient experience. Congratulations to our top performers: Inner City Health Center, Pueblo Community Health Center, and STRIDE Community Health Center!

To review, the keys to medication adherence are:

1. Move to 90- or 100-day fills with a year’s refills as soon as possible.  Mail order is best.
2. Keep the medication regimen as simple as possible, using combination medications when you can, but keep in mind some combinations are much more expensive than the individual drugs.
3. Use real time adjudication when prescribing so you can discuss the out of pocket charge with the patient before they get to the pharmacy.
4. Ask the patient to work with their pharmacist to synchronize their refills, again keeping in mind that some patients may not be able to afford all of their copays at once.

The keys to patient experience are:

1. Maintain continuity by keeping your patients in touch with their primary care clinicians and team.  The first question to ask any patient is not “what do you need?” but “who do you normally see in our practice?”.
2. Keep your practice as comprehensive as possible.  Use referrals judiciously and consider phone or e-consults with specialists prior to referral.  When patients need to see a specialist, ensure care coordination and prompt receipt of notes, labs, images, etc.
3. Communication skills are key.  All staff should be well versed in customer service.  Back office staff and clinicians should have at least rudimentary skills in motivational interviewing, shared decision making and patient activation.

The slides and recording from the webinar can be found at https://chpanetwork.com/webinars-trainings/.

To continue the learning, please follow this link for more information about a free CME program. This series takes 12 minutes and consists of six two-minute videos. It was produced by Press Ganey and provides useful information. Although target audience is providers, it generalizes well to all team members. Two continuing education credits will be available upon completion of each of the 6 videos within this series.

As always, all of us here at CHPA are ready to help with any educational needs you may have.

All the best,

Tim Dudley, MD

Medical Director, CHPA