WOONSOCKET – A new study published Jan. 10 in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that patients with chronic heart disease are likely to have difficulty keeping their medications straight, because of the number of doctors, prescriptions and pharmacies involved.
Conducted by researchers from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and CVS Caremark Corp. as part of a three-year collaboration, the “therapeutic complexity” study concluded that it was important to find ways “to help patients simplify, centralize and organize their medication management,” according to CVS officials.
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The study reviewed CVS Caremark pharmacy claims for more than 3 million patients using the most widely sold medications for the treatment of cardiovascular disease between June 1, 2006, and May 30, 2007, including statins.
One solution recommended by the researchers was the creation of a “pharmacy home” to coordinate care from a single point of contact. “Consolidating prescriptions in a single pharmacy home may help improve health care quality similar to the intended effects of a patient-centered medical home,” the researchers said.
“The complexity that typical patients with heart disease face when trying to manage their medication treatment regimens is nothing short of dramatic,” said Niteesh K. Choudhry of Harvard, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the lead author of the study. “While the treatment of chronic disease is extremely complex, our results clearly demonstrate filling prescriptions at many different pharmacies on many different occasions makes it even harder for these patients to take their medicine as directed by their doctors.”
“Some people might look at these results and say it is not surprising that patients who have multiple doctors, and take medications purchased from multiple pharmacies are less likely to be adherent,” said Larry Merlo, president and chief operating officer at CVS Caremark. “But these findings show that the health care system needs to do a much better job helping these patients consolidate and manage their pharmacy care if we are intent on improving their health outcomes.”
