PROVIDENCE – Script Your Future, a national awareness campaign to promote medication adherence, kicked off on May 23, in an effort to improve outcomes for chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure.
Providence is one of six pilot cities chosen to by the National Consumer League to educate consumers about the importance of properly taking prescribed medicine, including Baltimore, Md., Birmingham, Ala., Cincinnati, Ohio, Raleigh, N.C., and Sacramento, Calif.
Rhode Island was chosen, in part, because of the high incidence of chronic diseases; it ranks sixth highest in the nation in asthma rates and 13th highest in heart disease rates.
More than one-third of medicine-related hospitalizations and almost 125,000 deaths in the United States each year are due to people not taking their medicine as directed, said Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumer League.
One of three people never fill their prescriptions; nearly three out of four Americans don’t take their medications as directed, and more than one-third of medication-related hospital admissions are linked to poor adherence, according to the consumer group. Lack of adherence to prescription drugs costs Americans about $290 billion a year in health care costs.
“There are many different reasons why people don’t take their medicine as directed, from concerns about side effects to the out-of-pocket costs of prescriptions. But the consequences for patients are the same. Nonadherence puts patients, especially those with chronic conditions, at risk for serious complications,” she said.
At the Rhode Island kick-off event of the multi-year campaign, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts joined with Dr. Gus Manocchia, vice president and chief medical officer of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island; Papatya Tankut, vice president, Pharmacy Professional Services, CVS Caremark Corp.; Jeffrey Bratberg, president-elect of the Rhode Island Pharmacists Association; and Russell Poisson, a third-year pharmacy student at University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy, in praising the initiative.
Bob Scott, a patient, provided testimony about his own personal experiences about the importance of staying on track with medication.
“There’s no silver bullet, but this is a step in the right direction,” Manocchia said. “This kind of education takes time.”
The need is great and will become greater, as baby boomers age, Manocchia continued.
