Integrated pharmaceutical care

A clinical medication review is an assessment of a patient’s pharmacotherapy by a pharmacist, the general practitioner (GP) and the patient, based on a periodic structured critical evaluation of medical, pharmaceutical and drug use information. To perform a medication review at the highest level, cooperation between healthcare providers and the patient is required. This research focuses on the cooperation between pharmacists and GPs in primary care. Its main objectives are to determine: how the chronic medication adherence of patients can be improved by involving them more in their treatment andhow the number of drug-related problems and pharmaceutical care issues can be decreased by developing a method to integrate pharmaceutical care by healthcare providers.

The studies described in the thesis of Marlies Geurts found improvement in three aspects: (1) a more precise selection of patients at risk; (2) medication verification at critical moments; and (3) patient involvement in pharmaceutical care using a patient self-completion concordance form.

Her thesis shows the importance of patient involvement in pharmacotherapy. This could be achieved by using a patient self-completion concordance form at first and second dispensation of a new medicine meant for chronic use. Secondly, the performance of a clinical medication review followed by the development of a pharmaceutical care plan through cooperation among the various healthcare providers. Cooperation between the healthcare providers, the availability and sharing of up-to-date patient information between healthcare providers – preferably through local computer systems – and accurate reimbursement for time spent by healthcare providers are all prerequisites.

Dissertation: http://hdl.handle.net/11370/95c8af27-f87b-4aab-9a0c-eb4a8f92ef76