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Seniors Prone to Drug Errors Finding Help From
Safety System
June 23, 2004 - One
in four seniors age 65 or older sees four or more physicians each year,
and one in three visit four or more pharmacies each year, making patient
data exchange difficult and creating a dangerous medication matrix that
could put people at risk, according to the company who introduced a
safety system last year that they say is helping reduce the risk.
Bridging the
communication gap between major medical providers, prescription
utilization data and medical claims information can help to improve
patient safety and reduce healthcare costs, Timothy Wentworth, Group
President for National Accounts, Medco Health Solutions, Inc. investors
today at Wachovia Securities' 14th Annual Nantucket Equity Conference.
To illustrate,
Wentworth announced that in 2003 RationalMed, the company's integrated
patient safety system that reviews medical, pharmacy and diagnostic
data, identified 634,749 patients at risk for hospitalization from a
prescription medication, according to the results of an annual patient
data analysis. During the last 12 months, RationalMed saved health plans
approximately $60 million in prescription drug costs in addition to
savings from prevented hospitalizations.
According to the
annual data analysis, the number of prescriptions that could potentially
cause a hospitalization increased in all six major categories of
conflicts measured by RationalMed. Specifically:
-- 188,493 prescriptions presented
the potential for dangerous
interaction with another disease
or condition the patient had, a
situation that pharmacy
utilization reviews can't identify based
solely on prescription data.
-- Nearly 120,000 over-utilization
episodes that had the potential to
cause hospitalizations were
identified.
-- More than 44,000 conflicts were
identified as duplicate therapies (the
same or similar medications
prescribed concurrently).
-- 315,879 prescriptions were
identified as having issues with duration
of therapy, either stopped too
soon or taken too long by the patient.
"For many patients
with complex care needs, care is obtained from multiple physicians and
specialists who prescribe medication, and from multiple pharmacies that
dispense the medication. Unless this care is highly coordinated so that
all are informed, the care can put the patient at risk," said Wentworth.
"While physicians may not always have the complete pharmacy and medical
information on a patient available when they prescribe a medication,
health plans are tapping into safety systems like RationalMed to
identify the dangerous potential and alert physicians so they can take
action if appropriate."
Systems such as
RationalMed present a unique solution to the problem of costs associated
with preventable medication errors. RationalMed enhances patient safety
and cuts cost associated with preventable hospitalizations by using
predictive modeling to review prescriptions for potential drug errors
that could land patients in the hospital. Upon identifying patients at
risk, the patient's prescribing physicians are notified.
The clinical and
cost benefits of RationalMed have been widely recognized -- RationalMed
membership has increased by over 500 percent between 2000 and 2004.
Since its initial launch, more than 1.6 million alert packages
identifying patient-specific drug issues have gone out to patients and
physicians, and as many as 50 percent of those alerts generated an
immediate change in therapy by the physician. More than six million
patients nationwide are currently benefiting from their health plan's
use of the RationalMed safety system, according to the company.
Complete Patient
Data Helps Reduce Drug Errors, Save on Healthcare Costs
According to Medco,
one in four seniors age 65 or older sees four or more physicians each
year, and one in three visit four or more pharmacies each year, making
patient data exchange difficult and creating a dangerous medication
matrix that could put people at risk. When a patient is identified as
being at risk through RationalMed, an alert package, including the
patient's medical and pharmacy data is sent to the physician notifying
them of the possible danger.
To help consumers do
their part to prevent dangerous errors, Medco offers the following tips:
Make a Medication
List: Keep an updated list of all the medications you are taking,
including over-the-counter drugs, and bring it to every doctor's
appointment as well as to the pharmacy. In doing so, any doctor you see
can identify any potential for drug interactions before prescribing.
Medco beneficiaries can download much of this information at
http://www.medco.com.
Tell Every Doctor
About All of Your Conditions: Make sure that every doctor you see knows
about all short-term and long-term conditions and diseases you have been
diagnosed with. While you may think conditions may not be connected, all
information is relevant, as certain drugs can be affected by other
conditions you have.
Follow doctor's
orders: Make sure to take the medication for the entire length of time
for which the doctor prescribes. Don't stop taking your medication
without your doctor's knowledge, even if you are feeling better, and
don't double up your doses if you aren't feeling any improvement.
Instead, call your doctor.
About Medco
Medco Health
Solutions, Inc., (NYSE:
MHS -
News), a leading pharmacy benefit manager with the nation's largest
mail order pharmacy operations, assists its customers to moderate the
cost and enhance the quality of prescription drug benefits provided to
members nationwide. Its customers include private- and public- sector
employers and healthcare organizations. Medco is traded on the New York
Stock Exchange under the symbol MHS. On the Net: http://www.medco.com.
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