Home Health Patients Need Medication Support to Prevent Rehospitalizations, Study Finds

McKnight’s Home Care | By Adam Healy

Programs that promote medication adherence can slash home health patients’ risk of rehospitalization by more than half, according to new research by home- and community-based pharmacy and healthcare provider BrightSpring Health Services.
 
Poor medication adherence is common, according to the study published in the Journal of American Medical Directors Association. About 50% of the time, patients fail to take medicines as they are prescribed, and medication-related hospital admissions cost patients up to $100 billion per year, it said. To find ways to reduce these costs and improve patient outcomes, BrightSpring investigated whether its medication adherence program, CCRx, affected patients’ risk of hospital admission.
 
CCRx uses a combination of home assessments, adherence-promoting packaging and ongoing medication reviews to encourage patients to stick with their medication plans. A sample of 113 CCRx enrollees was measured alongside a control group of 21,304 non-enrollees, whose hospitalization rates were then analyzed. The study found that CCRx members had a  73.1% lower hospitalization rate than individuals in the control group.
 
“Medication management is foundational and a critical service for individuals with complex care and home health needs,” William Mills, MD, BrightSpring’s senior vice president of Medical Affairs, said in a statement.

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