Medication Therapy Management

Making sure that every patient is taking the right medications — and that those medications are used appropriately — can increase drug costs at first. The long-term benefits, however, are substantial, both for the patients and for health care budgets. Preventing acute illness means fewer hospital stays and emergency room visits for patient and lower charges for payers.

The Medication Therapy Management program at UMass Medical School’s Clinical Pharmacy Services uses sophisticated queries to help identify patients with specific disease states. Our clinical pharmacists then intervene and offer appropriate medication recommendations, which are designed to improve therapeutic outcomes. We communicate our recommendations to the patient’s primary care provider to ensure information is shared with all health care providers.

Our clinical pharmacists call patients to ensure they understand how to obtain and properly use the medications they need. The materials and training we provide are culturally-sensitive and easy to understand.

Preventing under- and over-utilization, as well as inappropriate use, of certain medications with Clinical Pharmacy Services’ educational interventions can reduce drug interactions and prevent symptoms from progressing to an acute stage that requires emergency care. Our pharmacists examine the following to identify areas to improve efficiency and outcomes:

• Prescribing trends
• Patients taking inappropriate medications
• Under- and over-utilization of medications

In addition to working directly with patients, many of our pharmacists have honed their educational skills as instructors in colleges of pharmacy. Both types of experience are beneficial as they evaluate their patients’ situations. Our pharmacists look beyond the short-term fluctuations in a patient’s record; we examine at least six months of pharmacy claims records to obtain the most relevant patient information, based on the following indications:

• Asthma
• Chronic heart failure
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Hepatitis
• Migraine management
• Post-myocardial infarction care

Based on individual patient needs, specific educational interventions are selected for each patient. These may include any combination of outreach initiatives directed to the patient/caretaker, provider, or pharmacy.