What is the medication management service?
Medication management service is provided by pharmacists and aims at promoting medication safety and enhancing ability in self-managements of health and disease. Together with participants, pharmacists will provide medication assessments and consultations through medication reconciliation, medication review, consultation of new or high-risk medications and formulating personalized action plans. Empowering patient self-management of health, pharmacist will walk with you and guide you through the medication problems encountered. All parties, including patients, their caregivers and frontline service providers may observe or reveal the service needs to initiate the service.
How could pharmacists provide medication management service?
Together with participants and/or their caregiver(s), pharmacists will conduct the followings face-to-face:
- Compile a comprehensive and updated medication list
- Review your medication therapy, including the indication(s), side effect profile and precaution(s) of each drug
- Explore the features of your new or high-risk medications
- Formulate action plans to better self-manage your health and medications
By connecting the resources and services with both internal and external multidisciplinary teams from other social organizations, pharmacists could assess and review participants’ ability to manage their diseases and medications, and provide personalized recommendations on medicine use and lifestyle changes in order to optimise disease management. Follow-up and referrals to other healthcare disciplines, as well as support for caregivers would also be arranged as needed. For prescription-driven service, patient’s prescriptions would also be filled along with consultation in a community pharmacy.
Image courtesy of Health In Action Community Pharmacy via http://www.hia.org.hk/pharmacy/en/home-2/
Image courtesy of Lok Sin Tong Community Pharmacy via https://www.facebook.com/loksintongcommunitypharmacy/
Image courtesy of Philanthropic Community Pharmacy (St. James Settlement) via https://www.sjs.org.hk/en/project/charity-details.php?id=4 / https://charityservices.sjs.org.hk/charity/pharmacy
Image courtesy of Hong Kong Pharmaceutical Care Foundation via http://www.pcfhk.org/en/
Service targets
This service targets individuals who are:
- Taking more than five medications; and/or
- Taking high-risk medications (e.g. blood thinners, ant-diabetic drugs, inhalers, medications for psychiatric and neurological disorders, immunisupressants); and/or
- Having changes in medication regimen recently (e.g., recently hospitalised, or initiated on new medication)
Service aims and objectives
- To empower patients of chronic diseases and their caregivers with better knowledge and literacy in self-management, health-related decision-making and health promotion
- To optimize and review the access, appropriateness, effectiveness, safety and adherence of medication therapy among patients with high chronic disease burden
- To enhance the community capacity to support patients and their caregivers in holistic healthcare approach (e.g. addressing psychosocial concerns of individuals)
Expected outcomes
- Individuals would be aware of personal and family benefits of good health and medication management, and their potential capability to manage their own health in order to encourage them to proactively join the decision-making for their health planning.
- Individuals would also acquire essential knowledge and skills to handle health- and medication-related issues, as well as to understand future health-related needs and make the best choice of life and healthcare services.