The Conversation to Have With Patients
The pharmaceutical industry makes billions of dollars a year, mainly because each year more and more people are in need of multiple medications for their disease states. As the amount of medications the average patient takes increases each year, it is the role of healthcare providers especially pharmacist to monitor, counsel and intervene in their health journey.
Each day millions of people take medications for ailments like diabetes, heart disease, GERD and mental illness. Whether they know how to take these medications or even why is up to their healthcare team to accomplish. These medications may have a specific time of ingestion, multiple indications or just looking at the name confuses the patient. Lord knows I didn’t know how to say hydrochlorothiazide on the first day of pharmacy school. These are only a few reasons patients need counseling and services like MTM. Medication Therapy Management or MTM, sometimes a dreaded word in the pharmacy industry, is a multi-step process that takes time and patience, but can make a world of a difference for a patient’s health. As the rise of adverse drug events, non-adherence and medication errors occur, counseling patients on their medication usage is key and MTM is a great place to start.
Most MTM cases revolve around 3 areas: diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol medications. The triad that makes up metabolic syndrome and can ultimately lead to cardiovascular death. The goal of MTM is to not just prevent metabolic syndrome or CVD, it’s to prevent medication errors and adverse events, educate patients and help them become more knowledgable on their conditions and medications. These services should be provided by all varieties of healthcare personnel but it seems pharmacists take the lead; and with this it should not just be the community pharmacist performing MTM services. Although I understand why it is most popular in the community setting, we dispense these medications on a daily basis, but there are multiple areas of pharmacy that could integrate MTM into their daily work flow. MTM can be done by medical assistants, nurses and providers. MTM services do not have to just be between a patient and their pharmacist or provider, in fact it gives the pharmacist and provider a chance to collaborate on treatment options to better optimize therapeutic growth.
“The goal of MTM is to optimize the therapeutic outcomes of an individual patient as well as detect and prevent costly medication related adverse events.”
Ultimately, MTM can help reduce health care costs for patients, hospitals and insurance companies in the long-run. Seems like a win, win yet it is not integrated enough into medication management and healthcare services. The time it takes to complete an MTM can vary, whether 5 minutes or an hour, but this is time pharmacists may not have when they have 6 vaccinations and 250 prescriptions to verify in just one shift. Although, MTM cases may seem like a minor part of the overall pharmacist’s role, it has value in your patient’s health and outcomes. MTM is used to prevent and manage side effects, ensure patient’s receive the most benefit from their prescription and help with any financial or physical barriers. It is important to remember the goal of healthcare, do no harm. By providing services like MTM, we are not only ensuring safe and effective treatment for patients, but making sure that their adverse effects or adherence issues don’t get overlooked and become a larger issue. The ultimate goal of all pharmacists and one day all healthcare personnel providing Medication Therapy Management is to make sure that their patients are receiving the best possible outcomes from their medications.
As you start your shift, I hope you ask yourself if you can fit at least one MTM into your day. Remember the difference you can be making in a patient’s life, rather than dwelling on the time it will take.
Thanks for reading.
Best,
Frances Nixon-Simon
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy PharmD Candidate
Sources:
- McBane S, Dopp A, Abe A, et al. Collaborative drug therapy management and comprehensive medication management. American College of Clinical Pharmacy. https://www.accp.com/docs/govt/advocacy/Leadership%20for%20Medication%20Management%20-%20MTM%20101.pdf. Published 01/29/2015.
