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Medication Compliance

How to Increase Medication Compliance In Psychiatric Patients?

Medication compliance refers to the extent to which the patient follows medical advice. In most cases, it leads to following the advice in taking medications and treatments while on the other hand it is also used in psychiatric treatments like having on-time therapy sessions and exercises.

Non-compliance behavior towards medications is very common among psychiatric patients like the ones who are suffering from Bipolar disorder or Schizophrenia. 

It is one of the resistance towards the effective treatment of psychiatric Patients, which eventually increases the chances of retreatment and wasted expeditors on medications.

Below we will discuss the solutions which can help us to increase medication compliance in Psychiatric Patients. 

Reasons behind Non-Compliance

Before coming to any conclusion about how to increase medication compliance in psychiatric Patients we must figure out the likely reasons behind their non-compliance behavior with the medications. 

Poor interaction with the Physician

A poor Doctor-Patient relationship is the first cause of non-compliance behavior, most medical professionals don’t give enough time to their patients. This low interaction is the reason behind the low compliance of medications, As the physician failed to properly interact with the patient and give him confidence about the positive outcomes of the treatment so this may negatively impact the Patient’s mindset and he will not take the medications according to the prescription. 

Side -Effects Concern

According to various researches on the patient behavior towards the medications, it is estimated that most of the patients did not take medications due to the fear of having negative side effects. 

So possessing fears of side-effects develop the non-compliance attitude.

Financial Burden

Another reason for not taking medications is the financial burden, most of the patients are not financially strong so they may face difficulty buying expensive medicines for themselves. 

Careless behavior

Some Patients are careless about taking medications, there are various reasons behind that careless behavior. Moreover, this proves to be very risky for patient health. 

Those were some of the very few reasons which are behind the non-compliance behavior of Psychiatric Patients towards medications. 

Steps To Increase Medication Compliance

We figured out some reasons behind the non-compliance behavior of the patients, now here are a few steps that can help to increase patient compliance with medications.

Understanding Patient behavior

Psychiatric experts need to understand the behavior of the patient before prescribing any kind of medication. Ask the patient about how often you take your medications? Are they helpful to you? 

Create an environment in which patients confidently share everything with the service provider. 

Moreover, there is a need to show empathy with the patients which will instantly boost their confidence to speak openly. 

What Patients Think About Medications

Patient behavior towards taking medications may vary, some patients feel that there are some side effects for taking the medications, some feel it’s expensive. 

Drug Attitude inventory assessment can help measure these notions. It is the assessment that records the complete attitude of the patient towards medications, it started with the initial phase when the medication started throughout the extent to which it ended. 

Electronic Medical records systems are also very helpful to record the results of the Drug Attitude Inventory Assessment. 

Create Awareness Among Patients

In most of the cases, the patient had no awareness about the sensitivity of the mental disorder. After having some signs of recovery most of the patients think that they don’t need to take medications anymore if they have no signs of any mental disorder. 

While a long-term medication plan is necessary to treat mental disorders, here comes the role of Physicians. They can talk to the patients about the effectiveness of the long-term medications. They can also show the success records of the patients who successfully recovered from the disorder by following a long-term medication plan.

Read Also Importance of Patient Compliance In The Healthcare

Use Shared Decision Making Care Model

Shared Decision Making Model (SDM) shows how the interaction between the patient and the physicians becomes stronger. In this model, Patients are allowed to give their opinion about the treatment process and medication. 

Allowing the patient to switch from medicine if it is showing some side effects. The service provider allows the Patient to research and recommend the medications on their own, later the physician can tell him about the pros and cons of this medication. 

This decision-making authority will further boost the confidence of the patient to take medications regularly. 

Reduce The Financial Burden

As we learned before that some patients found the medication process very expensive so they avoid taking medicines. The service provider should ask the patient about his financial situation and prescribe him the treatment and medications which are best suitable for his pockets.

Engage Your Patient

For better treatment, it is best to engage your patient with the treatment process, Call or text them to ask about his/her situation, schedule a follow-up appointment. Make sure that they know the importance of the medications even if they are symptoms free.

Use Technology To Increase Compliance

With the advent of new technologies, it becomes easy for everyone to use applications that can help to take medications on time. Some mobile applications are useful in sending notifications to the patient. 

An electronic pill dispenser is also effective and easy to use when it comes to organizing and reminding of taking medications. 

These are some of the possible technological aspects which can help to create medication compliance.

With the non-compliance behavior, a patient may face several negative outcomes which may prove to be very fatal. We discussed various approaches like making awareness, reducing the financial burden, and use of the technological aspects. 

These were some of the best possible approaches which can help to increase the medication compliance behavior in psychiatric patients. While this is a challenging phase for patients as well as health service providers, it’s best to find new ways to tackle this non-compliance attitude. So, Leave Your Billing worries and spend more time with your patients’ treatment and compliance by outsourcing the time-consuming tasks to Med-Miles LLC

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Importance of Patient Compliance In The Healthcare

Importance of Patient Compliance In The Healthcare

All over the world, it has been noted that patient compliance is a multifaceted and complex health care problem. 

There is no secret that most patients with chronic conditions have a hard time adhering to medical recommendations and treatment plans. No one likes to go to the doctor, but there are occasions when we don’t have a choice because our bodies eventually need some kind of repair. But, what is the actual problem? 

The problem is that a lot of people go to the doctor with health problems but they don’t take their medications as scheduled, skip their appointments, and/or ignore suggested lifestyle changes and health dietary recommendations.

There are two types of non-compliance- one is primary non-compliance and the other one is secondary non-compliance. A primary non-compliance happens when a patient fails to fill a prescription.

Around a third of noncompliant patients fall into this category. There are several ways a secondary mismatch can occur, and these include missing a dose, stopping the medication altogether, taking the medication at the wrong time, and medication misuse

According to the research study, approximately 50% of patients do not take their medications as prescribed and about 75% of patients are non-compliant in one way or another. 

Importance of Patient Compliance In Healthcare

Patient compliance is defined as the extent to which the patient follows the prescribed diet or treatment, and whether the patient returns for follow-up, observation, or treatment.

This non-compliance behavior costs more than $100 billion to $289 billion a year to the U.S. health care system, and this figure is expected to rise more in the future.

If there is a mismatch between the patient’s willingness to take the health care plan and the physician’s attempt to initiate an intervention, noncompliance with the plan is likely to follow. In the end, the patient suffers. 

Nevertheless, some solutions exist to help physicians adapt treatment plans to the individual patient that will provide them with the motivation to work together in their care and lead to better health, shorter hospital stays, and stronger health systems. 

Let’s look at the strategies to boost Medication Compliance!

Strategies to Boost Medication Compliance

  • Involvement In The Process

Many non-compliant patients feel they don’t have the proper support system to help them keep track of their daily medication usage or feel they are not involved in their own care process.

Patients who are not compliant usually feel that they don’t have the proper support system for tracking their daily medication usage. They also feel that they are not involved in their own process care. 

However, it is important to involve patients in their treatment process to get a high level of patient satisfaction. 

The research study also shows that providers who actively involved their patients in a diagnosis or treatment plan will get positive results in terms of patient satisfaction.

It has also been said in the study that when patients view their physician as honorable and trustworthy, chances that they will obey the following recommendations.

  • Compliance Reminders

With the help of compliance reminders, it is easy for patients to get to know when it’s time to take their medications. This will also help patients because it has been shown to increase compliance substantially, which will lead to better results. 

Also, 73 percent of test participants reported being satisfied with the program, while 88 percent claimed that interaction with health professionals plays a big role in their engagement.

  • Understand Patient Behavior

One of the most important things that providers should consider is the understanding of patient behaviors. Moreover, providers need to understand all the problems that patients have to face more often such as problems in filing, taking, or affording medications. 

For this reason, create motivating environments for patients is necessary to make patients feel comfortable in speaking openly and honestly. 

  • Create Awareness About Side Effects

In order to create awareness providers should talk about side effects with patients to let them know about the serious adverse drug reaction. Also, tell them how to prevent them. How treatment pan will be changed if they don’t resolve? Are they typically resolve without intervention? Providers should have answered these questions. 

  • Understand Patient’s Financial Condition 

It is also important for providers to understand the patient’s financial condition. Whether they can afford the medications or not, providers should actively involve in this process to boost patient compliance.

If you want to make your patients compliant then it’s time to make your patient’s aware of pharma company-based assistance plans, state-based assistance plans, and pharmacies that arrange for 30-day supplies of broadly suggested medications.

  • Decrease The Complexity

Reducing the complexity of the drug regimen will help patients to follow through with taking medications correctly. Some ways to reduce complexity are providing combination products and prescribe medications with once-daily dosing instead of multiple doses per day etc. 

  • Use Technology 

Patient medication compliance may improve with the help of technology such as automatic pill dispensers, pillboxes and timers, and alarm watches. A Bluetooth pillbox can provide physicians the information they can use to detect adherence issues.

  • Follow-Up With Patients 

Use medication reminders via text, email, or direct mail or during time allotted for chronic care management services. Also, schedule follow-up appointments to discuss medication compliance. You should tell your patients why they need their medication as prescribed even they are symptom-free. 

Considering that patient non-compliance is an issue in the U.S. that costs billions of dollars each year, the number of preventable deaths has occurred already. For this reason, it is important to find out the root cause of the problem and then address it with a proper solution. Hopefully, the above strategies will help you improve patient compliance while we help you with medical billing and coding.

Leave your billing and codding worries to Med-Miles LLC so you can focus more on what you love the most!

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