SAN ANTONIO – Taking the wrong medication or the wrong dose could cost you money — and it could put your life at risk, according to the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy.
A free program at University Health in San Antonio is helping patients safely manage the number and types of medications they take each day.
“What we do is we help our patients and empower them to manage their medications,” said Erica Torres, a clinical pharmacy specialist with University Health’s Medication Therapy Management program.
One of her patients, Alejandro Medellin, didn’t have a primary care physician and was having too many visits to the emergency room.
“I kept going to the ER like two, three times a month. And they couldn’t get it right,” Medellin said.
Medellin lives with high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. He said that with every ER visit, more prescriptions were added to his daily regimen until he was overwhelmed and confused.
“I walk in with a bag like this, and it’s just a bunch of medication,” he said. “I told [the doctor], I don’t know how to take them. I said it’s confusing. Because what would happen sometimes, I would take too much, and my blood pressure would go too low, and I would run up to the ER.”
His doctors referred him to Medication Therapy Management, where he now meets with a pharmacist monthly.
They sit down together to review and organize the 10 medications he takes in the morning and at night. Over time, adherence and careful review have allowed Torres and Medellin’s care team to safely reduce his medication load.
“After time of making sure that the medicine was being taken on an everyday basis, we’ve been able to lower the dose, if not totally cut out certain medications,” Torres said.
Torres said the program gives pharmacists time to:
- Educate patients about what each medication does and how to take it.
- Consolidate prescriptions when patients may be taking duplicate drugs.
- Help patients find ways to pay for medicines they might not be able to afford.
For Medellin, the impact has been dramatic.
“They took over. I don’t go to the ER anymore like I used to,” he said. “I don’t have problems with the medications like I used to.”
Health officials say patients who feel overwhelmed by the number of prescriptions they take should talk with their primary care provider about a referral to a pharmacist or medication management program.