Brightmore University: How McNeill’s Pharmacy is Helping Change the Face of Medication Adherence
The Wellness Series of Brightmore University brought to the residents and our community, “The Evolving World of Pharmacy: Medication Adherence & Compliance Packaging” presented by Madison Gaskins, Pharm. D. Transitional Care Management Pharmacist, McNeill’s Pharmacy, in Whiteville, NC. It seemed more than appropriate to bring McNeill’s Pharmacy to Brightmore when Liberty community’s existence began right in Whiteville, NC, with the McNeill family. Many patients and staff of the Liberty community already receive their medications in the mail from McNeill’s Pharmacy. As the world of pharmacy continues to grow, change, and develop with each year that passes, patients continue to struggle with medication adherence. Fortunately, the world or pharmacy is evolving to address the issue of medication adherence and improve the overall quality of patients’ lives. In this session, we learned why it is so difficult for some to take their medications as their doctors prescribe. Many reasons include: Inattention and Procrastination, Complex Medication Regimen, and Issues with the Medication – such as side effects and size of the pills. There are many avenues to organize your meds to make sure you take them correctly, such as reminders on your calendar or phones, pillboxes, and pharmacy counseling, but the newest is through compliance packaging. Compliance Packaging is medications packaged together and organized by the time of day that patients take their medications. All the morning, midday, evening, bedtime medications are packaged together for convenience and sometimes free of charge, with your pharmacist doing all the work, especially if you use McNeill’s Pharmacy. The participants of this session enjoyed being educated on Compliance Packaging and agreed that this is the potential answer to improving medication adherence for not only seniors but anyone taking several medications throughout the day.
