One major benefit of clinic dispensing is that it helps address the problem of patient medication compliance. An article in the Journal of Applied Research shares the following facts:
- Approximately 125,000 people with treatable ailments die each year in the USA because they do not take their medication properly.
- 14% to 21% of patients never fill their original prescriptions.
- 60% of all patients cannot identify their own medications.
- 30% to 50% of all patients ignore or otherwise compromise instructions concerning their medication.
- Approximately 25% of all nursing home admissions are related to improper self-administration of medicine.
- 12% to 20% of patients take other people’s medicines.
- Hospital costs due to patient noncompliance are estimated at $8.5 billion annually.
A study published in The Journal of Rural Health, "The Effect of Physician Dispensing on Visit Compliance and Blood Pressure Control in a Rural Family Practice Clinic", found that 79% of patients in the dispensed group met criteria for visit compliance versus 49% of patients in the prescribed group. This only serves to support the potential influence of in-office dispensing on patient behavior.
Physicians offering medications from their office are in a unique position to help address the problem of non-compliance. Pharmaceutical dispensing at the point-of-care allows the drug conversation to happen in real-time. Not only can the practitioner describe the purpose and use of the medication, the patient can literally have the product in hand during the conversation.