One major benefit of physician 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.
- Fourteen to 21% of patients never fill their original prescriptions.
- Sixty percent of all patients cannot identify their own medications.
- Thirty to 50% of all patients ignore or otherwise compromise instructions concerning their medication.
- Approximately one fourth of all nursing home admissions are related to improper self-administration of medicine.
- Twelve to 20% of patients take other people’s medicines.
- Hospital costs due to patient noncompliance are estimated at $8.5 billion annually.
Physicians offering medications from their office are in a unique position to help address the problem of non-compliance. Medication 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.