Impact of Automated Medication Refills on Adherence and Medication Wastage: Saudi Tertiary Hospital

• Published in: Studies in health technology and informatics Vol. 305; p. 529
• Main Authors: Alolabi, Shaima Yassin, Alkadi, Khulud Sulaiman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands 29-06-2023
• Subjects: Ambulatory Care; Female; HIV Infections; Hospitals, Special; Humans; Saudi Arabia; Tertiary Care Centers; Saudi Arabia; Adherence: following medical instructions for taking medications
• ISSN: 1879-8365

Ambulatory care pharmacy should run with an integrated strategy for continuity of care, quality, and customer satisfaction, which is very important since it is usually the last hospital station for the patient before he or she goes home. Automatic refill programs are targeting the promotion of medication adherence; however, there is a potential concern regarding the possible wastage of medications contributed by these programs due to the reduced patient involvement in the refill medication dispensing cycle. We evaluated the impact of an automatic refill program on antiretroviral medication use. The setting of the study was a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center). The main study area is the ambulatory care pharmacy. Participants included patients on antiretroviral medications for HIV. Overall patients (91.7%) scored 0 on the Morisky scale as high adherence, 7 patients scored 1 and 9 patients scored 2 as medium adherence, and 1 patient only scored 3 as low adherence. The act goes here.