Quality Insights - Practice Transformation  
Improving Hypertension and Diabetes Care & Prevention   
Medication Adherence is Important to Cardiovascular Outcomes

Non-adherence to medications is common and can be associated with adverse outcomes, especially for patients with cardiovascular issues. Non-adherence is not solely a patient problem but impacts both the care providers and the healthcare system.
 
The first step toward improving adherence should be a broader recognition of the problem of non-adherence, and once identified, simple strategies should be implemented in daily practice to improve adherence.
 
Certainly, there are still many challenges in further understanding the reasons for non-adherence and designing better interventions to improve adherence. However, getting patients to take their medication as prescribed is a lofty goal in order for patients to derive the maximal benefit of prescribed therapies and is also highly consistent with one of the Institute of Medicine's goals of patient-centered care. Read more .
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Encourage Your Patients to Make the Pledge to Take Their Meds

Taking medicine as directed is an important step toward a longer, healthier life. Patients can visit the Script Your Future website and take the first step towards a healthier future by making their pledge to take your meds. 

As a healthcare provider, this website also offers many resources that you can print out and display in your practice or distribute to your patients to remind them of all the reasons why they need to do everything they can to stay healthy. Taking medicine as directed could be the easiest and most impactful way to help ensure a healthier future. 
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Wallet Card Helps Patients Keep Track of Medications 

Script Your Future, a national campaign to raise awareness about the importance of medication adherence as a vital first step toward better health outcomes,  has developed a handy wallet card which can help remind patients to take their medicine as prescribed (schedule and dose). 

Patients can use the wallet card to list all of the medications that they are currently taking and update it as needed. The card can easily be shared with doctors and pharmacists to provide a quick and easy medication reconciliation, plus it includes a list of common medication related questions that patients to ask their healthcare providers.  Click here to access the wallet card .
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Your Response is Needed to the Quality Insights Hypertension & Diabetes Assessment

Quality Insights is working with the Delaware Division of Public Health to encourage practices to implement guidelines that will improve the treatment and follow-up care for patients who have either hypertension and/or diabetes.

Click here to access a brief assessment that requests information on protocols or procedures that you are using to treat and follow-up on these chronic diseases.

Please be assured that your practice data will never be shared outside of Quality Insights. Thank you in advance for your prompt response.
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Check Out the New Medication Adherence Practice e-Toolkit from Quality Insights 

Quality Insights released a new Medication Adherence Practice e-Toolkit that is packed with information, resources and best practices that you can use to better help your patients better adhere to their medication regimes.
 
The e-toolkit includes education and resources on the following topics:
  • Medication adherence improvement materials and educational resources
  • How to successfully engage patients to improve medication adherence
  • Team approach to med adherence
  • Costs of non-adherence
  • How pharmacist interventions can improve med adherence
  • Free apps to help your patients better manage their medications
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Contacts:
1.877.987.4687, Ext. 137

1.877.987.4687, Ext. 127
 
  
This publication was supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number 1U58DP004799-01 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.