Impact of a targeted recruitment approach for a medication adherence packaging program

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Practice
• Patient Adherence
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Medication synchronization and packaging services enhance patient adherence.
• Barriers to patient recruitment and enrollment limit the utilization of these services.
• Historically, pharmacy chains lacked robust patient recruitment mechanisms for such programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a systematic, targeted patient recruitment strategy for a medication packaging program.
• To assess the impact of targeted recruitment on patient enrollment, retention, and risk profiles.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a targeted recruitment strategy using pharmacy records (medications, adherence, PioneerRx risk score) to identify patients.
• Provided pharmacists with patient lists and recruitment instructions at 8 intervention sites.
• Utilized interrupted time series analysis and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to analyze enrollment growth and within-group comparisons.

Main Results:

• Identified 272 patients; 40% of contacted patients enrolled, with 81.4% retained at 12 months.
• Recruited patients showed statistically significant reductions in mean risk scores and shifts to lower risk categories.
• Patient adherence metrics remained high throughout the study period.

Conclusions:

• The targeted recruitment approach proved successful in enrolling and retaining patients in medication packaging programs.
• Untargeted recruitment enrollment also increased, suggesting positive indirect effects of targeted strategies.
• Pharmacy organizations are encouraged to adopt systematic, targeted recruitment for medication packaging programs.