Can Guideline Adherence Be Improved by Letter Outreach?

An assessment of cholesterol goal attainment in patients with chronic kidney disease

“…This finding may have been influenced by a KPCO initiative targeting statin initiation in patients with diabetes based on the results of the Heart Protection Study. 27 The process of cholesterol-risk management involves screening, initiating appropriate treatment, and follow-up to ensure lipid goals are met. Although our study demonstrated the majority of patients with CKD had been screened (as evidenced by the documentation of at least one FLP result in the previous year), 30.5% had not had a FLP measured within the year before April 1, 2008, and only 60.8% of patients had an LDL-C less than 100 mg/dL.…”

The Influence of Targeted Education on Medication Persistence and Generic Substitution among Consumer‐Directed Health Care Enrollees

“…CDHP enrollees with the education outreach were more likely to convert to lower-cost ACE/ARB alternatives than CDHP enrollees without the outreach. Other educational interventions have been reported to positively impact chronic medication use (Cormack et al 1994;Grace et al 2002;Delate and Henderson 2005;Meissner et al 2006;Tran and Billups 2008). However, none of these studies have been conducted in the framework of a CDHP and only one has specifically investigated the effect of education on switching to an alternate medication (Delate and Henderson 2005).…”

“…In lieu of the complexity of this decision making, educational programs may assist CDHP enrollees in becoming more informed health care consumers and decision makers. While patient education programs have been demonstrated to influence medication use (Cormack et al 1994;Grace et al 2002;Delate and Henderson 2005;Meissner et al 2006;Tran and Billups 2008), no information is available on the effect of enrollee education programs in CDHPs. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a multifaceted educational intervention on medication decision making by comparing the rates of chronic medication persistence and lower-cost medication substitution between CDHP enrollees without an educational outreach and CDHP enrollees with the medication educational outreach in a single national employer.…”

Defining and advancing ambulatory care pharmacy practice: It is time to lengthen our stride

“…Ambulatory care pharmacists have used population-based strategies as well as case management to address this therapeutic gap. 35,36 Optimizing asthma care. Asthma affects an estimated 25 million people (approximately 1 in 12) in the United States.…”