(1005) Comparison of Select Business Expenses Related to Delivery of Chronic Medications Before and After Patient Enrollment in a Medication Synchronization Program at an Independent Community Pharmacy

Objectives: Patients with multiple chronic conditions often require treatment with numerous over the counter and prescription medications. A study published in 2016 reported that rates of adherence decline over time and are lower in patients prescribed multiple chronic medications.1 Those with dyssynchronous prescription refills have an increased burden of access, often not picking up their medication supplies on the same day. Those utilizing a delivery service with dyssynchronous prescriptions often require the driver going to the same house multiple times throughout the weeks and month. Medication synchronization programs enable pharmacists to impact patient adherence in community settings.1 Med Sync fills all chronic medications on the same day each month, therefore promoting patient adherence and more efficient medication delivery. It is anticipated that such programs also reduce delivery-related expenses to the pharmacy. However, the impact of the program on such expenses has not been well-described. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of the Med Sync program on delivery-related expenses at an independent community pharmacy.
The primary objective is to describe select delivery-related business expenses for select chronic medications before and after patient enrollment in a medication synchronization program in the setting of an independent pharmacy. Secondary objectives include describing medication adherence (as measured by proportion of days covered [PDC]) for antihypertensives, non-insulin diabetes medications, and statins.

Methods: This is a pre-post cohort study utilizing patient data from an independent community pharmacy in North Carolina. To be included in the study participants must be 18 years of age or older, a patient of Healthwise Pharmacy in Greenville, NC, currently taking ≥ 2 medications for chronic conditions which are not currently being filled on the same cycle and utilizing Healthwise’s medication delivery service within Healthwise’s local delivery area. Enrollment into Med Synch program took place between July 1 and September 30, 2023, which is the “pre-implementation” phase. October 1st to December 31st, 2023 will serve as a wash-out period for the study and when Med Sync begins. January 1st to March 30th, 2024, is the “post-enrollment” period. A comparison of pre- vs. post Med Sync enrollment data, including delivery-related expenses, will be completed.
Patient-related data collected from RX30 include patient demographic data, patient age, insurance type (Medicare, Medicaid, private, cash), refill dates for antihypertensives, statins, and non-insulin DM meds if not part of patient’s medication list, patient-identified adherence barriers. Delivery-related data collected include gas costs per week for each delivery driver, mileage per day for each delivery driver, number of stops made each day for each delivery driver, number of deliveries made per day, number of patients served throughout the three-month pre and post periods, and time put in per day for each delivery driver (paid by hour). All delivery-related data will be collected and compared for the pre- and post- periods. Descriptive statistics will be using to compare the primary endpoint and secondary endpoints.

Results: Research in Progress

Conclusions: Research in Progress