Medication Adherence and the Hospital Pharmacist

Medication adherence is known to be closely associated with patient outcomes, including morbidity, mortality, and healthcare expenditure. Although community pharmacists have long shown potential in improving adherence and associated outcomes, the hospital setting may also offer pharmacists the opportunity to impact adherence. Various pharmacist-provided in-hospital services and interventions have been found to have varying degrees of benefit, including discharge counseling, medication reconciliation, telephone follow-up services, and bedside medication delivery. Prioritizing formulary planning and communicating costs to the patient may also help decrease the potential for medication nonadherence.