COMPLIANCE
Why do people not take their medications as prescribed? Several studies have been done to identify the reasons. One study found:
? 40% of people said they simply forgot to take their meds
? 37% slept through a dose
? 34% were away from home
? 27% had made a change in their therapy routine
? 22% were too busy to take their meds
? 13% were too sick
? 10% were experiencing side effects
? 9% were suffering from depression
Noncompliance is a huge cost to all of us! How? While insurance companies and managed care organizations bear the greatest economic burden from pharmaceutical noncompliance, everyone absorbs the burden in the form of higher taxes, increased premiums, and lost productivity in the workplace (HCPC, 1999). Crime is another area where we all pay for noncompliance; many patients don't take their psychiatric medication regularly, and this often results in increased crime.
The Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council (HCPC) strongly believes that if more products are packaged in a unit-dose format or similar format, the noncompliance problem will be greatly reduced.
Better packaging can help! A number of studies show that reminder devices can help, too.
