Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy
Volume 8, Issue 1 , Pages 4-16, January 2012

Consumer perspectives of the Australian Home Medicines Review Program: Benefits and barriers

  • Lesley White, B.Pharm., M.Com., M.Ed., Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Faculty of Business, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW 2795, Australia
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 9351 4447; fax: +61 2 9351 4391.
    • ,
  • Christiane Klinner, Grad Dipl Mmt, Grad Cert QHR

      Affiliations

    • Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine (VELiM), Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
    • ,
  • Stephen Carter, BPharm, MSc

      Affiliations

    • Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

published online 14 April 2011.

Abstract 

Background

The Australian Home Medicines Review (HMR) is a free consumer service to assist individuals living at home to maximize the benefits of their medicine regimen and prevent medication-related problems. It consists of a pharmacist reviewing a person’s medicines and collaborating with the general practitioner to optimize the individual’s medicine management. The uptake of this service has remained below the projected use, although the program has shown to successfully identify medication-related problems and improve drug knowledge and adherence of the patient.

Objectives

This study investigates the perceived benefits and barriers of the patients regarding the HMR service who have used the service and who are eligible for it but have never used it.

Methods

Consumer perceptions were drawn from 14 semistructured focus groups, with patients and carers belonging to the general HMR target population and consumer segments that have been postulated to be underrepresented with regard to this service.

Results

The major benefits reported were acquisition of medicine information, reassurance, feeling valued and cared for, and willingness to advocate medication changes to the general practitioner. Perceived barriers were concerns regarding upsetting the general practitioner, pride and independence, confidence issues with an unknown pharmacist, privacy and safety concerns regarding the home visit, and lack of information about the program. Participants agreed that the potential benefits of the service outweighed its potential barriers.

Conclusions

It is expected that direct-to-consumer promotion of HMRs would increase the uptake of this valuable service. It would be necessary to ensure that the process and benefits of the service are communicated clearly and sensitively to eligible patients and their carers to obviate common consumer misconceptions and/or barriers regarding the HMR service. Furthermore, any direct-to-consumer promotion of the service must enable patient/carer self-identification of eligibility.

Keywords: Medication, Users’ experiences of health care, Focus groups, Patient education, Risk perceptions

 

PII: S1551-7411(10)00166-X

doi:10.1016/j.sapharm.2010.11.003

Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy
Volume 8, Issue 1 , Pages 4-16, January 2012

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