Continuous Medication Monitoring (CoMM): A foundational model to support the clinical work of community pharmacists.

BACKGROUND

Under the Continuous Medication Monitoring (CoMM) approach, community pharmacists prevent, identify, resolve, and document drug therapy problems during the dispensing process.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the patients receiving CoMM interventions and the pattern of delivery of CoMM interventions.

METHODS

Pharmacy dispensing and clinical records were reviewed for patients filling at least one prescription and receiving at least one continuous medication monitoring intervention at a community pharmacy from April 2014 through March 2015. The proportion of patients receiving an intervention type and the number of interventions per patient were computed.

RESULTS

Nearly 2500 patients received 16,986 continuous medication monitoring interventions over the year. The average age of the patients receiving the interventions was 59.1 years, and they filled an average of 8.0 unique medications. An average of 6.8 interventions was delivered to each patient. About half (49.7%) of interventions addressed drug therapy problems. The pharmacists delivered 3.0 patient counseling and education and 3.4 drug therapy problem interventions per patient on average.

CONCLUSION

There are many opportunities to improve patients' medication use that can be identified and addressed under a Continuous Medication Monitoring model. Movement to this model of practice is desirable, but changes are needed to facilitate the shift.