Ed Cohen Describes the Major Medication-Related Quality Gaps in Transitions of Care Programs

Ed Cohen, PharmD, FAPhA, senior manager, product development, corporate innovations at Walgreens, explains that patient education and medication adherence are 2 major gaps in transitions of care. He says that the focus of Walgreens is to ensure that patients have an understanding of the medications they are prescribed, and how to take them. The company also confirms that patients are refilling their medications as prescribed.

Dr Ed Cohen adds that community and retail pharmacies traditionally provide bedside delivery of medications in transitions of care programs. Without this practice, some hospital goals cannot be met.

“Even our company, when we 1st entered into a collaboration with a health system to partner in transitions of care, our role was centered around bedside delivery of medication,” he says. “That particular hospital found that they were not able to attain their goals [of] reducing preventable readmissions around medication without the component of bedside delivery.”