Pharmaceutical Care, Clinical Pharmacy and Medication Therapy Management

Pharmacist Mei-Yu Chen will introduce clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical care and medication therapy management (MTM) in this video.

Key concepts:

What is Pharmaceutical Care?

“Pharmaceutical care is the philosophy of patient care delivery systems, including designing, implementing, and monitoring therapeutic plans. The goal is to achieve definite outcomes that improve patient’s quality of life. Clinical pharmacy is an essential component in the delivery of pharmaceutical care.”

What is Clinical Pharmacy?

“Clinical pharmacy is the area of pharmacy concerned with the science and practice of rational medication use. It is patient-directed, evidence-based, and designed to promoted health, wellness, and disease prevention to improve patients’ quality of life.” (Defined by American College of Clinical Pharmacy)

What is Medication Therapy Management?

In 2003, pharmacy experts in the U.S. started to advocate the concept of medication therapy management(MTM), which can be viewed as a strategy to incorporate the philosophy of pharmaceutical care into everyday pharmacy practice.

The goal is to focus on and create solutions for patient-specific drug therapy problems and collaborate with other health care professionals.

The core elements of MTM include medication therapy review, personal medication record, medication-related action plan, intervention and or referral, and finally documentation and follow-up. These core elements provide a mechanism to accomplish comprehensive evaluation and medication therapy management.

Medication Therapy Management (MTM) Steps:

1. Medication Therapy Review

This is a systemic process of collecting patient-specific information, assessing medication therapies to identify medication-related problems, developing a list of medication-related problems, prioritize, and creating a plan to resolve them. Ms. Chen will explain in detail how you evaluate medication-related problems (MRP) review.

2. Personal Medication Record

The MTM service suggests documenting and maintaining a personal medication record for each patent. A Personal Medication Record (PMR), is a comprehensive record of patients’ medications, including past prescriptions and non-prescription medications, vaccinations and other dietary supplements.

3. Medication-Related Action Plan

The third element is the medication-related action plan. The Medication-Related Action plan (MAP) is a patient-centric document containing a list of actions for the patient to use in tracking progress for self-management. Pharmacists need to help develop a plan to resolve the problem or improve a patient’s medication therapy appropriateness. The MAP usually takes the form of a suggestion on a medication dosage adjustment, medication alterations, or substitutions.

4. Follow Up

The final step is the documentation and follow-up. All MTM services should be documented in a consistent and structured manner.

Share and learn:

• Does the hospital you work at/visited provide MTM services?