The Effects of Feedback on Medication Compliance and Outcome: Follow Up on The University of Pittsburgh Study

September 9, 2010 By scottdm Leave a Comment

Late last year, I blogged about a study being conducted at the University of Pittsburgh by Dr. Jan Pringle, the director of the Program Evaluation Research Unit in the School of Pharmacology and her colleague, Dr. Michael Melczak. You’ll recall, there were two conditions in the study. In the first, pharmacists–the practitioner most likely to interact with patients about prescriptions–engaged in “practice as usual.” In the second condition, pharmacists used the ORS and the SRS to chart, discuss, and guide patient progress and the pharmacist-patient alliance. At the time, I reported that initial findings showed that patients of pharmacists who used the measures to solicit feedback “were significantly more likely to take their medications at the levels that would be likely to result in clinical impact than the patients who saw a pharmacists who did not use the scales…for hypertensive and hyperlipidemia drugs especially.” Well, the official results are finally available.

After controlling for age, gender, and other individual and control conditions (including measures of interactions with pharmacies), patients in the feedback condition increased their rate of “percent of days covered”–that is, taking the medication as prescribed–significantly (average 11%, a result considered “impressive” when compared to other, traditional efforts aimed at improving compliance). Interestingly, additional analyses showed that the impact of the SRS–a measure of the therapeutic alliance–was greatest for the hyplipidemia and hypertensive medications (as opposed to the anti-diabetic medications).

Drs. Pringle and Melczak are currently in the process of planning a series of additional studies involving a larger number of patients and pharmacists. Both will be presenting at the upcoming Achieving Clinical Excellence conference.

Finally, take a look at the video that was developed to begin training pharmacists to use the measures with customers filling prescriptions at local pharmacies. According to Dr. Pringle, “we expect to training about 240 pharmacists across 118 pharmacies in the western and central portions of Pennsylvania how to use the ORS and SRS…the program represents a collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh, CECity (a technology company), RiteAid, and Highmark ( a Blues insurer).” Exciting stuff, eh?

Addressing the Financial Crisis in Public Behavioral Healthcare Head On in Chesterfield, Virginia

March 5, 2010 By scottdm Leave a Comment

If you are following me on Twitter (and I hope you are), you know the last month has been extremely busy. This week I worked with clinicians in Peterborough, Ontario Canada. Last week, I was in Nashville, Tennessee and Richmond Virginia. Prior to that, I spent nearly two weeks in Europe, providing training and consultations in the Netherlands and Belgium.

It was, as always, a pleasure meeting and working with clinicians representing a wide range of disciplines (social workers, case managers, psychologists, psychiatrists, professional counselors, alcohol and drug treatment professionals, etc.) and determined to provide the best service possible. As tiring as “road work” can sometimes be, my spirits are always buoyed by the energy of the individuals, groups, and agencies I meet and work with around the world.

At the same time, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the fear and hardship I’m witnessing among providers and treatment agencies each week as I’m out and about. Frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it in my seventeen years “on the road.” Being able to say that we predicted the current situation nearly 6 years ago provides little comfort (see The Heroic Client, 2004).

While nearly all are suffering, the economic crisis in the United States is hitting public behavioral health particularly hard. In late January I blogged about the impact of budget cuts in Ohio. Sadly, the situations in Virginia and Tennessee are no different. Simply put, public behavioral health agencies are expected to do more with less, and most often with fewer providers. What can be done?

Enter Chesterfield Community Service Board. Several years ago, I met and began working with Larry Barnett, Lyn Hill, and the rest of the talented clinical staff at this forward thinking public behavioral health agency. Their goal? According to the agency mission statement, “to promote improved quality of life…through exceptional and comprehensive mental health, mental retardation, substance abuse, and early intervention services.” Their approach? Measure and monitor the process and outcome of service delivery and use the resulting information to improve productivity and performance.

As Larry and Lynn report in the video below, the process was not easy. Indeed, it was damn difficult–full of long hours, seemingly endless discussions, and tough, tough choices. But that was then. Some three years later, the providers at Chesterfield CSB are serving 70% more people than they did in 2007 despite there being no increase in available staff resources in the intervening period. That’s right, 70%! And that’s not all. While productivity rates soared, clinician caseloads were reduced by nearly 30%. As might be expected, the time consumers in need of services had to wait was also significantly reduced.

In short, everybody won: providers, agency managers, funders, and consumers. And thanks to the two days of intensive training in Richmond, Virginia organized by Arnold Woodruff, many additional public behavioral health agencies have the information needed to get started. It won’t be easy. However, as the experience in Chesterfield demonstrates, it is possible to survive and thrive during these tumultuous times. But don’t take my word for it, listen to how Larry and Lynn describe the process–warts and all–and the results:

Practice-Based Evidence in Norway: An Interview with Psychologist Mikael Aagard

January 19, 2010 By scottdm Leave a Comment

For those of you following me on Facebook–and if you’re not, click here to start–you know that I was traveling above the arctic circle in Norway last week. I always enjoy visiting the Scandinavian countries. My grandparents immigrated from nearby Sweden. I lived there myself for a number of years (and speak the language). And I am married to a Norwegian! So, I consider Scandinavia to be my second home.

In a prior post, I talked a bit about the group I worked with during my three day stay in Tromso. Here, I briefly interview psychologist Mikael Aagard, the organizer of the conference. Mikael works at KORUS Nord, an addiction technology transfer center, which sponsored the training. His mission? To help clinicians working in the trenches stay up-to-date with the research on “what works” in behavioral health. Judging by the tremendous response–people came from all over the disparate regions of far northern Norway to attend the conference–he is succeeding.

Listen as he describes the challenges facing practitioners in Norway and the need to balance the “evidence-based practice” movement with “practice-based evidence.” If you’d like any additional information regarding KORUS, feel free to connect with Mikael and his colleagues by visiting their website. Information about the activities of the International Center for Clinical Excellence in Scandinavia can be found at: www.centerforclinicalexcellence.org.