ScriptPath label system with multiple prescriptions
The Mayo Clinic recently reported that more than 50 percent of Americans take two prescription medications, and 20 percent of Americans take five or more prescription medications.1 Unfortunately, increased complexity in a medication regimen can also result in a decrease in medication adherence.
To help simplify medication management for patients with multiple prescriptions, CVS Pharmacy has introduced the ScriptPath Prescription Schedule. This new tool provides a complete picture of the patient’s current CVS Pharmacy prescription information all in one place, including: Name of medications, when to take each medication and how much medication to take in each dose.
ScriptPath uses easy-to-understand icons to improve patient understanding and enhance patient safety by simplifying how patients take medications and how caregivers give them. The system automatically reviews all of a patient’s current CVS Pharmacy prescription information and prescribers’ instructions, and then, using clinical data, provides a schedule of the most effective times of day to take the medications.
“Fifty percent of patients struggle with understanding how and when to take their prescription medications, and for those with complex prescription regimens it can be even more challenging,” said Troyen Brennan, M.D., M.P.H., Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, CVS Health. “By providing them with a clear and concise dosing schedule, which incorporates all of their current CVS Pharmacy prescriptions and reduces the number of times a patient takes medication each day, we can help improve medication adherence and, ultimately, health outcomes.”
Available in English and Spanish, the ScriptPath Prescription Schedule is available at all of CVS Pharmacy’s more than 9,700 retail pharmacy locations nationwide, upon request. Because the Prescription Schedule will be most helpful to the more than nine million CVS Pharmacy patients who take more than five medications each day, those patients will be offered a consultation with the store pharmacist when they pick up their prescriptions. The pharmacist will review the Prescription Schedule and the information it provides.
“Patients who take their medications as prescribed have better health outcomes than those who do not. By providing our patients with the personalized information and guidance needed to manage their medications, and make it easier to understand and follow prescribers’ directions, we can help them remain adherent and better maintain their overall health,” said Kevin Hourican, Executive Vice President, Pharmacy Services, CVS Pharmacy.
CVS Health partnered with Deborah Adler, a designer renowned for her past work on Target’s ClearRx prescription packaging system, to ensure all of the elements of the new ScriptPath prescription management system were easy for patients to read and to understand. Adler, the inventor and lead designer of the new ScriptPath system, worked with the CVS Health team to develop the easy-to-understand icons and an intuitive layout for each of the ScriptPath offerings.
The Prescription Schedule is the first offering in the ScriptPath prescription management system, designed to help with medication management and improve medication adherence. Other tools, including a new prescription vial label, are expected to be introduced in 2018.