More people are buying their medication online these days. The market for online pharmacies is growing by nearly 17% a year and is expected to be worth over $202 billion by 2027.
The reason that the demand for online pharmacies is growing so fast is that they provide many benefits. In fact, they are changing healthcare in numerous ways. If you need to take many different medications for various chronic health conditions, then there are 5 advantages that you should consider.
1. Easier to Stick To Medications
It can be quite difficult to take all the medicine you need to take, especially if you need to take many different prescriptions. This is known as adherence.
Buying all of your medicine at different pharmacies makes the process even more challenging.
However, consider if all of your medications were simply delivered to your home, already sorted and organized with easy to understand instructions for proper usage. Then, you can see how much easier adherence will become.
There is a study which was talked about at the 2016 International Stroke Conference that examined 100,000 patients after they were discharged from 2006 to 2015. Basically, it was found that patients who got their medicine via mail had a 74% adherence. The other patients who got their own medication via a pharmacy only had an adherence of 47%.
Another study done in 2010 which was highlighted in an Integrity Pharmacy post, determined that the results were quite similar for patients who suffered from diabetes. The patients that got their medication from a home delivery service had much higher rates of adherence than patients who had to buy their own medication from a pharmacy. Utilize Telemedicine Resources for help with medication.
2. Better Accuracy with Medication Taken
Next, pharmaceutical delivery services use new computer technology to make sure that all of your prescriptions are accurately filled.
These services typically get a much higher degree of accuracy in comparison to real world pharmacies. There was as a study that determined pharmacies typically make errors in 1 in 50 filled prescriptions. This is about 1.72%. However, when it came to medication delivery services, their error rate was significantly less at 1 in 1,000 prescriptions which is about 0.075%. When you use a medication management service that offers delivery to your home, you can rest assured that you’ll get the correct medications and dosages. This will result in a lower risk of hospitalization and negative effects.
3. Better Efficiency
Next, a great advantage of using new technology and dispensing tools that are robotic is that they are a lot more efficient. This is one of the reasons that patients that take medication from mail order or online companies are less likely to visit the ER.
When you look at typical pharmacies, pharmacies that offer delivery are more efficient in the following ways:
- Better quality
- Can easily fulfill bigger prescriptions with bigger quantities
- Lower costs to fill prescriptions
- Pharmacists are better able to focus on the needs of their patients as oppose to taking out and counting pills.
- Possibility for savings
4. Lower Medical Waste
Prescription drugs that aren’t used create medical waste that has many negative consequences.
There are many communities that have drinking water that is contaminated by pharmaceutical waste.
However, when medication is delivered to patients’ homes, the exact dosage and amount is delivered which reduces the chances that pills that aren’t used are thrown away in the landfills or even in the water supply.
There was a study done by the Office of Inspector General For the Department of Defense in 2013 that determined the advantages of delivering pharmaceuticals to various military, veterans as well as to their families. One of the major benefits found was lower levels of waste.
Another study done in 2011 found that cholesterol medications that were mail order were a lot less likely to be thrown away than those sold at typical brick and mortar pharmacies and health professionals.
5. Saves Cash
Patients that don’t adhere to their prescription medications cost $100 – $300 billion every year.
However, customized pharmaceutical management that includes delivery of medication ensures that each person only pays for the medicine that they actually need and use. So, this helps to save money from medication errors.
When you look at the many benefits of home delivery, you can clearly see that it is a great way to lower the cost of health care in the long run.
