Improving Adherence to Pharmacological Treatment

Patients in the SI were seen by a study pharmacists prior to discharge to establish a relationship with the patient, explain the pharmacist's role in the study, provide education about all discharge medications and a medication card listing all medications and their manner of use, and set the framework for the follow-up telephone calls. Patients received pharmacist-delivered adherence counseling telephone contacts that took place at two weeks following discharge, and at months 1, 3, 6, and 9 oriented towards assisting patients to remain adherent to prescribed lipid-lowering and other medications, and also towards ensuring that all patients were either documented to be at the LDL-C goal, or were assisted to reach the goal by facilitating the scheduling of repeat lipid measurement as needed and providing information, guidelines and prompts to the patient's physician or nurse practitioner.