Medication Regimen Review

Medication review or medication regimen review (MRR) is the cornerstone of the consultant pharmacy services.

MRR should contribute to improving therapeutic outcomes, quality of life, and at an optimum maintaining functional status. In addition, MRR should help reduce adverse events and health care cost by reducing hospitalization and emergency room visits.

MMR comes in three major types:

1. Prospective MRR-review performed upon admission or initiation of new therapy.
2. Concurrent MRR-review while therapy is in progress that continuously assesses the resident's medication therapy.
3. Retrospective MRR- review performed after the therapy been discontinued or resident been discharged.

Having a method that empowers the facility staffs; physicians, nurses and administrators to evaluate the medication therapy by evaluating the MRR outcomes becomes essential. For example, an impact report, that performs a trend analysis of the recommendations made by the consultant pharmacist and the replies received from the various departments, will provide the facility with tools to improve medication quality.

In addition, understanding the types of MRR; their capacities and limitations can provide a way to maximize the potential outcomes of these reviews. A conversation should take place with the consultant pharmacist and action plan put in place to improve therapeutic outcomes of the residents.