The cost of medicine is often regarded as the reason most patients fail to comply with their prescription schedules (Briesacher, Gurwitz, & Soumerai, 2007). Medication non-compliance can lead to poor health outcomes and high healthcare expenses (Egede, et al., 2012). The purpose of Medication assistance program is to act as an intermediary between pharmacies, physicians and patients to allow patients access free or low-cost medications for chronic diseases.
Stakeholders
Physician: a physician possesses the required technical knowledge about diseases and the required combination of medications. He or she is the one who deals with patients and understands the various problems his or her patients experience. A physician will be used to target the program to patients he or she thinks will benefit the most.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Patients: Patients are the beneficiaries of the program. Their engagement is important for the program to have a positive effect on the societal level. They are the key participants in the medical assistance program and they can act as messengers by sharing their experience with the program to a wider community. They are the enablers of the program.
Pharmacies: drug manufacturers produce products that patients need. They are key stakeholders in this program because they are the source of the medications. They will act as program financiers by co-sharing the cost of medications with patients.
Pharmacist: the role of a pharmacist will be to offer information on how patients would acquire medications. A pharmacist would also review patient data, recommend patients for inclusion in the program and act as a connection between the program facilitator and the healthcare provider and the patient.
Civil society: Health promotion and protection, well-being and human rights protection are vital elements of a well-functioning society. Living standards, well-being and health are part of people’s human rights. A civil society will act as the representative of the community by seeking to ensure that the program meets these basic human rights. A civil society will hold all program stakeholders to account on issues relating to the program.
NGOs: NGOs will act as advocacy groups by encouraging the acceptance of the program within the community as a vital health promotion tool. They will also offer technical knowledge, knowledge of issues patients face and the required process to solve them, and can offer resources to the program.
Local public health representative from the government: government plays the role of preventing diseases and protecting health both at a communal and a societal level. The government will act as the program sponsor. The government presence would also contribute ideas to the program to ensure that it includes aspects of public health promotion.
A civil society would act as a group facilitator because of its role of holding the program players accountable. A civil society advocates good practice in terms of the program as a means of promoting health. A civil society also supports programs that seek to promote health and well-being and only accepts program elements that harmonize with this.
This paper has shown that the main stakeholders will play a vital role in the creation of a medication assistance program to help needy patients. The anticipation of the group is that all patients who require prescription drugs but cannot due to the high cost of the drugs access those drugs easily. The group will also plan on how to set up a dedicated centre where patients can be referred to when they need medication assistance.
References
Briesacher, B. A., Gurwitz, J. H., & Soumerai, S. B. (2007). Patients at-risk for cost-related medication nonadherence: a review of the literature. Journal of general internal medicine , 22 (6), 864-871.
Egede, L. E., Gebregziabher, M., Dismuke, C. E., Lynch, C. P., Axon, R. N., Zhao, Y., & Mauldin, P. D. (2012). Medication nonadherence in diabetes: longitudinal effects on costs and potential cost savings from improvement. Diabetes care , 35 (12), 2533-2539.
