MATES delivers on healthcare
by Geraldine Hinter
Australia’s war veterans are experiencing fewer hospital admissions resulting from medication-related problems following a regular medicines review and feedback program run by UniSA’s Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Centre.
The Centre is partnering the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) in the Veterans’ MATES (Medicines Advice and Therapeutics Education Services) program to look at ways of using information available on patterns of healthcare delivered to veterans to improve their health outcomes and quality of life.
This is a truly national program where UniSA is the lead agency contracting with major organisations including key experts from around the country involved in the quality use of medicines, according to the Centre’s director, Professor Andy Gilbert.
“Under tight security and in compliance with privacy requirements, our Centre has access to a unique database of veterans nationwide – that’s rare even in world terms,” Prof Gilbert said.
“We are using the database to conduct drug utilisation studies or studies that identify veterans with certain conditions, or particular issues, and the medication being prescribed for them. We regularly write to doctors and pharmacists, giving specific feedback about individual veterans and include additional information that might be useful in managing veterans in their care. We also write to veterans including relevant information about their healthcare that we suggest they discuss with their doctor and pharmacist.
“Where veterans routinely take five or more different medicines, we order a home medicines review where the doctor, pharmacist and veteran work together to make sure that veterans get the best result from the medicines they are taking.
“The effect of the prescriber intervention and feedback program has been more than a four-fold increase in home medicines reviews being delivered to veterans,” Prof Gilbert said.
“We know from our studies that these reviews help to keep veterans out of hospital and resolve a lot of their medication-related problems.
“Australia has about 140,000 medication-related hospital admissions each year and for people over 70 years, it’s about one in three emergency hospital admissions. This is very relevant to veterans, whose average age is between 81 and 82 years.”
The program delivers annual savings of about $150 per review undertaken for each veteran, usually in reduced hospital admissions or visits. But the biggest benefit, according to Prof Gilbert, is the increased confidence of veterans in using medicines properly and improved knowledge about medicines.