By Lisa Lavin
For many older adults in rural Minnesota, taking medication correctly is harder than it should be. About three in four adults 65 and older take five or more medications, and roughly half do not take them as prescribed. In small towns, the challenge is compounded by distance. Nearly 80% of rural America is designated medically underserved, and 46% of U.S. counties have at least one pharmacy desert, affecting about 15.8 million people.
When a pharmacy closes or the nearest clinic is 30 miles away, the effects add up quickly. Patients skip refills, stretch doses or delay care until a problem becomes an emergency. Emergency departments are the most expensive place to receive care, so the cost falls on patients, families, rural hospitals and payers alike. Rural residents are older on average and have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension and obesity, which means those who need consistent care the most often have the least access to it.
Managing medication is hard work. Sorting pills, remembering what to take when and tracking changes after a hospital visit can challenge even sharp, independent seniors, and vision changes, arthritis or mild memory loss make a schedule harder to follow. Caregivers are stretched, too. The ratio of caregivers to seniors is falling from about seven to one toward four to one, and rural families often live far from the people they help. Doing more of the same will not close the gap. There are not enough caregivers, and pharmacies and clinics keep closing in rural communities, so care has to be delivered differently. Technology can help bridge the gap.
Read the full article from Minnesota Physician on page 20 here.