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Recognition for Benefits of Unit Dose... |
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“The
strategy of using calendar blister packs could help large numbers
of patients (including seniors, children, and those challenged by
cognitive, physical, or functional impairment) take their
medication more reliably and safely, and enhance their treatment
outcomes.”
Institutes
of Medicine (IoM), National Academy of Sciences, Preventing
Medication Errors,
August, 2006, Page 250. |
Rx Packaging 101 |
| View
this five minute video comparing the way many
medicines are distributed by manufacturers and dispensed to
consumers in the U.S. versus the way the exact same drugs are
distributed and dispensed throughout most of the rest of the world. |
| About the HCPC... |
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The Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council (HCPC) is a not-for-profit trade
association that was established in 1990 to promote the many benefits of
unit dose blister and strip packaging -- especially its ability to be designed
in compliance-prompting formats that help people take their medications properly.
Pharmaceutical noncompliance is a tremendous
problem in the United States
that drains an estimated $100 billion from our national economy every year,
and is blamed for the deaths of over 125,000 Americans annually (342 people
every day). Ten percent of all hospital admissions are the result of
pharmaceutical noncompliance, and 23 percent of all nursing home admissions
are due to people's inability to take their medications as prescribed.
Better packaging can help! Unit dose blister and strip packaging can
be designed in compliance-enhancing formats that remind people whether they
have taken their medications. Birth control pills, certain antibiotics,
hormone replacement therapies, and steroids are already being dispensed in
unit dose packaging that has proven highly effective in helping people manage
their pharmaceutical regimens. The HCPC strongly believes that if more
products were packaged in a unit dose format, the noncompliance problem would
be greatly reduced.
While insurance companies and managed care organizations bear the greatest
economic burden from pharmaceutical noncompliance, everyone must also pay
a share in the form of higher taxes, premiums, and lost productivity.
That is why the HCPC's goal is to inform and educate consumers, health
professionals and policy makers about the role that unit dose packaging can
play in improving pharmaceutical compliance. We are working for the
day that consumers will have a choice when they get their prescriptions filled
-- either the standard cap and vial format that does nothing to help them
manage their medications, or a compliance-style, unit dose package that will
help ensure that they actually take the medication as it has been prescribed.
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Healthcare Compliance
Packaging Council
131 E. Broad Street, Suite 206
Falls Church, VA 22046
703/538-4030 phone
703/538-6305 fax |
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