Postcard and telephone reminders for unclaimed prescriptions: a comparative evaluation using survival analysis

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated unclaimed prescription reminders with the goal of developing practical and useful recommendations for pharmacies interested in reminding patients to pick up unclaimed prescriptions. Based on the recipient and mode of the reminder notification, this study measured differences in unclaimed prescription pickup time.

Design: This study was conducted using a convenience sample of three independent pharmacies in a large Midwestern city. A total of 120 subjects with prescriptions remaining unclaimed after 3 or 4 working days were included in the study. Once identified as unclaimed, these prescriptions were randomly assigned into a control group or one of the following four intervention groups: (1) a telephone reminder to the patient, (2) telephone notification to the prescribing physician, (3) a postcard reminder to the patient, and (4) postcard notification to the prescribing physician.

Results: The results suggest that different methods of pharmacist-initiated reminder systems may affect time to prescription pickup in community pharmacy practice. Marginally significant differences were found among the five study groups and the time to prescription pickup (P = .09). Compared with the control group, neither telephone nor postcard reminders--to patients or physicians--significantly decreased the mean number of days to pickup of potentially abandoned prescriptions.

Conclusion: The actual value of an unclaimed prescription reminder program may reside in improved relationships with customers and with the medical community. The effort and expense of implementing and maintaining an unclaimed prescription reminder system should be balanced against the opportunity to establish and improve pharmacist-patient and pharmacist-physician relationships. Further research in different pharmacy settings should investigate the effectiveness of (1) postcard versus telephone reminders, (2) physician versus patient notification, and (3) the effects of reminders on patient outcomes.