Meeting the Conditions of Participations (CoPs) medication review requirements is important. However, even more important is ensuring that the pharmacist performing the reviews is aware of all pertinent patient co-morbidities. A complete list of co-morbidities is valuable in order to ensure that all potential disease-state/medication interactions are detected and the appropriate interventions are made. Nursing staff can greatly assist in this transmission of information. If staff is conscientious to double check patient charts for several of the most common disease states that interact with medications, patient care can be significantly improved. Some of the most important disease states to communicate to the individual performing the medication review(s) are:
- Renal disease (include disease stage or renal lab values)
- Hepatic disease (type and severity)
- Congestive heart failure (include stage, if available)
- Heart block (include degree of heart block)
- Benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH)
- Asthma
- Parkinson’s disease
- Arrhythmias
- Hypertension