Drug chain says it's first in Canada to offer service across provinces

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Rexall has launched a medication synchronization program for 445 of its pharmacies across Canada.

Called OneStopMeds, the med sync program is powered by Ateb’s Time My Meds solution. Rexall said Monday that it’s the first retail pharmacy in Canada to offer this service to patients in multiple provinces.

To participate in the OneStopMeds program, a patient must fill three or more chronic medications on a regular basis and enroll directly with a Rexall pharmacist. After consulting with a pharmacist, patients have their medications synched to be refilled on a date they choose.

Rexall said the service enables patients to make one trip to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions for each monthly cycle, in turn improving their medication adherence. In addition, the program promotes pharmacist interventions by creating opportunities for pharmacists to talk with their patients about their overall health and medication regimen, the drug chain noted.

“OneStopMeds expands the ability of Rexall pharmacists’ to more closely focus on managing a patient’s overall health rather than just their individual prescriptions,” Jürgen Schreiber, president and chief executive officer of Rexall Health, said in a statement. “It also is another tool that enables patients to be even more engaged in managing their own health.”

Rexall and Ateb cited research supporting the potential benefits of a med sync program for pharmacy patients. For example, out of 100 prescriptions written, only 65 make it to the pharmacy, and of those just 15 are refilled as prescribed. And a study released last year showed that pharmacies achieved almost 91% medication compliance for patients enrolled in a med synch program. Conversely, patients that unenrolled from med sync program were noncompliant with their medication for 63 days.

“We can harness our strengths to demonstrate how technology can improve patient health outcomes and make a significant impact on the Canadian healthcare landscape,” commented Frank Sheppard, president and CEO of Ateb. “By leveraging Ateb’s predictive analytics and data integration, Ateb’s intuitive platform enables our retail pharmacy partners to reinforce positive patient behaviors, drive sustained patient medication adherence and provide them with a strategic, sustainable program.”

The companies added that the adoption of Time My Meds by other community pharmacies has demonstrated significant improvement in medications adherence, according to a study by the National Community Pharmacists Association.

Overall, Rexall has about 470 pharmacy locations in six provinces and one territory.