The Right Drug
The Right Dose
Right from the Start
The Right Drug
The Right Dose
Right from the Start
Given the astronomical number of deaths, ER visits, hospitalizations and suffering attributed to ADRs, it’s astonishing most doctors continue to practice the trial and error “one-size-fits-all” approach when prescribing drugs.
It is no secret: ADRs are an all-too-common reality in nursing communities. In fact, the average size facility -105 beds – experiences 135+ ADRs a year, skyrocketing labor costs and crushing facilities’ bottom-line.
ADRs represent the most clinically significant and costly medication-related problems in long-term care (LTC) communities today.
Many drugs currently available are “one size fits all,” but they don’t work the same way for everybody. More than 75% of people have genetic variations that affect how they respond to the most commonly prescribed medications.
As a result, as much as 50% of prescribed drugs can be ineffective.3 This makes ADRs a huge and costly liability for LTC organizations – not to mention the emotional toll on their population.
Medicare and Medicaid* now cover a non-invasive, pharmacogenomic (PGx) test that reduces the risk of ADRs. With a simple cheek swab, doctors can learn in advance if a drug is more likely to help or harm a patient- before he/she even consumes a drug.
Without PGx testing, doctors must put their patients through risky drug trials, costing facilities significant amounts of money – while subjecting their patients to ineffective medications and insidious side effects before finally finding a drug that works best.
Remarkably, most physicians are not up to speed with this innovative technology and unwittingly dismiss the test as a time constraint, at the patient’s and facility’s expense – thus, many people needlessly suffer from preventable ADRs.
Marion had a PGx test 4- 2017. The good news, her DR. discontinued Metoprolol and decreased the dose of her HBP meds. The bad news, two years later, her pain DR. ignored her PGx report and prescribed 300 mg. of Tramadol. Within 24-hrs. Marion was rushed to the ER. If her pain DR. had simply glanced at her PGx report, the suffering, and expense could have avoided.
Mike was having trouble sleeping and was prescribed Escitalopram. After five weeks of side-effects and no relief, he got a PGx test. The report indicated Mick was a rapid metabolizer of Escitalopram. If he was PGx test first, he would have saved time and money by avoiding two ineffective Meds and he would have received relief five weeks sooner.
Dorothy was having piercing headaches and was prescribed Reglan 5mg, IV push, once and Toradol 15 mg. Hours later, she was having stroke like symptoms and was rushed to the ER for an MRI. Several weeks later, she was PGx tested, and learned she was a poor metabolize of Toradol. A pre-emptive PGx test could have saved the Ins. Co. thousands and avoided this catastrophic ADR.
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