As the demand for sustainability grows, pharmacy chains are increasingly holding packaging suppliers accountable for their environmental efforts. Single-use packaging across all industries is a significant environmental issue, with the majority of waste in landfills and oceans coming from the packaging industry.

Medication adherence packaging, also known as blister packs, have been widely used in pharmacies across the world as an effective and low-cost way of improving medication adherence – especially for at-risk patient groups such as seniors at home, patients starting maintenance medications, or those living with cognitive decline, visual impairment or language barriers.

Today, more pharmacies are implementing full or partial automation to fill unit-dose blister packs with medications. It’s just one way teams can focus more time on primary patient care instead of repetitive dispensing tasks. Automation also helps teams enhance dispensing accuracy and consistency.

We know blister pack medication adherence packaging makes it easier for people to manage prescriptions – the research shows it. But what else can blister packs offer when it comes to medication and patient safety? Let’s explore the important features of these tools in more detail.

Exciting, new developments in healthcare are on the horizon. They’ll impact everything from how we take prescription medications to the environment and caregiving. Innovation is being driven in part by the rising cost of drugs, an aging population of boomers and a shortage of long-term care facilities to accommodate them.

Over the last two years, the number of people experiencing depression and anxiety has increased by 25 per cent, according to the World Health Organization. And about one in four Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder.

When’s the last time you had a chat with your pharmacist? If you’re like many Americans, it has been a while. That’s unfortunate because pharmacists are invaluable resources and play important roles in your personal healthcare team, alongside doctors, nurses and other professionals.

Ensuring patients take their medications correctly is an age-old problem for doctors and pharmacists. Healthcare professionals understand that prescription drugs must be taken as recommended – at minimum, 80 per cent of the time to get adequate therapeutic benefits.

Caregivers play an essential role in the United States. There are 34.2 million Americans who have provided unpaid support to an adult over the age of 50 in the last year, according to the National Alliance of Caregiving.

When managing chronic conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, patients do not take medications properly 50 per cent of the time, which increases the possibility of complications and worsening health.

Bio-PET. It’s a product we’ve been talking about a lot at Jones Healthcare Group, since we started transitioning our medication adherence packaging to this more sustainable bio-based plastic

Pharmacies need more time. Not only are today’s pharmacists counselling patients on medications and providing new primary care programs, but they are also vaccinating millions of people and completing COVID-19 tests.