Practitioner activities in patient education and drug therapy monitoring for community dwelling elderly patients

We compared the frequency of performance of three patient education and three drug therapy monitoring activities across practitioner types and assessed the influence of practitioner characteristics, practice setting, and health care environment on performance of these activities. A mail survey was sent to a random sample of 1300 practitioners in a Midwestern state. Numbers of elderly patients for whom the practitioner performed each of the activities were the dependent variables. Independent variables for the multiple regressions were measures of practitioner characteristics, practice setting, and health care environment. Based on 320 usable responses, prescribers were more likely than pharmacists to perform three of the activities. Minutes per patient contact was positively associated with two of the monitoring activities. Other practitioners in a practice affected the number of patients for whom five activities were performed. Practitioners interested in improving the medication use process for ambulatory elderly patients need to consider multidisciplinary strategies.