Medication Therapy Problem Documentation
What are Medication Therapy Problems (MTPs)?
A medication therapy problem (MTP) exists when the use, misuse, or non-use of a specific medication results in a less-than-optimal clinical outcome for a patient. The process of identifying, resolving, and preventing MTPs is what differentiates the core patient care work of a clinical pharmacist providing comprehensive medication management (CMM) from that of other practitioners. Adoption of this care process and application of a standardized MTP taxonomy is one mechanism to create consistency across clinical pharmacists within an organization and produce consistent clinical outcomes. Each MTP identified can be broadly categorized as related to medication indication, effectiveness, safety, or adherence. From there, MTPs can be further categorized and sub-categorized in order to describe the specific nature of the problem and facilitate its resolution.
For Further Understanding
How are Medication Therapy Problems (MTPs) Categorized?
Understanding Comprehensive Medication Management (CMM)
Why Document Medication Therapy Problems (MTPs)?
With the evolution of healthcare towards the provision of value-based care and away from traditional fee-for-service models, there has been a growing emphasis on the measurement and reporting of outcomes produced by the delivery of a clinical service in relation to the cost required to deliver it.
As part of an overall measurement strategy to articulate the unique contributions of pharmacists providing CMM and the positive impact produced, many pharmacists regularly document and report MTPs identified and resolved in practice. Reports generated from these documentation efforts supplement other metrics designed to demonstrate the pharmacists’ clinical and financial value to the organizations and patient populations they serve. Additionally, identifying and documenting MTPs helps pharmacists clearly articulate to the interdisciplinary team (e.g., physicians, nurses) medication-specific issues that need to be addressed.
Read more about how MTP documentation can be implemented in practice.