Publix Program Boosts Drug Adherence for Heart Patients: Study

A recent study conducted by Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has found that Publix Pharmacy’s Sync Your Refills program can help patients with cardiovascular disease take their medications more regularly.

The study, published by Health Affairs, compared patients on cardiovascular medications who took part in the Publix program to patients who didn’t. Patients in the programs were more likely to take their medications as prescribed, especially those patients with low baseline adherence, the research found. Further, program participants were statistically less likely to go to the emergency room or to be hospitalized.

Synchronization programs like Publix’s refill all of a patient’s medications on the same day, thereby reducing the number of monthly trips to the pharmacy. The programs also send refill reminders and schedule medication pickup appointments at the pharmacy.

Sync Your Refills is available to any Publix Pharmacy customer who requests it.

Privately owned and operated by its more than 190,000 employees, Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix Super Markets has 1,171 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.