Are Your Medicines a Safe Match for You?
Some medicines react with other medicines in dangerous ways, so they should only be mixed in special cases. Other medicines can cause side effects, especially in older adults.
That’s why you need to learn about all your medicines
to make sure they’re a safe match for you. Your doctor
and pharmacist are the best people to help you with
this. Don’t be afraid to ask—they want you to be safe.
To find out how well doctors manage our members’ medicines, we use two Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®)* measures.
- Use of high-risk medications in the elderly. This measure looks at how many Paramount Elite members take one or more of the drugs that experts agree older adults should avoid whenever possible.
- Potentially harmful drug-disease interactions. This measure checks for medicines that patients with certain conditions shouldn’t use. (These are called contraindications.)
The chart below shows the 2007 results for these measures. Lower rates are better. We’re about average for most measures, but there’s room to improve. Your health is at stake, so won’t you help by speaking with your doctor or pharmacist soon?
Know Your Medicines
Find out more about your medicines with
our online drug reference section. You can search
by the drug’s name or physical description.
Go to www.paramounthealthcare.com and
click on “Better Health for Life,” “Library,”
and “Drug Reference.”
| Note: Lower rates are better. | Paramount Elite 2007 | National Average | Paramount 2008 Goal |
| Use of High-Risk Medications** in the Elderly | |||
| One drug was given that usually should be avoided (2,892 members). | 24.8% | 23.1% (sd=4.52 points) |  24% |
| Two or more drugs were given that usually should be avoided (632 members). | 5.4% | 5.9% (sd=2.90 points) | 5% |
| Potentially Harmful Drug-Disease Interactions | |||
| Tricyclic antidepressants, antipsychotics, or sleep agents in patients with a history of falls | 16.2% | 14.6% (sd=3.67 points) | n/a |
| Tricyclic antidepressants, antipsychotics, or sleep agents in patients with dementia | 26.0% | 24.6% (sd=4.22 points) | n/a |
| Non-aspirin or COX-2 selective NSAIDs in patients with chronic renal failure | 2.5% | 9.5% (sd=3.51 points) | n/a |
| Combined rate for potentially harmful drug-disease interactions (309 members) | 20.7% | 19.4% (sd=3.73 points) | 20% |
sd=standard deviation
* HEDIS® is a registered trademark of the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
** To request a list of these medicines, call Member Services at
(TTY: 1-419-887-2526 or 1-888-740-5670).