New specialist keeps clients updated on life-changing drugs
May 13—As Ozark Center's new prescription drug monitoring specialist, Erica Nielson provides stewardship to her clients, ensuring they stay updated on their medications while diligently preventing potential misuse and abuse.
Think of her as a key connection between the doctors prescribing medications for those with mental and behavioral issues, and the pharmacy filling those detailed orders.
"I help identify barriers to our clients from being able to get their medications and continuing to take them so they can experience sustained benefits," Nielson said.
Over a five-day period, Nielson typically averages between 450 and 500 client phone calls to clients, she said.
"Whether it's helping them find strategies to remember taking medicines ... or helping them if their insurance isn't covering (a medication), or doing a credit authorization for their insurance, or doing auto refills or bubble packaging or text alerts to let them know when it's ready ... I do all these things," she said.
She makes sure her patients take their medications regularly as scheduled, monitoring primarily mood stabilizers, antipsychotic medicines and antidepressants. She can also help if costs become an issue, and she will get heavily involved if an individual client has concerns about reactions or drug interactions.
A lot of times, she said, "you get busy and you may have a doctor send in a medicine and you may not realize, for one, that they've sent it in or, two, that it's ready," she said. Her friendly phone calls or text alerts "are definitely a plus, knowing when your medication is ready to be picked up."
She straddles two very important but different worlds — she has to know what the doctor is treating and what the overall problem is, and she also has to know intimate details about the medicines being prescribed and how they will affect an individual client. She spent 18 years working for pharmacies before assuming her duties with Ozark Center, the behavioral health arm of Freeman Health System, in December.
"Some of the reasons (clients) may not take their medications on time, or more frequently, is because they're just needing that connection ... to review options or discuss dosing," Nielson said. "Many medications have to be taken consistently to work and at the right dose to stay effective, so consistency is the key in all of that."
There are many ways Nielson strives to relieve stress for her clients. Bubble packs, for example, can be completed on-site at Hope Spring on East 32nd Street. These packs contain sealed compartments for medication to be taken at specific times of the day.
The pharmacy at Hope Spring also makes it convenient for patients so they can go straight from their doctor's appointment and get their medications without delay. This takes some of the stress away from individuals who might already suffer anxiety from having too many things to remember at once.
It's a lot of responsibility, delicately helping balance life-changing medications for hundreds of people, "but I absolutely love doing what I'm doing," she said.
Kevin McClintock is features editor for The Joplin Globe.
