Home Medicines Review
Made Easy for GPs
When to consider a Home Medicines Review, how the process works, and how DMMR Australia supports you and your patients.
- 100% bulk billed
- Consultant pharmacist visits patient at home
- GP remains in full control as the primary prescriber and decision maker
- Practical, GP‑ready report with clear, prioritised recommendations
- Trusted by over 2,400 referring GPs across Australia
What is a Home Medicines Review?
A Home Medicine Review (HMR) - also called a Domiciliary Medication Management Review (DMMR, MBS item 900) is a comprehensive medication review for patients at risk of medication related problems.
- Conducted by an accredited consultant pharmacist in the patient’s home
- Focused on safety, adherence, drug interactions and optimising therapy
- You, the GP remain the primary prescriber and decision-maker.
Link HMRs to Work You Already Do
The easiest way to remember HMRs is to pair them with existing reviews:
- Health assessments: Many patients identified here will also meet DMMR (Item 900) criteria.
- Chronic disease plans (GPCCMP): If a patient has a chronic condition and isn’t meeting therapeutic goals, consider a Home Medicine Review referral at the same time.
Which Patients Should I Consider for a Home Medicines Review?
Under the MBS, a patient may be eligible for a Domiciliary Medication Management Review (DMMR, item 900) when, with the patient’s consent, you assess that they:
- Have a chronic medical condition or a complex medication
regimen; and - Are not having their therapeutic goals met.
In practice, that often looks like the following groups of patients.
- Diabetes (e.g. sub optimal HbA1c, recurrent hypoglycaemia)
- Asthma or COPD (frequent exacerbations, poor inhaler technique)
- Cardiovascular disease (hypertension, heart failure, ischaemic heart disease)
- Mental health conditions (depression, anxiety, psychotic disorders)
- Arthritis and chronic pain conditions (e.g. osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, long‑term opioid use)
- Osteoporosis or recurrent falls
- Chronic kidney disease
- Other long‑term conditions where medicines are central to management
How it Works with
DMMR Australia
1. You Identify an Eligible Patient
During a consultation, you assess that a DMMR (HMR, item 900) is clinically appropriate and discuss it with the patient.
2. You Send a Referral
You send a DMMR referral to DMMR Australia using your usual practice software and preferred referral method.
3. We complete the review
Within 48 hours, we contact your patient to arrange a convenient time for an in-home, face-to-face medication review with our Consultant Pharmacist, 100% bulk-billed.
2. You receive a GP ready report
You receive a concise report with prioritised recommendations to consider and action as clinically appropriate.
How to Refer a Patient Today
You can refer patients using whichever method is easiest for your practice.
- Use our referral template in Best Practice / Medical Director (or your own)
- Then send via email, fax, HealthLink or Inca
What You Can Expect From Our Reports
- Clear summary of key medication issues and risks (e.g. interactions, adherence problems, administration difficulties, monitoring or blood tests needed, dose adjustments and side effects)
- Practical, GP‑ready recommendations you can quickly scan and action
- Reconciled medicine list based on what the patient is actually taking
View a Sample DMMR Report
Want to see what you’ll actually receive? We’ve included a de‑identified example of a recent DMMR report so you can see the level of detail, structure and recommendations you can expect.
Clinical Significance of
DMMRs
Reduction in Medical Negligence Claims
Medication errors account for 15% of medical negligence claims against GPs, including inappropriate drug choice, prescribing error, administering error and inappropriate dosage (RACGP).
Unnecessary Medication
50% of older adults are estimated to receive at least one unnecessary medication , with the incidence of potentially inappropriate prescribing increases significantly with polypharmacy.
Systematic Reviews show DMMRs:
- Identified an average of 3.6 medication related problems
- Significantly reduce the number of prescribed medications and lower patient costs
- Reduce hospitalisations by 45–79% for patients who receive a DMMR
- Reduce potentially inappropriate prescribing
- Improve medication adherence.
Medication Related Problems
Medication Reviews detect 1 - 6 medication-related problems in patients, system errors in medical records, and can address potentially inappropriate prescribing.
Prevalence
98% of older people have at least one medicine-related issue detected during a medicines review, with most having three.
Trusted by Over 2,400
Referring GPs Across Australia
With more than 2,000 five-star patient reviews.
"Ensuring no dangerous drug interactions is potentially being missed"
"Confirm that at home the patient is taking the regimen we believe they are, so that there is no accidental confusion with the variety of generics medications which are doubling up on doses"
"The feedback I get is a learning curve for me because there's a lot of new knowledge gained from the accredited pharmacist looking at side effects or monitoring"
"I can also feel a bit more comfortable that with the support of a pharmacist reviewing what's happened at home, that what I've heard the pharmacist has identified; we are all on the same page'"
"Ever since I started using HMRs, I realised instead of having multi-drug therapy, we can cut it down to four. From say eight, we can cut it down to six, four and that's fantastic because patient compliance became much better and our drug interactions became less and patients wellness became much better'"
"Make sure patients are not taking herbal or other complementary medicines that's going to interact with what they are taking'"
Frequently Asked Questions
You remain the patient’s primary doctor and final decision maker. The DMMR report is advisory. You review the findings and recommendations and then decide which, if any, to implement based on your clinical judgement and your patient’s preferences.
You remain the patient’s primary doctor and final decision maker. The DMMR report is advisory. You review the findings and recommendations and then decide which, if any, to implement based on your clinical judgement and your patient’s preferences.
You remain the patient’s primary doctor and final decision maker. The DMMR report is advisory. You review the findings and recommendations and then decide which, if any, to implement based on your clinical judgement and your patient’s preferences.
Want Help Identifying Eligible Patients at Scale?
If you’d like a simple, free way to identify eligible patients in your software and invite them via SMS, we can help install a done‑for‑you HMR SMS system for your clinic.
Learn more about the free HMR SMS system.
Have Questions?
Call us during business hours on (03) 7058 0365 or submit your question on this form and we’ll get back to you.