Pennsylvania Hospitals receive technology grant, hope to implement telepharmacy

The Pennsylvania Mountains Healthcare Resource Development (PMHRD) received a grant from Highmark, reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in a pair of nearly identical articles. Dianne Emminger, VP of IS for ACMH Hospital commented on what they intend to use the grant for:

The funding will be used to purchase equipment and software, Emminger said.

ACMH Hospital will partner with the other hospitals and care centers to provide residents those services, which are in short supply in rural communities, Emminger said.

Emminger gave some examples of how the technology could be used.

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Another would be tele-pharmacy where remote pharmacists would enter orders into the systems of hospitals that do not have 24-7 pharmacist

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"The specific projects are still being evaluated for feasibility," Emminger said.

The district of hospitals already has a fiber optic network in place from a grant they received in 2008, so the infrastructure is already in place.

VA to do Remote Order Entry from smartphones?

At the Washington DC VA Medical Center, chief of staff for informatics, Dr. Divya Shroff has been ushering in the use of smartphones for a few functions around the hospital normally performed by people at computers. One thing she sees in their future is Remote Order Entry via smartphones like BlackBerrys or the iPhone. From the ComputerWorld article:

Dr. Shroff sees many of the tasks currently being performed on laptops in medical settings making their ways to smartphone platforms as well. Possible future uses for mobile applications for physician's include remote order entry, remote chart changes, and the ability to read and make notes in real-time on medical materials from anywhere, to name a few, Dr. Shroff says.
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DCVAMC is already working on an iPhone application for patients, though Dr. Shroff didn't share specifics.

This would be an absolutely amazing and revolutionary use of mobile phone technology for use in the healthcare setting. Here's to hoping they develop the application.

Two Telepharmacy CE Presentations at NRHA

UPDATED! There will be two telepharmacy presentations that you can get CE credits for at the National Rural Health Association's "Medication Use in Rural America" conference in Kansas City, Missouri on September 10^th (Conf. Starts the 9^th). David Conejo of Red River Regional Hospital in Bonham, TX, along with Emily Alexander and Becky Harvey of Envision Telepharmacy are presenting:

A telepharmacy case study: Escaping the past and planning for the future
Patient safety, manpower shortages and cost containment help determine the best practice model when hospitals reevaluate pharmacy services. Hear a case study of a critical access hospital in rural Texas using electronic supervision of pharmacy technicians. Topics include obstacles encountered, redirection of resources, a clinical management program addressing medication patient safety goals, and expanding pharmacy services.

Next up is REACH IN (Resources to Enhance the Achievement of Community Health for Indiana)'s presentation entitled Launching your telepharmacy program: It's not about the technology which will "assess the role of community pharmacists by pharmacists and patients in Health Profession Shortage Areas."

Here's a PDF of the entire agenda. See the NRHA website for more details.

Kansas Hospital to Provide Telepharmacy Service to Rural Areas

Mt. Carmel Regional Medical Center in Pittsburg, KS is looking into delivering remote pharmacy services to rural Kansas. See this article in Pittsburg's Morning Sun newspaper:

Thanks to the telemedicine unit Moran toured Friday, that access has improved greatly over the past couple of years. Members of the Midwest Cancer Alliance demonstrated the equipment — which was purchased thanks to funding that Moran helped secure — by showing Moran a mock workup of Mt. Carmel CEO Jonathan Davis. In the demonstration, Davis and his “physician” were able to converse with a doctor over teleconference while giving the doctor information about Davis’s heart and pulse.
Davis said the technology could be used in a variety of ways, but added that it came in especially vital with cancer patients who could gain access to top-notch cancer physicians without having to travel long distances. Davis said they were currently developing ways to use pharmacy consults for areas without pharmacists as well.

Remote Review of Chemo Orders Saves Time and Money

Pharmacy Practice News highlights a new and interesting application of remote electronic supervision of pharmacy technicians via live video at Exempla Lutherin Medical Center in Denver, Colorado in their article, ASHP Coverage: Remote Camera To Check Chemotherapy Orders Saves Time and Money (free login required, or use bugmenot):

Prior to implementation of the camera, decentralized pharmacists had to go to the compounding area in the central pharmacy to verify the accuracy of the order. The new process improves efficiency by eliminating the time it takes for the pharmacists to travel to the central pharmacy. The process of traveling to the central pharmacy, waiting for other personnel and completing the check took an average of 346 seconds before the camera was put in place; that was reduced to five seconds with implementation of the camera.

Additionally, after implementing the new system, the Denver pharmacists were able to more than double the number of chemotherapy doses prepared each day, from four to nine.

Great article, it highlights all the points, including that it saves them time, money ($15,000 anually!), and helps them comply with Federal regulations (797).

More info on Adrian's telepharmacy grant

As reported here a while back, the City of Adrian, MN received partial funding for its telepharmacy project, which restored pharmacy services to the area, in the form of a grant from the Blandin Foundation. The Nobles County Review fills us in again:

The Blandin Foundation notified the city of Adrian on March 13, 2009 that Adrian had been selected for the $50,000 grant through the Sterling Drug, Inc. telepharmacy project. The city received the funds from the Blandin Foundation and forwarded the funds to Sterling Drug, Inc. for the purchase of the telepharmacy equipment.

It is good to know that grants are available for hi-tech medical projects such as retail telepharmacies. If you are having trouble initiating or restoring pharmacy services to your area, you might borrow from Kevin Norskog's example and research available grants.