Maine CAHs Receive Award for Patient Safety Solutions, Will Recommend Telepharmacy

A collaborative of Maine critical access hospitals has received the New England Rural Health Roundtable's President's Award for implementing new technology, practices and communication to improve patient safety over the course of 18 months and compiled the data:

MeHAF will support the hospitals' efforts to disseminate solutions generated by the project, including medication reconciliation, interventions related to high-alert medications, enhanced patient and staff education, and telepharmacy plans that more closely involve pharmacists in remote regions.

Here's the bulletin from GIH (Grantmakers in Health) with a bit more detail. MeHAF is the Maine Health Access Foundation, who made the announcement.

Medicare Grant Preps Idaho Clinics for Telepharmacy System

The Idaho State Office of Rural Health guided three grant applicants to some Flex Grants provided by the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program in August. Benewah Community Hospital and Harms Memorial Hospital were able to implement Electronic Medical Records while Syringa were a bit more advanced:

Syringa Hospital and Clinics ($23,392): Utilization of a telemedicine robot program to increase access to health care services; development of electronic prescribing connectivity for use of Electronic Health Records and in preparation for eventual telepharmacy. Partners: Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center and Irwin Drug.

Minnesota Sees Need for Telepharmacy in Rural Areas Rising in 2010

The Minnesota Society of Health System Pharmacists just released a position statement assessing the changes they feel are required, called Pharmacy Technician Education, Training and Competency. In the statement, highlight many of the roles technicians are increasingly expected to take on, and use some trends research to speculate on the "Future of Healthcare" in the state:

There will be increasing needs for pharmacists in prescription and telepharmacy to improve services to rural areas of the state.

Kansas Mulls New Draft Rules for Hospital and Retail Telepharmacy

As you know if you've been reading the blog for a while, Kansas is proposing new telepharmacy rules. The Kansas State Board of Pharmacy's September meeting minutes fills us in on their concerns and how far along they are in the process:

Hospital Telepharmacy Update – Mr. Coast presented the update and stated the regulation title has been changed to “Electronic Supervision of Medical Care Facility Pharmacy Personnel”. The draft regulations were presented for the Board’s review. The Board discussed the potential hazard of unintended consequences of telepharmacy being used to reduce pharmacy staffing, which could lead to a decrease in patient safety and quality of care; and that this should be taken into consideration as the regulations are drafted. The Board will forward questions and issues for the task force to discuss and consider. The next task force meeting will be October 26, 2009 in Wichita.

Retail Telepharmacy Regulations and Update – Mr. Coast updated the Board on the retail telepharmacy regulations. Aaron McReynolds, the owner and PIC at Lincoln County Pharmacy in Lincoln, Kansas , connected by phone to tell the Board his issues concerning the current retail telepharmacy draft regulations. He sent his suggestions to the Board several months ago and has requested the Board consider the North Dakota regulations. He requested the telepharmacy regulations allow controlled substances and questioned the feasibility of unit of use packaging. Mr. Coast asked if the Board would be open to allowing controlled substances on a site by site basis. Mr. McReynolds will participate in the next task force meeting to assist in drafting regulations that will resolve his areas of concern. Mr. Forbes needed the Board’s input concerning questions posed by the Attorney General’s Office. The Board reviewed the questions. The task force may address those questions as well as Mr. McReynolds’ issues. The task force will schedule a meeting.

The October minutes haven't been released yet.

Retail Telepharmacy Program in Washington "a big hit", Restores Pharmacy Services to Two Communities

Julie Garner of the University of Washington Alumni Magazine wrote an interesting article about the use of a central telepharmacy site in Bellevue to improve pharmacy services in the state of Washington:

Bellegrove started telepharmacies at the Mattawa Clinic and Wenatchee Valley Medical's Royal City Clinic in 2008. Here's how it works: The Bellegrove pharmacist talks with technicians and patients at the clinics through the Internet. The techs then fax prescriptions and insurance information to the pharmacist in Bellevue, who provides approval and instructions for filling the prescriptions. The technicians select from 128 prepackaged medications that are most used in community clinic settings.

According to the article, "Singer and his colleagues spent six months working out the telepharmacy concept with the state Board of Pharmacy to receive certification." The Washington State Board of Pharmacy seems very progressive, given the amount of telepharmacy news coming from the state.

Michigan Health Clinic Receives Rural Development Grant for Remote Pharmacists

Baldwin Family Health Care, which operates a number of family medical clinics in Michigan, is another recipient of the 2009 Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grants from the US Department of Agriculture:

The DLT project connects the applicant with remote pharmacists through tele-pharmacy. Off-site pharmacists will provide prescription dispensing and patient consultation to patients at Baldwin.

The total amount awarded was $52,400. With $13,875 in additional funding, the total project cost is $66,275, according to the USDA's DLT reports (or original PDF) recently released.

Missouri Hospital District receives USDA telepharmacy grant

The Scotland County Memorial Hospital District, serving Scotland and Schuyler Counties (Memphis area) in northeast Missouri received a $62,622 grant from the US Department of Agriculture, as 1 of 4 Missouri grant recipients from this year's USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program:

This project will connect a hospital, two clinic and a phamacy. The primary purpose is telepharmacy. There will also be upgrades to the existing video-conferencing system which supports remote consultation.

Read the full report here (or Original PDF).

Retail Telepharmacy Rears Head in Singapore!

Watson's Personal Care Stores, the largest health care and beauty care chain store in Asia, has posted a job listing for a pharmacy technician at a Singapore location:

The successful candidate’s primary responsibility will be to provide telepharmacy services at Pharmacy stores. You will assist Pharmacists in preparing and dispensing medications to customers via Teleconferencing, as well as to assist in the maintenance of the dispensary to fulfill legal requirements.

It sounds like it's just a tech position, and they are calling patient conferencing by a pharmacist via telecommunications "telepharmacy." Still, very cool and this is the first I've heard of this in use in Asia!

South Dakota Hospital gets Huge Telepharmacy Equipment Grant

From the Rapid City Journal out of Rapid City, SD, comes this news:

Regional Health of Rapid City will receive a $386,549 federal grant to buy videoconferencing devices to link 15 sites, including rural hospitals as well as clinics, with regional medical resources at three sites in Rapid City. The grant was one of three Distance Learning and Telemedicine grants awarded in South Dakota last week by U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development.

Among the goals of the Regional Health project are specialty consultation, tele-dialysis and tele-pharmacy, as well as continuing medical education for providers, according to a Rural Development news release.

Telepharmacy keeps rural pharmacies open, more than half of CAHs do not have a dedicated pharmacist

The Fall issue of the Rural Monitor Newsletter examines rural pharmacies' challenges as they attempt to compete with internet sales, large pharmacy chains, and the national shortage of pharmacists. Writer Candi Helseth gives the obligatory nod to the North Dakota Telepharmacy Project, and also highlights the use of remote pharmacist services by hospitals for filling the pharmacy services void in rural hospitals:

63 percent of CAHs nationwide ... do not have full-time pharmacists on-site.
...
“It’s pretty obvious that these rural providers aren’t going to be able to find full-time pharmacists even if they can afford them,” Moore said. ”With remote pharmacy, where you can leverage a pharmacist taking care of three to five hospitals, it becomes cost effective for these small hospitals. I hope it’s an idea that takes off in more states because it offers answers for small areas where the retail pharmacist is no longer available as a back-up.”

Read the full article here.

Telepharmacy can "improve patient access to pharmaceutical care"

A new paper by Annie Y. Lam and Dave Rose called Telepharmacy services in an urban community health clinic system appeared in the Journal of American Pharmacists Association last month:

Setting: Suburban western Washington State during 2007 to 2008.

Practice description: Five network clinics without in-house pharmacies are remotely connected to a central pharmacy to provide telepharmacy services.

Results: At five network sites, 12,000 patients received 3,282 new prescriptions per month with webcam-enabled consultations, 589 monthly refill prescriptions, 2,800 pharmacist-provided refill authorizations, and 250 medication assistance referrals. Antibiotics were the most frequently dispensed medications. Pharmacists commented that webcam-enabled interviews provided better privacy and longer counseling duration. Six new staff members (one pharmacist and five pharmacy technicians) were added. Workspace and staff responsibilities were reassigned to facilitate medication prepackaging and ADDS prescription processing.

Conclusion: Expanded application of telepharmacy technology can improve patient access to pharmaceutical care beyond remote medication dispensing to include point-of-care refill authorization and medication assistance referrals. Further research to explore patient-focused services and to assess economic, humanistic, and clinical outcomes of telepharmacy services is needed.

More and more indicators are pointing to telepharmacy being a good way to improve patient care.

New Legislation Paves Way for Remote Dispensing in Ontario, Canada

The Ontario legislature passed Bill 179, which will allow remote dispensing in the province:

The new legislation will permit PCA Services Inc. of Oakville to roll out its PharmaTrust(TM) Med Centres across the province - something the company has been working towards for four years. Once the regulations are in place, it is expected that Med Centres will be deployed to service patients in medical clinics, hospitals, employer facilities, retail locations, and remote communities that cannot economically support a traditional drug store.

Check out the press release. We've covered the remote prescription dispensing machine previously here at the Telepharmacy Blog, and also this legislation when it was first being considered. Here are some promo videos and news pieces from Youtube:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU30LnS2qso




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-kGuOu1GQ0

Army, Navy, VA use of Kiosks, Automated Dispensing, Telepharmacy on the Rise

Christopher Prawdzik from the latest edition of Military Medical Technology wrote a review of the newest pharmacy technologies in use at various military pharmacy facilities called "Less Time to Fill: Advances In Pharmacy Automation Cut Costs, Improve Accuracy And Leave Pharmacists With More Time For Patient Care":

For example, the Navy’s Pensacola, Fla., command has about 11 remote sites in addition to the Pensacola Naval Hospital. Using ScriptPro’s Telepharmacy system, any pharmacist on duty at any of these sites can accept a call at a station and verify that prescriptions are accurate. This includes verifying pictures of individual drugs with the actual filled prescription.

One big bonus of such systems is that instead of spending exorbitant amounts of time on what are essentially administrative or inventory matters, the technology allows pharmacists to do what they were trained to do. That includes understanding the medication needs of patients and ensuring that drug combinations, if multiple drugs are involved, do not lead to adverse interactions.

He talks about automation in use (Omnicell) at Walter Reed, unmanned kiosks where patients pick up prescriptions, and the telepharmacy system in the above quote from the article.