New Study: Telepharmacy Results in Expanded Service Hours, Faster Order Processing, More...

A new study by Via Christi in AJHP of five hospitals in Kansas has concluded:

The implementation of telepharmacy services in a multihospital health system expanded hours of service, improved the speed of processing of physician medication orders, and increased clinical pharmacy services and cost avoidance. Surveys of health care staff found that telepharmacy services were well received.

You can view the full text of the study along with charts and graphs at MedScape:

Because pharmacists' salaries are moderately high, we were interested in determining whether the cost could be partially or fully offset by the savings associated with increased clinical interventions. At an estimated salary of $55 per hour and 30 hours of work weekly, the cost of the service would be $1,650 per week. The cost avoidance associated with the increased clinical interventions documented (881 versus 619) was $23,422 ($86,064 versus $62,642) (Table 1). Therefore, the telepharmacy service generated a saving of $21,772 for one week. If this saving were extrapolated to one year, the annualized saving would be $1,132,144.

Table 1. Clinical Pharmacy Interventions During One-Week Periods Before and After Implementation of Telepharmacy Services^a

Intervention	Before Telepharmacy		After Telepharmacy
	No. Interventions	Associated Cost Avoidance ($)	No. Interventions	Associated Cost Avoidance ($)
Chart review	59	0	98	0
Chemotherapy order review	39	4,290	30	3,300
Clarify order	318	0	378	0
Dosage adjustment	4	448	116	12,992
Change from i.v. to oral route	24	600	20	500
Teaching about medications	20	4,160	59	12,272
TPN consultation	13	1,560	17	2,040
TPN follow-up	53	1,590	41	1,230
Warfarin dosing	17	12,563	15	11,085
Warfarin follow-up	18	3,330	57	10,545
Medication history	53	34,026	50	32,100
Medication reconciliation	1	75	0	86,064
Total	619	62,642	881	0

GREAT study! Hats off to authors James Garrelts, Mark Gagnon, Charles Eisenberg, Janell Moerer, and Joe Carrithers.

USDA Visits, Blogs About Minnesota Outpatient Telepharmacy

The Daily Globe out of Worthington, Minn. writes about the USDA's state director of Rural Development, Colleen Landkammer visiting the Adrian telepharmacy with Senator's Al Franken's representative to congratulate the community and talk up telepharmacy's benefits for rural communities:

Sterling Drug pharmacist Bryan Hagen (right) explains new telepharmacy procedures to (from left) Rep. Tim Walz staff member Matthew Wohlman, USDA Rural Development director Colleen Landkammer and Sen. Al Franken representative Nate Arch during a presentation of a rual business enterprise grant Tuesday afternoon in Adrian.

Hagen said the telepharmacy project has worked well thus far.
“We understand the importance of healthcare access in rural Minnesota,” he said, adding that the telepharmacy is “just what we need” to keep service in small, rural communities. Since the Sterling Drug Telepharmacy debuted, Hagen said he has received calls from other communities interested in the concept, from Fulda to Winnebago.

The USDA also subsequently blogged about it, saying:

“The telepharmacy was a unique and cost-effective way for Adrian to provide access to the services of a local pharmacy,” said Colleen Landkamer, USDA Rural Development State Director. “City officials recognized the need for a local pharmacy to remain in town and took immediate actions to make it happen.”
...
“Sterling Drug is happy to be able to bring back pharmacy services into Adrian,” said Bryan Hagen, a pharmacist at Sterling Drug in Worthington. “The telepharmacy model is a great way to keep healthcare in smaller communities where accesses to those services are important to the communities.”