Rural Missouri Hospital Awarded USDA Healthcare Grant, Funds Telepharmacy

News-Leader.com out of Springfield, Missouri writes in their Daily Planner section about a new USDA grant awarded to Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar:

Citizens Memorial Healthcare was awarded a $457,500 grant last month from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund educational projects and expand health care services in rural Missouri.

CMH received the grant for a program to manage medications. Rural residents can connect to a pharmacist in the evening and from remote locations with what's called a telepharmacy. The program computerizes managing prescriptions and improves the time it takes to review medication orders. The award was received by Susan Sanders, telehealth coordinator for CMH.

Vermont Telepharmacy Pilot Program Keeps Outpatient Pharmacy Services Alive in Rural Vermont

Keith McGilvery of WCAX News writes about a state-board approved rural outpatient telepharmacy program that has been running in Plainfield, Vermont for 2.5 years. Even though there's no pharmacist in town, one from Colchester remotely councils patients via a live video link, with a vending machine dispensing drugs to a technician.

The program is expanding Hardwick soon, and "telepharmacies are also up for discussion in Danville, Barton, Concord."

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Idaho Pharmacy Regulations Revamp Provides for Remote Supervision of Technicians, More Changes Later

The Idaho Statesman offers this about Idaho's huge pharmacy regulations overhaul:

REWRITING THE RULE BOOK The board is nearing the end of a three-year effort to rewrite the rules governing pharmacies and other places that dispense medications, such as hospitals and nursing homes. The agency wants to dump the 102 pages of rules created over the years to eliminate antiquated language and extend regulation to some areas that haven’t had it before.

PROPOSED MAJOR CHANGES Two areas the board hopes to regulate more closely are telepharmacies and machines that dispense medications.

Telepharmacies permit pharmacy technicians to fill prescriptions under the supervision of a pharmacist, usually some distance away. In some cases, the technician may be in a small hospital that has a pharmacist for only a short period each day. Idaho has a couple of pilot programs now in telepharmacy. As the programs expand, the state will look at regulations. The machines dispense medications either to pharmacists filling prescriptions or to customers who come into a pharmacy to pick up prescribed medications. Pharmacists can put filled prescriptions into the machines that customers can access with a personal code, ending the need to stand in a long line.

THE PROCESS The board hopes to go to the Legislature in January to repeal the existing rules.

HOW YOU CAN BE HEARD A meeting is planned at 9 a.m. Wednesday, June 22, at the Idaho State Board of Pharmacy office, 1100 Shoreline Lane, Suite 300, Boise. Comments may also be directed to Mark Johnston, executive director, at mark.johnston@bop.idaho.gov.

TO LEARN MORE Go to the Board of Pharmacy’s website at http://bop.accessidaho.org.