Synchronization, Communication, Staff Participation Boost Sales and Help Patients
Medication synchronization and Medicare Part D’s Medication Therapy Management (MTM) can help deliver clinical care to patients.
Delivering clinical services doesn’t start with the patient walking into the pharmacy or talking with the pharmacist. Clinical care begins long before. Existing programs such as medication synchronization and Medicare Part D’s Medication Therapy Management (MTM) can help. Medication synchronization serves 2 purposes. Enrolling 30% to 50% of chronic patients in an appointment-based refill program frees up a significant amount of pharmacist time compared with walk-in refills, according to Cody Clifton, PharmD, director of clinical services at Duvall Family Drugs in Duvall, Washington, and director of practice transformation and clinical programs for Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network (CPESN).
Regular, scheduled follow-ups then pave the way for other clinical services. “Reaching out to patients 7 to 10 days in advance of every refill lets you take services to the next level by asking straightforward questions about medication changes, changes in health, vaccinations, testing, and all the other ways we can help,” Clifton said.
Many independent pharmacies use Outcomes MTM’s standalone Part D MTM program. The program boosts nondispensing cash flow and can help identify patients who need more than a compre- hensive medication review (CMR). “We sometimes use that CMR to identify patients [who] could benefit from other services,” said Tripp Logan, PharmD, vice president of SEMO Rx Pharmacies, which has pharmacies across 3 counties in southeast Missouri.“From a value standpoint, we don’t see a ton of clinical value in 1 visit because these patients are complex enough that they need more than 1 intervention a year. That CMR is an identify clinical needs. The payer or network can forward patient contacts or selection criteria directly.
“Our program identifies patients who are part of a certain health plan, have disease states within certain date ranges, or [have] other criteria,” explained Farah Madhat, PharmD, executive vice president at PrescribeWellness.“We try to empower community pharmacies to run their own clinical programs. And once you’ve identified that population through software, you can send out singular communications to only those select patients.”
