Telehealth News

Telepharmacies Give Hospitals a Virtual Link to Medication Management

Hospitals are using telemedicine to improve their link to pharmacy services at any time, improving medication management for patients and the workflows of their own staff.

Source: ThinkStock

By Eric Wicklund

- Hospitals often use telemedicine to extend their reach out into the community, but sometimes those connected health channels also improve in-patient care. One such example is the hospital pharmacy, which stands at a critical juncture in the medication management chain.

At the North Carolina Specialty Hospital in Durham, Director of Pharmacy Lindsay Burke has to balance the needs of patients with a limited pharmacy staff. On nights and weekends, she uses a telepharmacy service, offering on-demand access to pharmacists via telehealth not only to verify medication orders but to give patients a virtual link to specialists when needed.

“It’s become an extension of what we do,” she says. “It gives us peace of mind.”

The platform also helps the small hospital during violent storms and other weather issues. Instead of bringing pharmacy staff into the hospital during those emergencies – and possibly putting them in danger – she can use the telemedicine channel to keep that line of access open.

“To be able to provide that level of (care) at any time and in any weather is important,” Burke adds. “This is what we’re supposed to do. Using (telemedicine), just makes sure that we’re doing it the right way.

Telepharmacy services date back to the early 2000s, when a rural hospital in North Dakota used a virtual care channel to provide on-demand specialists consults. The platform has seen widespread adoption during this decade, according to the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, with more than two-thirds of states specifically legislating its use.

Aside from covering for staffing shortages during off hours and weather issues, a telepharmacy platform also gives hospitals instant access to specialty services.

“It’s an inexpensive solution to a growing need,” Brian Roberts, CEO for telepharmacy vendor PipelineRX, told mHealthIntelligence in a 2016 interview. “Skilled pharmacists can create all sorts of interventions and avoid a lot of clinical errors” – including reducing the estimated 40 percent of discharged patients who don’t fill their prescriptions or have inaccurate prescriptions because of an error in their discharge plans.

Roberts says more and more health systems see a telepharmacy service as a revenue driver, extending the hospital’s reach out to specialty clinics, nursing homes, urgent care centers, schools, prisons - even retail and community pharmacies that could use on online or video link to the local healthcare provider for expert consults.

“We’re allowing them to make the best use of their resources,” he says. 

The service is also showing success in improving clinical ambulatory care.

According to a study by Yale New Haven Hospital that was unveiled at the recent 2019 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Summer Meetings in Boston, a telehealth platform improved access to care for patients needing to fulfill scheduled follow-up visits with a hospital pharmacy.

According to the study, roughly 69 percent of patients were completed by video, as compared to about 55 percent of patients who attended in-person consults. Those using the telehealth channel reported savings in time, travel expenses and convenience, and said they would recommend it to others.

Just last year, diabetes experts suggested that a telepharmacy platform could help people living with diabetes and their care providers improve medication management, in turn boosting adherence and outcomes and reducing unnecessary expenses and errors.

“Many (pharmacy benefit managers) have dedicated departments of pharmacists who can make dose changes and intercede on behalf of the patient’s primary care provider,” Dustyn Williams, MD, a hospitalist at Baton Rouge General Medical Center and co-founder and chief medical officer of DoseDr, wrote in an issue of Drug Topics. “Telemedicine apps that provide a real-time feedback loop can fill needed resource gaps and ensure this ongoing communication happens. Prescribing pharmacists would have the needed data at their fingertips, and changes could be readily available in the patient’s app.”

Back at North Carolina Specialty Hospital, Burke says the platform offers plenty of opportunities for expansion, but at the moment she’s focused on improving workflows and work-life balance for her staff and making sure patients get the medications they need and when they need them.

“This gives us more of an opportunity to do what we should be doing,” she says.

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