Medication therapy management, comprehensive medication management, MTM, patient-centered comprehensive care…the list of terms could go on and on. These terms all represent the attempt to describe services provided (hopefully by pharmacists) for individual patients in an effort to optimize therapy outcomes. Many pharmacists today are using these terms and practicing in such a way as to meet the primary aim of what these terms describe. However, many within the pharmacy profession (myself included, until I began researching the topic in some depth) continue to have a vague understanding of what these terms mean, how they are applied, what is actually
INTRODUCTION
Pharmacists are well-trained, yet often underutilized within the primary care delivery system to identify, resolve, monitor and prevent medication-related problems (MRPs).1 Medication therapy management (MTM) is a term which describes a broad range of services that are provided by pharmacists to optimize individual patients' therapeutic outcomes.2 The MTM care process includes conducting a comprehensive patient medication assessment to identify appropriateness of drug therapy, developing and documenting a care plan to achieve patient-specific goals of therapy and performing follow-up evaluation to resolve drug therapy problems. When structured to allow patients, pharmacists, physicians, and other caregivers to
JOSE SCARPA, RPH1
1 Director of Pharmacy at Natchaug Hospital in Mansfield, CT. He also contracts independently with the private company, PharmaNetEx, to deliver MTM services for various clinic sites in and around the Mansfield area. He serves diverse patients suffering from mostly physical and some mental illnesses in a Medicaid population.
How is your MTM position funded? Do you receive reimbursement for the MTM services you provide?
The position is funded on a fee-for-service basis through a contractual agreement between PharmaNetEx and the Department of Social Services in Connecticut. The funds come from the Center for Medicaid
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a newly implemented pharmacy managed service in a Substance Abuse Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (SARRTP) within a Veterans Medical Center setting. Patients receiving residential treatment may have a lapse in primary care services if their primary care provider is based out of a different facility. This can result in undesirable outcomes, including unnecessary emergency department (ED) visits or unaddressed medical needs. Additionally, these patients have often made significant lifestyle modifications that can have a major impact on the treatment of their chronic medical conditions. A pharmacy-managed clinic was created for these patients to provide medication therapy management as appropriate within the scope of a pharmacist.
Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed using the Computerized Patient Record System to assess outcomes of the newly implemented pharmacy managed clinic for SARRTP patients. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained prior to data collection. Outcomes assessed included number of ED visits before and after clinic initiation, as well as number and type of pharmacist interventions. Fisher's exact test was used to determine statistical significance, defined as p<0.05.
Results: Thirty-seven patients were seen in a total of 46 clinic visits over a period of six months. ED visits had a statistically significant decrease of 27.9% following clinic initiation (p<0.05). There was an average of 4.3 problems assessed per patient. Average number of interventions per patient was 2.7 with an average of 3.5 educational topics documented.
Conclusion: ED visits decreased significantly following clinic initiation, resulting in cost savings. Multiple interventions were made through this new clinical service to improve Veteran care. Lifestyle modifications made by this patient population often require therapy adjustments and education to optimize care. This type of innovative clinical service would likely be beneficial for other facilities to consider providing.
This pocket-sized handbook features 100 practical suggestions and ideas submitted by pharmacists, academicians, technicians, and business leaders. Each tip contains a narrative and/or personal experience documented by the contributor. The tips are organized into 14 thematic chapters. The book comes complete with an alphabetical index of the tips, chapters and contributors.
CPNP members maintain a suggested reading list to provide information on peer recommended resources and convenient access to the highest quality neuropsychopharmacology publications. A reminder that if you shop with CPNP, by following the links below to Amazon, a small commission will be paid to CPNP which
This summer's record breaking heat has been paralleled only by the blazing hot work of CPNP members. Many of our members as well as residents and Purdue student chapter members participated in the recent NAMI annual meeting in Chicago. CPNP sponsored a booth in the exhibit hall to increase awareness of psychiatric pharmacists and CPNP. CPNP volunteers also answered questions from consumers at the “Ask the Psychiatric Pharmacist” booth in the exhibit hall. CPNP members Steven Burghart, Kimberly Lintner, and Jennifer Zacher presented a workshop to a standing room only crowd on July 9 entitled, “Suicidality and Risks of Medications
2012 ANNUAL MEETING: MAKING WAVES IN NEUROPSYCHIATRIC PHARMACY PRACTICE
The 2012 CPNP Annual Meeting to be held April 29-May 2 at the Tampa Marriott Waterside in Tampa, Florida, is really beginning to take shape as you can see at cpnp.org/2012. True to the theme of Making Waves in Neuropsychiatric Pharmacy Practice, this meeting will feature topics and speakers that will challenge you, make you think in different ways, and incite you to act.
Since speakers and sessions are not fully confirmed, we can't reveal all of the details at this time. For a sneak peek…
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