Telepharmacy services bring new patient care opportunities

Pharmacists in different care settings are finding ways to make telepharmacy work in ways that improve patient care and make health care spending more efficient. A telepharmacy program based in Connecticut saved nearly $300,000 in projected health care service costs for 96 elderly Cambodian Americans in Connecticut and California who received medication therapy management (MTM) services from the program, said Thomas E. Buckley, assistant clinical professor at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy. The program sent local community health workers, who had a trusting relationship with the Cambodian Americans and spoke their language, into the patients’ homes. Each health worker used a laptop to set up a secure, remote audiovisual link to a pharmacist and served as an interpreter so that the patient and pharmacist could communicate effectively. The telepharmacy services were provided to 53 patients in Connecticut and 43 in California. Buckley said he and four other pharmacists performed the MTM services, which typically required multiple remote encounters over a six-to nine-month period. The pharmacists identified a total of 604 medication-related problems and resolved 93% of them.