Search

Background: As a result of COVID-19, numerous adaptations were made to health care delivery, including comprehensive medication management (CMM) delivered in community pharmacies., Objective: Identify and describe the adaptations that have been made to the delivery of CMM among community pharmacies due to COVID-19., Methods: Community pharmacies participating in a CMM implementation and research initiative had regular coaching calls throughout COVID-19 and completed a survey of changes that occurred as a result of COVID-19. Coaching notes and survey results were summarized and mapped to the Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications-Enhanced (FRAME) to systematically capture changes that occurred., Results: A number of reactive adaptations were made to CMM delivery as a result of COVID-19, including increased virtual or remote delivery of CMM, delaying CMM visits to allow pharmacies to provide care directly related to the pandemic including COVID-19 testing and vaccines, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) in visits, new ways of obtaining clinical patient information, and shifting CMM staffing models., Conclusion: Adaptations that occurred to CMM during COVID-19 allowed pharmacists to continue to serve their patients and meet public health needs., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2021 The Authors.)

Objective. To determine if the number of patient encounters during advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) relates to student self-assessment of patient care skills using entrustable professional activities (EPAs). Methods. During 12-week acute care/institutional (AC/INST) APPEs, 15-week combined community pharmacy and ambulatory care (CPAC) APPEs, and three 5-week AC/INST or CPAC elective APPEs, fourth-year pharmacy students completed patient tracking surveys. Students documented the number of encounters, type of care provided, primary and secondary diagnoses, and special dosing/population considerations. Students completed self-assessment surveys for 12 EPAs. Students rated their ability to perform each EPA using a four-point scale (1=still developing this skill; 4=can do this independently) at the start and after each APPE semester. Results. Data were collected from May 2016 through April 2017. During this time, 165 students completed APPEs. Students reported 79,717 encounters. There was no significant correlation found between total number of encounters and EPA scores. The baseline EPA mean score was 3.1 and semester 3 EPA mean score was 3.7. The mean student-reported EPA scores did increase over time, some more quickly than others. Conclusion. Tracking student patient encounters provided insight into the quantity and variety of patients and conditions seen and level of care provided by students during APPEs. Mean scores on EPAs increased over time with increased exposure to patients. Patient tracking can be used to inform the curriculum by identifying potential gaps in both didactic and experiential education., (© 2019 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.)

The profession of pharmacy is facing a shifting health system context that holds both opportunity and risk. If the profession of pharmacy is to advance, pharmacists must be recognized as a consistent member of the health care team in all clinical settings, contributing at the fullest extent of licensure and education. One part of achieving this broad goal is to implement a new way of defining and assessing pharmacy practice skills, such as entrustable professional activities (EPA). Assessment of professional tasks and practice activities with EPAs has been successfully implemented in medical education for assessing trainee preparation for practice. This EPA model is being applied to pharmacy education to develop an assessment framework across the advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) curriculum. The APPE course directors, practice faculty members, and the Office of Experiential Education collaboratively defined a set of universal EPAs critical for pharmacists in any practice setting and would be assessed in all practice experience types.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a telephonic medication therapy management (MTM) service on reducing hospitalizations among home health patients., Setting: Forty randomly selected, geographically diverse home health care centers in the United States., Design: Two-stage, randomized, controlled trial with 60-day follow-up. All Medicare- insured home health care patients were eligible to participate. Twenty-eight consecutive patients within each care center were recruited and randomized to usual care or MTM intervention. The MTM intervention consisted of the following: (1) initial phone call by a pharmacy technician to verify active medications; (2) pharmacist-provided medication regimen review by telephone; and (3) follow-up pharmacist phone calls at day seven and as needed for 30 days. The primary outcome was 60-day all-cause hospitalization., Data Collection: Data were collected from in-home nursing assessments using the OASIS-C. Multivariate logistic regression modeled the effect of the MTM intervention on the probability of hospitalization while adjusting for patients' baseline risk of hospitalization, number of medications taken daily, and other OASIS-C data elements., Principal Findings: A total of 895 patients (intervention n = 415, control n = 480) were block-randomized to the intervention or usual care. There was no significant difference in the 60-day probability of hospitalization between the MTM intervention and control groups (Adjusted OR: 1.26, 95 percent CI: 0.89-1.77, p = .19). For patients within the lowest baseline risk quartile (n = 232), the intervention group was three times more likely to remain out of the hospital at 60 days (Adjusted OR: 3.79, 95 percent CI: 1.35-10.57, p = .01) compared to the usual care group., Conclusions: This MTM intervention may not be effective for all home health patients; however, for those patients with the lowest-risk profile, the MTM intervention prevented patients from being hospitalized at 60 days., (© Health Research and Educational Trust.)

In 2010, the Purdue University College of Pharmacy established the Medication Safety Research Network of Indiana (Rx-SafeNet), the first practice-based research network (PBRN) in Indiana comprised solely of community pharmacies. In the development of Rx-SafeNet and through our early project experiences, we identified several "lessons learned." We share our story and what we learned in an effort to further advance the work of the greater PBRN community. We have formed the infrastructure for Rx-SafeNet, including an Executive Committee, Advisory Board, member pharmacies/site coordinators, and Project Review Team. To date, 22 community pharmacies have joined and we have recently completed data collection for the network's first project. Lessons learned during the development of Rx-SafeNet may benefit PBRNs nationally. Although community pharmacy PBRNs are not yet commonplace in the U.S., we believe their development and subsequent research efforts serve as an important avenue for investigating medication use issues.