The Impact of an Urban Telepharmacy on Patient Medication Adherence in a Federally Qualified Health Center

Abstract

Background: New and innovative ways to efficiently and effectively deliver pharmacy services are necessary to ensure the future viability of the pharmacy profession. We believe that the practice of telepharmacy may be one potential option for some health-care institutions.Objective: To measure the impact of a satellite telepharmacy on medication adherence by making 340B medication pricing more accessible to uninsured, underserved patients in an urban setting and to assess the level of patient acceptance of pharmacy services provided through the use of a telepharmacy. Methods:A retrospective electronic review of medication claims data submitted by community pharmacies was used to ascertain medication adherence rates of patients using our telepharmacy. Using a 30-day supply, the mean number of days between refills for all prescriptions was determined for each patient at his/her respective pharmacy setting (telepharmacy, retail chain, or both). Statistical analyses were conducted to determine whether significant differences existed in the overall mean number of days between refills for each setting. Additionally, patient satisfaction surveys were distributed to patients using the telepharmacy.Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the mean (SD) number of days between refills for those using telepharmacy (37.1 [7.3]) versus retail chain (38.8 [10.3]; p = 0.610). Among patients using the telepharmacy, 95/250 (38%) completed patient satisfaction survey questionnaires; 87% indicated that the telepharmacy always made it easier to refill prescriptions, while 85% felt that speaking with the pharmacist through the videotelephone improved medication understanding.Conclusions: Similar outcomes were observed in the telepharmacy and retail chain settings. Medications were consistently refilled in both settings beyond the time in which they were actually due to be refilled. Patient assessment of the telepharmacy indicated high degrees of satisfaction with accessibility, service, and patient counseling.

Exploring the perception and readiness of Pharmacists towards telepharmacy implementation; a cross sectional analysis

“…The majority of the pharmacists agreed that telepharmacy could improve medication adherence and disease therapy management among patients. The results of our study were similar to the earlier study conducted by Hudd & Tataronis (2011) , and another study conducted by Pathak et al (2020) . These two studies did not find any difference in adherence rates between patients at a retail chain pharmacy and an urban telepharmacy-supported pharmacy.…”

“…These two studies did not find any difference in adherence rates between patients at a retail chain pharmacy and an urban telepharmacy-supported pharmacy. This means that telepharmacy can provide a quality service similar to physical visits to the community pharmacies and improve patients’ quality of life ( Hudd & Tataronis, 2011 ; Pathak et al, 2020 ). These results are also supported by a study conducted by the United States Veterans Affairs (VA) integrated health care system, which used clinical pharmacist-led synchronous clinical video telehealth (CVT).…”

Telepharmacy and Quality of Medication Use in Rural Areas, 2013–2019

“…This risk indicator was a proxy for disease severity in the covariate-adjusted models. A sensitivity analysis, using an alternative risk indicator for prescription burden categories of low polypharmacy (0-4), polypharmacy (5-9), and hyperpolypharmacy (≥9) using conventional polypharmacy cut-offs (19), was also performed.…”

Assessing the Impact of the 340B Drug Pricing Program: A Scoping Review of the Empirical, Peer‐Reviewed Literature

“…Of the 44 included studies, all were observational studies, and none were experiments; 18 were single-site case studies, 38,39,41,42,45,46,[49][50][51]56,[59][60][61][62][63][70][71][72] 1 was a single-site observational study (comparing patients receiving 340B discounts with those on patient assistance programs [PAPs] for medication affordability), 47 17 were multisite descriptive studies, 40,43,44,[53][54][55]57,58,[64][65][66]68,73,74,76,77,79 1 study assessed the feasibility of a quasi-experimental identification strategy, 69 and 7 were quasi experiments. 30,31,48,52,67,75,78 We grouped the studies by suitability of study design for internal validity, as defined above.…”

“…30,31,48,52,67,75,78 We grouped the studies by suitability of study design for internal validity, as defined above. Nineteen studies were least suitable, 38,39,41,42,[45][46][47][49][50][51]56,[59][60][61][62][63][70][71][72] with 16 case studies, [38][39][40][41]45,46,[49][50][51]56,59,60,63,[70][71][72] 2 case series, 42,62 and 1 single-site observational study. 47 Seventeen studies had moderate suitability, 40,43,44,[53][54]...…”