CPF FUNDED GRANT DETAILS

Community pharmacists play a pivotal role in medication management, improving patient outcomes, and reducing the cost of care--particularly for high-cost, high-risk patients. Capitalizing on the clinical knowledge of community pharmacists, 255 NC pharmacies are participating in an enhanced services network that integrates community pharmacists into the medical home care team to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare delivery for high-cost, high-risk Medicaid patients. Implementing enhanced services such as medication synchronization and comprehensive medication review requires complex organizational change within community pharmacies such as new policies and procedures, processes of care, and staffing models--which can cause substantial disruption to workflow. While community pharmacists have the clinical knowledge necessary to deliver enhanced services, they may lack the skills necessary to effectively manage organizational change. To address this need, this proposed project would survey community pharmacies participating in the NC-based CPESN about their experiences with implementation, use survey findings to identify the organizational policies, processes of care, and staffing models that are associated with effective implementation, and translate the survey findings into practice by developing a webinar that provides guidance on how to address barriers to organizational change in community pharmacies participating in enhanced service models. Given the inter-disciplinary nature of this project, the research team would include implementation science researchers from the UNC School of Public Health, community pharmacy researchers from the UNC School of Pharmacy, system engineers from the NC State School of Engineering, and CPESN staff that have expertise in implementing enhanced service models in community pharmacies. The findings of this work would be disseminated nationally to community pharmacists and pharmacy students through the UNC School of Pharmacy Center for Medication Optimization through Practice and Policy, the NC-based CPESN, and CPESN USA and to health service and community pharmacy researchers through peer reviewed publications and conference presentations.