ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A trailblazing new program using rural pharmacies to identify and screen patients at risk of stroke and heart disease may have saved hundreds of lives, improved outcomes for thousands of patients, and saved millions of dollars by preventing hospitalization.
The pilot program is a collaboration between the National Community Pharmacists Association’s (NCPA) Innovation Center, CPESN Community Health, and Bristol Myers Squibb and underscores the importance of patient access to local pharmacies. Data from the first phase was collected over six months from 25 pharmacies in six states (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri) known as the “Stroke Belt” because of its high prevalence of cardiovascular disease.
“In this part of the country, like most of rural America, independent community pharmacies are often the only accessible health care providers,” said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey. “Many people in these areas may not have ready access to a doctor, but they frequently visit their local pharmacy. So, the local pharmacist is in a good position to identify at-risk patients, provide screening and counseling, connect patients with social services, and refer them to physicians for medical care so they can maintain or even improve their quality of life.”
“Community pharmacists practicing in underserved areas understand, perhaps better than most, that health care needs to move into neighborhoods and living rooms to be effective. We have to reach people where they live,” said Jessica Hung, PharmD, of Semmes Pharmacy in Semmes, Ala., a CPESN Community Health pharmacy. “Training our staff as community health workers only amplifies the impact community pharmacies have on health-related social needs on a daily basis.”
“Too many people living in rural communities face barriers to timely cardiovascular care,” said Andrew Whitehead, vice president and head of population health at Bristol Myers Squibb. “These findings reinforce the important role community pharmacies can play as accessible, trusted health care hubs — supporting earlier identification of risk, connecting patients to resources, and helping address care gaps. We look forward to building on these learnings to advance more equitable access to care.”
A key element of the program trained pharmacy technicians to be pharmacy-based community health workers (PCHWs). They’re front-line professionals who connect patients with social services they may need in order to get adequate health care, like insurance programs, transportation, and housing assistance. They’re trained on how to identify and engage patients with chronic disease.
According to the data, the 25 pharmacies participating in the program identified nearly 10,000 at-risk patients, had more than 11,000 encounters with those patients, and made more than 20,000 interventions in just six months.
More than 6,100 encounters took place in a pharmacy. More than 3,500 happened during a telehealth visit. The rest occurred out in the community or in the patients’ homes. Patients were screened for stroke risk, atrial fibrillation, transition of care (when patients leave the hospital) assistance, and health-related social needs, like lack of food, housing, or transportation.
Among the patients screened for stroke risk, roughly 2,700 received education from pharmacy staff, and another 267 were referred to a physician for follow-up care. Among patients screened for atrial fibrillation, pharmacy staff detected 400 whose heart rhythm was abnormal. Eighty-one percent of them were referred to a physician. Fifteen percent didn’t have a primary physician, so pharmacy staff found one for them and made a referral. That intervention alone is estimated to have saved $35,000 for every patient with undetected atrial fibrillation.
Results from this phase of the program will be incorporated into a second phase, the strategy for which is being developed by NCPA, CPESN, and Bristol Myers Squibb.
“Access to local pharmacies is key. Allowing pharmacy teams to engage underserved patients with chronic illnesses has the potential to save thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars across the entire health care system,” said Hoey. “The positive impact for Medicare, Medicaid, taxpayers, and commercial insurance plans would be enormous.”
Learn more at www.ncpa.org/itg-cardiovascular-disease.
