LEESBURG, Va. — RxAlly has published a white paper that delineates an individualized, health care delivery model for pharmacists.
The pharmacy alliance said Tuesday that the paper, "Personalized Pharmacist Care: Healing America’s Post-Reform Health Care System," addresses a range of personally tailored, pharmacist-provided clinical and consultative services to improve patient quality of life and optimize clinical and economic outcomes.
The model brings to bear the extensive clinical education, training, and medication expertise of the pharmacist and combines that with face-to-face interaction between the pharmacist and the patient, noted RxAlly, which encompasses more than 22,000 pharmacies nationwide. In addition, the model addresses such national health challenges as the prevalence of chronic diseases, rising demand for patient care, and nonadherence and the increasing complexities associated with medications.
"We are excited to release our vision of a nationwide care delivery model, Personalized Pharmacist Care, that seeks to transform an outdated and ineffective paradigm into one that can benefit all Americans," RxAlly chief executive officer Bruce Roberts said in a statement. "The expertise of the pharmacist, which is largely absent elsewhere along the care continuum, is perfectly suited to address the increasing complexities related to medication use, chronic disease prevalence, and access to care issues."
As a delivery model, Personalized Pharmacist Care is proven to better patient health outcomes, enhance productivity and lower overall health care costs for all the audiences it serves, including patients, payers and providers, according to RxAlly.
The alliance cited a 2011 report to the U.S. Surgeon General that analyzed 298 research studies and demonstrated that integrating pharmacists into the patient care process promotes patient engagement. It also concluded that for every dollar spent on clinical pharmacy services, the overall average economic benefit gained was $10.
Other case studies in the white paper that show the effectiveness of Personalized Pharmacist Care include The Asheville Project, in which patients were offered personalized, face-to-face medication counseling and, over time, studies showed an improvement in outcomes, enhanced productivity and reduced costs. Another study, conducted by RxAlly member Thrifty White Pharmacy, found that patients were 3.4 to 6.1 times more likely to adhere to prescriptions if they were enrolled with medication synchronization with their pharmacist.
