Community pharmacies and population health

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-1-2017

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is the letter's first paragraph:

To bridge the transition of care from the hospital to the community, drugstore chains are collaborating with inpatient teams and bringing outpatient prescriptions directly to the hospital to counsel patients about which medications they will continue and discontinue and how the neighborhood store can support them after discharge.1 The overall goals of Walgreens’ program are to reduce readmission rates and increase patient satisfaction while improving patient outcomes. Walgreens was the first chain to join a Medicare shared-savings accountable care organization (ACO) but has now left the ACO market and is refreshing its inpatient bedside delivery and care transitions programs to adopt an alternative payment model (McPherson C, Walgreens Adherence Initiative, personal communication, 2016 Nov). To support these efforts, Walgreens has a physician medical director and employs a subsidiary of nurse practitioners; it operates health-system pharmacies and manages patients during the 30-day postdischarge period using its proprietary software. Similarly, CVS Caremark has ACOs and patient-centered medical homes.2

DOI

https://doi.org/10.2146/ajhp161029

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