PROMOTING TELEHEALTH PHARMACY SERVICES

To advocate for innovative telehealth pharmacy practice models that (1) enable the pharmacy workforce to promote clinical patient care delivery, patient counseling and education, and efficient pharmacy operations; (2) improve access to pharmacist comprehensive medication management services; (3) advance patient-centric care and the patient care experience; and (4) facilitate pharmacist-led population and public health services and outreach; further,

To advocate for removal of barriers to access to telehealth services; further,

To advocate for laws, regulations, and payment models for telehealth services that are equitable to similar services provided in person by health systems, with appropriate accountability and oversight; further,

To encourage comparative effectiveness and outcomes research on telehealth pharmacy services.

Rationale

The definitions and terminology used to describe telehealth vary. Many refer to virtual health, telehealth, telemedicine, and/or telepharmacy interchangeably. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) describes telemedicine as a means for improving a patient’s health by permitting two-way, real-time, interactive communication between a patient and a healthcare provider who are geographically separated. ASHP defines telepharmacy as a method used in pharmacy practice in which a pharmacist utilizes telecommunications technology to oversee aspects of pharmacy operations or provide patient care services.

Telehealth is part of a larger digital transformation in healthcare. Patients are increasingly making decisions about who delivers their care and engaging in the delivery of that care digitally. As a result, hospitals and health systems need a strategy for their own digital transformation and to meet patient demands. In general, telehealth includes a broader scope of remote healthcare services than telemedicine and telepharmacy; therefore, ASHP considers telehealth to be the overarching term for the remote delivery of patient care services.

The availability of telehealth services in rural areas facilitates greater access to care by eliminating the need to travel long distances to see a qualified healthcare provider. It promises to save patients time and money, reduces patient transfers, emergency department and urgent care center visits, and delivers savings to payers (American Hospital Association [AHA]. Fact Sheet: Telehealth; AHA. Optimizing Pharmacy Services: Managing your hospital pharmacy during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond). Pharmacists’ role in telehealth is instrumental, as telehealth serves are a valuable tool for the profession of pharmacy to extend its reach to patients for the provision of medication management and complex patient care (AHA. Optimizing Pharmacy Services: Managing your hospital pharmacy during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond; ASHP Statement on Telepharmacy). Telehealth services have grown significantly over recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth services have the potential to improve patient access to care, cost efficiencies, and quality while meeting consumer demand. They also offer patients the convenience of remote drug therapy monitoring, authorization for prescriptions, patient counseling, and monitoring patients’ compliance with prescriptions, and they can be offered remotely to patients with diabetes, congestive heart failure, and other chronic diseases. Pharmacists may also use telehealth when suitable to remotely verify sterile compounding, offer pre- and postoperative medication order review, provide interactive postoperative patient medication counseling, or deliver drug information to a facility that is geographically isolated (ASHP Statement on Telepharmacy). To ensure the best patient care outcomes and most efficient use of healthcare resources, additional research will be needed to compare telehealth pharmacy services with those offered in person.