Recently, Megan Sheahan, Michelle Fritts, Erika Trevino, Olivia Putman, and I visited a CVS Caremark pharmacy in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC, where I received my annual influenza vaccination. We had a chance to see their advances in patient care, including numerous systems upgrades to assist pharmacists in identifying, monitoring, assisting, and documenting patient care activities and outcomes.

The CVS team of Papatya Tankut, Cherise Wilson, Scott Staso, and Rosaline (Rosy) El-Khoury showcased recent patient care initiatives the company has implemented to allow pharmacists greater opportunities to interact with patients and prescribers. CVS recently rolled out the Pharmacy Advisor program, an initiative aimed at strengthening pharmacy care for diabetes patients. A patient savings program had been implemented to automatically prompt the pharmacy technician to engage a patient in the potential savings of an equal and alternate medication; once authorized, the pharmacist would then engage the patient’s physician about the medication switch. To address problems with adherence, the pharmacy also had implemented ReadyFill, a free opt-in program that allows customers to sign up to have their maintenance prescriptions filled automatically, and receive a phone call from CVS to remind them that their medication is ready to be picked up.

Getting immunized at CVS

In addition to all the medication adherence programs CVS has recently rolled out, this particular location alone had delivered more than 200 influenza vaccinations this season, just by the time we visited the pharmacy in early October. To promote the effort of pharmacist-administered influenza vaccinations, I was pleased to pay for and receive my very own vaccination from CVS’s pharmacist Rosy.

By improving patient engagement through enhanced interactions, pharmacists have created new ways to improve clinical care and provide counsel that can improve adherence. By using increased technology and maximizing the use of pharmacy technicians in the pharmacy, CVS pharmacists are improving the health of patients while lowering the overall cost of health care. It’s clear to me that the organization is taking enhanced pharmacists’ services seriously.

What’s even more exciting is that we’re seeing many organizations commit to a service model, rather than continuing to rely solely on dispensing fees. There will be fits and starts, and there will be pain as we seek reimbursement for services rendered (see my November 2010 Pharmacy Today editorial “Getting Above the Storm”). But I’ve never seen so many organizations and individuals working so hard to establish pharmacists’ services as a major component of their business as I did during this American Pharmacists Month (APhM). And seeing policy makers taking us seriously serves as a great motivation to keep the momentum!