Utilizing Community Pharmacy to Deliver Screening, Education and Referral Patient Care Interventions: Is it Feasible and Sustainable?

Session Description: The transition to value-based care provides an opportunity for community pharmacy to improve patient health through expanded patient care services. The NACDS Foundation awarded funding to UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy for the Community-based Value-Care Initiative (CVCI) to develop, implement, and evaluate three patient care screening and referral (S&R) interventions into community pharmacies: Behavioral Health Services for Depression and Anxiety, a Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Program, and a Diabetes (DM) Program. These S&R interventions were delivered by 28 pharmacy sites across 13 organizations over a 6-month period. Data were collected through surveys, project documents, interviews, and administrative data over the life of the project.
In parallel, the UNC team utilized a Top-Down, Bottom-Up methodology to support sustainability. This presentation will focus on the diabetes intervention in eastern NC with Realo Drugs and interest in the program from a NC-based payer. The UNC team conducted pharmacy interviews (bottom up) to explore previous clinical service implementations. The team conducted a NC population health environmental scan to provide insights into established payer-pharmacy collaborations (top down). Combining results of the Top-Down, Bottom-Up methodology, the team identified a need for improved diabetes care in NC and convened stakeholders at the state level to facilitate a sustainability pathway with BCBSNC.