• Goal: Facilitate smooth transitions for patients moving from hospital and provider offices into community settings.
• Strategy: Create a structured process to ensure continuity of care during patient transitions, minimizing disruptions in medication management and communication between care providers.

Pharmacist as a Key Care Team Member:

• Establish pharmacists as integral members of the care team, actively contributing to patient care plans.
• Pharmacists serve as critical points of contact between provider encounters, ensuring patients receive timely medication adjustments and guidance.

Key Components:

• Physical Location: Develop strategically placed outpatient pharmacy locations to serve patients more effectively in the community.
• Technology Integration: Leverage electronic health records (EHRs) and telemedicine to enable pharmacists to monitor medication adherence and engage with patients remotely.
• Staffing: Recruit and train pharmacy staff equipped with the skills to provide comprehensive medication management and counseling services in ambulatory settings.

Broadened Scope: Transition the ambulatory pharmacy program into a full-scale population health initiative.

• Objectives: Improve care coordination, boost medication adherence, reduce emergency room visits, and prevent avoidable hospital readmissions.
• Execution: Deliver care at the right time, in the right setting, and ensure the appropriate interventions are implemented to achieve optimal patient outcomes.

In-Network Patient Retention: Focus on keeping patients within the hospital network, avoiding the need to outsource pharmacy services to external providers like CVS or Walgreens.

• Competitive Advantage: Offer a “one-stop-shop” experience where patients receive all their pharmaceutical needs with the assurance of continuous care, personalized service, and enhanced outcomes.
• Partnership Approach: Provide a comprehensive, partnership-based service model that supports patients and providers through every step of the healthcare journey.

Distinctive Value Proposition: Deliver value and outcomes far exceeding those offered by external consultants such as McKinsey and Deloitte.

• Differentiation: Not only meet deliverables but create sustainable value by enhancing care quality, improving patient outcomes, and reducing overall healthcare costs.

Proactive Accountability: With the shift to Value-Based Reimbursement (VBR) becoming mandatory, health systems must proactively assume responsibility for total cost of care.

• Strategic Imperative: Align the ambulatory pharmacy strategy with VBR initiatives to ensure the hospital is positioned to excel in a healthcare landscape that prioritizes outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and accountability.