Don't Wait

The VA Medical Center in Bay Pines, FL, installed a Telepharmacy Solutions system in its General Medicine clinic, one of six primary care clinics at the main campus facility. As a result, these clinic patients now immediately receive their initial prescriptions, as opposed to having to go to the busy central VA pharmacy for a wait that was often as long as two hours, or to a more costly and equally time consuming retail outlet. As an added bonus, the ADDS clinic system is linked directly with the VA mail order system. At the same time the initial order is being entered, an electronic order for three additional months of drugs is being transmitted to one of the VA’s mail-order fulfillment centers, after which the drugs arrive at the patient’s home within 10 days.

The general medicine clinic at VAMC-Bay Pines, FL, treats scores of patients each day, some who are seriously ill, and others with colds and other non-threatening illnesses. Three days a week, the clinic treats endocrinology patients with diabetes, thyroid disease, high cholesterol and/or other serious conditions. The ADDS virtual pharmacy located in the clinic is specifically stocked to dispense drugs targeted to treat these conditions, according to Mark Walton, Chief of Pharmacy.

"Our goal is to have every patient at the clinic walk out with a medication dispensed from the ADDS system in hand," he says. "Telepharmacy dispensing is less expensive than sending patients to a retail pharmacy, and more convenient than sending them to our central pharmacy. It also means that in many, if not most cases, patients have the opportunity to talk directly with a pharmacist about how the meds will affect treatment."

The clinic’s pharmacist, Bob Widmer, who works with the ADDS system every day, says, "the best benefit for me is that by reducing technical and administrative duties, telepharmacy frees me up to perform clinical work. Then after the doctor diagnoses a condition, we can consult on the best course of treatment. That’s what we’re trained for. Pharmacists are the drug experts, but often get caught up in non-clinical activities. Our focus should be on the patient, and Telepharmacy Solutions technology helps by handling many time-consuming activities, thereby enabling us to work more directly with our veterans."

One of the advantages that Widmer most likes about the ADDS system is it gives him the ability to easily customize the formulary to the specialty of the clinic. For example, the VA Medical Center operates psychological and well-women’s centers, and when ADDS systems are installed, they specifically contain and dispense the medicines most appropriate for each center.

In addition, the Bay Pines VA Medical Center operates a satellite clinic in Sarasota, located 40 miles away, which also utilizes an ADDS system. Veterans who visit the clinic used to have to drive to the VAMC-Bay Pines pharmacy to get their prescriptions filled, a roundtrip of 80 miles. Now they receive them before they leave the clinic.