Engaging patients in their own care: How U.K. pharmacies are reaching out

 

A new, potentially far-reaching program to encourage individuals to take better charge of their own health is taking shape in the United Kingdom. And given the increasingly globalized marketplace, the emergence of Walgreens Boots Alliance as an international pharmacy powerhouse and the ongoing struggle by U.S. pharmacies to gain provider status and reimbursement for a growing menu of patient-care services, that campaign could spark or help inform similar efforts on this side of the Atlantic.

 

The new, so-called SelfCare Pharmacy initiative will go live in some 60 pharmacies in three North East London boroughs in April, according to a report from The Pharmaceutical Journal. Participating pharmacists will work with patients to jointly develop an individual care plan that encourages patients to take more responsibility for their own health and wellbeing, in partnership with their physician, pharmacist and other local health providers.

 

The North-East London Local Pharmaceutical Committee [LPC], which is developing the self-care initiative with support from the Newham Clinical Commissioning Group [CCG], calls it “an innovative pharmacy practice focusing on safety, effectiveness and patient empowerment.

 

“It involves managing long-term conditions [and] co-morbidities in community pharmacy, and ensuring parity between mental and physical health,” noted the LPC. “Using therapeutic and psychological tools to empower patients, [pharmacists] can bring about benefits to local populations…in an open, transparent way that builds community confidence.”

 

The goal: to help Londoners better manage their own chronic conditions, with pharmacists offering services and counseling in areas like pain management, glucose regulation, smoking cessation and respiration, healthy lifestyles, medication reviews and even mental health. In partnership with local doctors and health systems, they’ll also provide vaccinations, body mass index screenings and monitoring of patients’ lipid levels, heart rhythm and blood pressure. The plan will include a measuring tool and scoring system for patients.

 

“Self-care is key to the effective management of long-term conditions,” noted Hemant Patel, secretary of the North-East London LPC. 

 

Patel, a longtime advocate for elevating pharmacy practice, helped spearhead the self-care initiative, providing leadership and lining up funding from the Newham CCG and other sources. Thus, the program will reimburse pharmacists £32.50 plus fees for services provided through each self-care intervention with patients.

 

At a recent LPC conference exploring the concept, Patel predicted the program could generate roughly £250 per patient per year in pharmacy reimbursements.

 

NHS pharmacy minister Earl Howe endorsed the self-care concept, calling it a potential “game-changer” for community pharmacy that could “make best use of healthcare services…delivered as close to home as possible,” according to the Pharmaceutical Journal report.

 

The effort is driven by necessity, notes the North-East London Public Pharmacy Partnership, a group allied with the campaign. With chronically ill patients in the United Kingdom accounting for 70% of the National Health System’s budget and half of all doctors’ appointments, “The NHS is under immense financial strain,” the group notes. “We must do more to acknowledge patients’ expertise on the effects of their condition on their lives, and to marry it with expert medical advice so patients have more of a say over the services they receive. Local pharmacies can help.”

 

Encouraging chronic-care patients to take better charge of their own health is at the heart of many similar efforts among pharmacies in North America, as well. Driven by the success of collaborative community health initiatives like the Asheville Project and the Diabetes Ten City Challenge, pharmacy retailers and organizations have unveiled a slew of community wellness and disease prevention initiatives in partnership with other health entities. 

 

Rite Aid, for instance, continues to expand its commitment to in-store care coaches through its wholly owned subsidiary Health Dialog. Allied with Rite Aid pharmacists, those coaches “provide comprehensive care and support to individuals with chronic and poly-chronic health conditions, helping them achieve health improvement goals established by their physicians,” the company notes. 

 

Other moves are afoot in the U.S. in 2015 to advance pharmacy practice. On the legislative front, Democratic and Republican lawmakers introduced a new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to formally designate pharmacists as healthcare providers under Medicare Part B. Aimed at medically underserved communities, the so-called Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act would boost Medicare patients’ access to pharmacy services including immunizations, diabetes and cardiovascular screenings and self-management education in states where permitted.