McKesson's Pharmaserv 7.5 enhances pharmacy services
MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — McKesson Pharmacy Systems on Friday released Pharmaserv version 7.5 for general availability. The centerpiece of this new release is the integration of the Clinical Programs Solution – McKesson’s proprietary clinical services platform – into the workflow of the pharmacy management system.
“The addition of the Clinical Programs Solution to Pharmaserv will offer significant, immediate benefits for pharmacies,” stated Jamie Gramz, senior director of product management, McKesson Pharmacy Systems. “Expanding the ability to improve patient care through clinical services is a key area of focus for the future of retail pharmacies, and Pharmaserv 7.5 empowers our customers to efficiently pursue these types of clinical opportunities.”
Clinical Programs Solution allows information to automatically synchronize with Pharmaserv to help identify programs for patients with specific disease states. The integration identifies and captures opportunities within workflow, enabling the pharmacy staff to intervene directly in a medication regimen or use the task-based queue to follow up on opportunities at a designated or more convenient time. CPS provides Pharmaserv customers with easy-to-use tools to build their own custom programs for the different types of clinical services they want to offer, including programs for diabetes, vaccinations and over-the-counter recommendations.
In one use case, Adrienne Cervone, owner of Beaver Health Mart, Beaver, Pa., created a “Statins for Diabetes” program to identify diabetic patients over 65 years old not currently on a statin. After CPS identified the patients, Cervone followed up with the physician to recommend an add-on prescription for the appropriate dose of statin. Such customized programs can improve patient care, strengthen relationships with providers, and help address Star Rating quality measures.
“I was able to identify candidate patients, add statins on four of those patients, and then I went to green on my top 20% in EQuIPP, probably over those patients,” Cervone said.
Another major component of the Clinical Programs Solution includes the ability to interface with third-party applications. These applications provide support for patient medication adherence, specialty medication management and Medication Therapy Management opportunities. The integration of such programs will simplify the management of clinical services offered by the pharmacy by tying them into workflow and using CPS as a single point of reference for clinical opportunities.
Pharmaserv 7.5 includes several other noteworthy enhancements, including real-time translation of drug administration instructions into 17 languages through an interface with RxTran; tracking of pseudoephedrine sales through a new point of sale payment processor, Cayan; stock bottle scanning of NDC bar codes when entering new prescriptions; and the ability to view prior authorization messages on the main Claims Adjudication Module screen.
“We’re excited to offer this new release of Pharmaserv because it offers so many beneficial enhancements to our customers,” said Gramz. “We understand that medication adherence, patient counseling, and patient safety are core areas of concern for pharmacies today. This new version of Pharmaserv provides valuable solutions for each one of those concerns.”