Q&A: ScriptPro’s Coughlin talks tech as vehicle for improved patient care

Between ensuring their patients receive the proper medication, working to improve patient adherence to meet quality measures, offering enhanced clinical services and acting as an active member of their patients’ care team, pharmacists are spread thin. In order to spend more time providing quality interactions with patients, pharmacies are increasingly looking to technology as a way to ease their workload to provide better patient-facing care.

 

Drug Store News spoke with ScriptPro president and CEO Mike Coughlin to discusss how his company works to help pharmacists tackle the various time-consuming elements of the job in order to facilitate quality patient interactions. 

 

Drug Store News: With consumers taking greater control of their own health, how is your company helping community pharmacists use technology to better engage patients, improve the patient experience in pharmacy and/or improve communication with patients?

Mike Coughlin: Pharmacists should view every opportunity to interact with a patient as an opportunity to build and strengthen the relationship. Quality interaction requires time and the ability to focus on the patient without distractions. ScriptPro's robotics-enabled workflow system frees up time and eliminates the distractions of worrying about making errors or getting the work done on time. ScriptPro systems also allow pharmacists and staff to document information about the patient and trigger follow-up notes so patients know you have a personal interest in meeting their needs.

 

DSN: As pharmacists work to achieve provider status and continue to play a greater role in healthcare delivery, how is your company enabling community pharmacists to practice at the top of their license?

MC: Provider status requires a high level of clinical documentation and case management. ScriptPro extends its workflow systems through its Advanced Pharmacy Clinical Services application. APCS is built on the pharmacy operating platform so medications requiring special attention — such as a first-fill analysis for specialty medications — will automatically invoke the necessary considerations and procedures before dispensing.

 

DSN: Medication adherence remains one of the most cost-effective ways to lower total healthcare costs and deliver improved outcomes. How is your company helping community pharmacy solve for this big opportunity to improve health care?

MC: ScriptPro's Meds-to-Beds applications have helped health systems obtain measurable, dramatic reductions in readmission rates. This is the first step in guiding patients towards medication adherence. ScriptPro's APCS application is used to systematically assess patients with chronic diseases and update their medication therapies. Patient refill and pickup reminder functions are built into the ScriptPro pharmacy management system.  

 

DSN: How is your company helping community pharmacies drive greater efficiency in their business whether in terms of inventory management, optimizing workflow, or keeping ahead of reimbursement challenges, etc.?

MC: ScriptPro provides overall financial assessment and strategic planning services that address enterprise ambulatory pharmacy planning, workflow optimization, inventory management and margin analysis. ScriptPro's Third Party Management System (TPMS) shines a bright light on payer and contract performance issues and provides detailed exception reports to document variations from contract and make demands for payment. Special TPMS features address the current DIR Fee crisis that is undermining pharmacies today.

 

DSN: As pharmacy continues to focus more broadly on outcomes and implementing more clinical services, how is your company helping pharmacy retailers better manage the vast amounts of data they need to deal with on a daily basis that comes as a part of that?

MC: ScriptPro can provide data warehouse services or feed your existing data warehouse. State-of-the-art reporting and analysis tools are available to utilize the data for strategic services.

 

DSN: As healthcare providers look to form unique partnerships to better manage patient populations, deliver improved outcomes and better manage financial risk, how is your company helping to connect the expanded patient care team?

MC: ScriptPro provides an end-to-end solution spanning payer contract management through dispensing, patient case management and revenue cycle management. ScriptPro is truly a "one stop shop" for standing up and operating a single retail pharmacy or a large, specialty pharmacy-focused enterprise.