Caring for communities: A 4-year pharmacy partnership focused on diabetes and cardiovascular health

Current community pharmacy practice faces several substantial pressures affecting the business model. Transitioning to a more patient-centered focus and providing additional direct patient care services that will eventually be billed for and reimbursed by third-party payers is a strategy for evolving this practice. This manuscript describes the impact of a 4-year funded project involving a network of independent pharmacies partnering with an academic pharmacy school to implement direct patient care services in diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Eleven independent pharmacies participated in the practice transformation project, receiving direct support from pharmacy faculty to build an infrastructure and begin offering formalized programs for diabetes and cardiovascular disease management. Each pharmacy selected which services they would implement and build across the 4 years. An emphasis was placed on establishing bi-directional communication with medical provider offices and identifying high-risk patients with these disease states to set up monthly meetings to optimize their health. All pharmacies successfully established 1 or more services in the areas of diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease and reported regular communication with local providers to summarize services and discuss specific patient concerns. All pharmacies implemented a blood pressure monitoring service at their location and 9 (82%) successfully provided a self-monitoring blood pressure program. Five pharmacies received accreditation to offer diabetes self-management education services, and 2 pharmacies received recognition to provide the National Diabetes Prevention Program. Seven pharmacies established appointment-based monthly counseling with high-risk patients. Implementation of these services is an important initial step in prioritizing direct patient care in the community pharmacy setting.