The University of Mississippi The School of Pharmacy Pharmacy Matters
header

Alumni chapter creates
scholarship endowment

Collaborative focuses on
improving health of
diabetics in the Delta

Pharmaceutics professor
receives ‘New Investigator’ award

Med Chem professor
receives UM’s Faculty
Achievement Award

Natural Products Research
Center receives funds for
new building

School creates new residencies
for pharmacy graduates

Budding pharmacists
take to new elective like
fish to water

Pharmacy Matters home

 






Collaborative focuses on improving health
of diabetics in the Delta

Pharmacist Laurie Warrington counsels a patient at the G.A. Carmichael Family Health Center in Yazoo City.

D

iabetes is more prevalent and causes more deaths in the Mississippi Delta than anywhere else in the nation. To make matters worse, many of the area’s diabetic patients lack access to health care, don’t understand their complex medication regimens and can’t afford them.

In response to the epidemic, the School of Pharmacy is providing medication therapy management services and disease-specific education for the region’s high-risk diabetes patients through the Health Resources and Services Administration Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative.

Funded by HRSA, the PSPC collaborative is a national effort to transform health care by teaching teams of providers practical steps to integrating clinical pharmacy services into the primary health care home of patient populations with poor health status and high medication risk. More than 100 teams across the country are participating in the collaborative, which is beginning its third year.

Through this collaborative, the pharmacy school is partnered with the G.A. Carmichael Family Health Center in Yazoo City and the Delta Health Alliance 21st Century Good Samaritan Health Center in Greenville. The school is also working with the Family Health Center in Laurel.

The school’s work in Yazoo City and Greenville received three national awards in October, when teams from around the country gathered in Dallas to kick off the collaborative’s third year. The Health Outcome Management Award and the Clinical Pharmacy Services Improvement Award were earned by the team working at the G.A. Carmichael clinic, and the Outstanding Performance Award went to the team at the Good Samaritan clinic.

‘In addition to appropriate medication use, we address lifestyle issues such as diet, exercise, psychological concerns and education.’

Lorelei Farr

“At these sites, pharmacists are enrolling 25 patients with uncontrolled diabetes,” said Lauren S. Bloodworth, clinical assistant professor and program administrator. “After an initial face-to-face consultation, patients have one-on-one follow-up visits with the pharmacist on an as-needed basis.”

The collaborative’s main focus is improving the health and well-being of high-risk diabetes patients, and this is best achieved when they are made responsible for their own health outcomes, Bloodworth said. “We help them set their own health care goals. If short-term goals have been met, we help them add new targets. If goals are not met, we discuss what was difficult to achieve and develop a new plan to improve their health care status.”

Managing patients with uncontrolled diabetes can be complex. Pharmacists begin by reviewing all prescription and nonprescription medications, herbal products and dietary supplements patients are taking. After assessing the presence of any medication-related problems, pharmacists work with patients, physicians or other health care professionals to resolve them.

“In addition to appropriate medication use, we address lifestyle issues such as diet, exercise, psychological concerns and education,” said Lorelei Farr, a UM pharmacist who helps care for patients in Yazoo City. “We also measure key health indicators such as hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure, BMI (Body Mass Index) and lipid levels, as well as adherence to medication regimens by tracking pharmacy refill records and recommendations made to each patient’s providers.”

The PSPC is part of a larger School of Pharmacy effort in the Delta region, the Delta Pharmacy Patient Care Management Project. Since the project began in July 2008, faculty members visited participating community pharmacies in Batesville, Clarksdale and Yazoo City, providing Medicaid patients with medication therapy management services and education related to asthma and diabetes.

Last year, the project expanded to include more Delta counties and patients beyond Medicaid recipients. Generalized medication therapy management and health-literacy and cultural-competency components were added, and a new community pharmacy residency program was created.

This year, the program’s third, services are being provided in 13 pharmacies in nine counties. The project is expanding to address the important health challenge of obesity and will be adding an employer-based prevention and diabetes management program, said Leigh Ann Ross, associate dean and chair of pharmacy practice.

“We will continue the existing therapy management arm, which is aimed at achieving outcomes through the effective use of medications, patient education and the prevention of drug complications or interactions,” Ross said. “It’s a more comprehensive approach to patient care. Plus, we will focus on further developing clinical pharmacy services by placing pharmacists in clinic settings to participate as part of the patient’s primary health care team.”

The Delta Pharmacy Patient Care Management Project provides a structure for that care, which is particularly important in rural areas, and the PSPC provides a platform for integrating pharmacy services.

With many of its faculty members on the UM Medical Center campus, the Department of Pharmacy Practice leads the Delta project in collaboration with the Department of Pharmacy Administration and the Center for Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management.

The Delta Pharmacy Patient Care Management Project is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration through the nonprofit Delta Health Alliance, which funds several projects aimed at coordinating health efforts in the region.

“The awards received in Dallas speak to the quality and importance of the work our teams are doing in the PSPC project,” said pharmacy school dean Barbara G. Wells. “It’s always nice to be recognized for the important work that we do, especially our work to advance patient care and our profession.”

For more information about the Delta Pharmacy Patient Care Management Project, call project coordinator Elisha Blades at 601-984-2627 or visit http://pharmd.org/delta/.

For more information on the School of Pharmacy, visit www.pharmacy.olemiss.edu.