Regional West’s Inpatient Pharmacy Team Blends Compassion and Communication Through Transition of Care Program

The world of medicine can be confusing, especially when new prescriptions enter the picture. With the new transition of care program, Regional West Medical Center’s inpatient pharmacy team acts as both guides and advocates for hospitalized patients, making sure each person understands his or her medications and how they can help them heal.

The inpatient group consists of certified pharmacy technicians, pharmacists, administrators, a pharmacy buyer, and a pharmacy 340B/billing coordinator. At the beginning of the year, the team divided pharmacists into specific hospital areas, rather than everyone rotating through different parts of the hospital. Pharmacy technicians continue to serve throughout the facility to preparing and distributing medications, compounding sterile intravenous (IV) solutions, managing inventory, assisting with medication histories, and monitoring the 340B program. Pharmacist Brooke Heine, RP PharmD, said this approach allows each group more opportunities to put their expertise to work.

“You can be a master of none, or you can truly master one area. With this system, we work more in the specialized parts of our profession,” she said. 

The transition of care program is centered around complete patient care. When a patient is admitted, pharmacists and medication reconciliation techs gather medication history and talk through barriers the patient may have regarding his or her prescriptions, such as cost or concerns about side effects. The team follows each patient throughout their stay, and upon discharge, provides medication counseling to make sure patients understand their medications’ purpose and side effects. They also work closely with the Case Management team to help patients who cannot afford their medications, as well as the Community Pharmacy team with the Meds-to-Beds program so patients can receive their prescriptions before they leave the hospital.

Regional West’s pharmacy team looked at other hospitals’ transition of care programs before forming theirs, and wanted in-person communication to be front and center. Countless patients have said they enjoy the face-to-face talks about their medications, and as a result, patient satisfaction has risen.

“Our patients enjoy when a pharmacist comes and talks to them; they love that in-person interaction,” said Elijah Timblin, RP PharmD. “Other programs do their transition of care program over the phone, but we are committed to having these conversations at the bedside. We’ve had a lot of comments from patients saying that they’ve never had that discussion about their medications before, even about medicines that they’ve been taking for years.”

Timblin added that it was important for the program to be tailored to the unique needs of Regional West’s patient population.

“We live in a small community where people want to see who is caring for them, and our team wants to give that to them,” he said. “Just taking a little bit of extra time is well worth it for everybody.”

“There’s something to be said about patient satisfaction,” said Heine. “It’s priceless.”