Ascension Sacred Heart Medical Group, Pace, FL, USA.
Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital, Pensacola, FL, USA.
Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2022 May 24;79(11):904-908. doi: 10.1093/ajhp/zxac044.
Because of rising concern about coronavirus disease 2019 transmission, there has been a large shift from face-to-face, in-office visits to a virtual care model. The purpose of this article is to explain how Ascension Florida Gulf Coast was able to maximize the utility of ambulatory care pharmacists (ACPs) in the primary care setting during the pandemic and to provide guidance for creating a sustainable billing and practice model in the event of another global health crisis.
By employing telehealth services, our ACPs were able to continue to co-manage chronic disease states for documented diagnoses while still maintaining health-system revenue in the midst of a global health crisis. Utilizing various virtual platforms, ACPs were able to accommodate the needs of our patients while addressing concerns related to the compatibility and user friendliness of the platforms for our diverse patient population. ACPs used traditional incident-to evaluation and management services current procedural terminology billing codes with a virtual visit modifier for billing and tracking purposes.
Utilizing various virtual care platforms, our ACPs completed 447 patient encounters within the first 7 months of the pandemic. During this time, our ACPs addressed various population health metrics, specifically for patients diagnosed with diabetes without an active claim for a cholesterol-lowering medication, in addition to performing chronic disease management. Our ACPs had a 23% success rate for statin initiation in patients reviewed and contacted. By adopting virtual care options, our ACPs were able to effectively co-manage and educate patients while improving quality metrics and generating $50,662.24 in billable encounters for the health system during a global health crisis. The addition of ACP virtual encounters to primary care clinics both increases access to healthcare and improves patient care quality and outcomes while limiting revenue losses in our local health system.
由于对 2019 年冠状病毒病传播的担忧不断增加，面对面的门诊就诊已大量转变为虚拟护理模式。本文旨在解释 Ascension Florida Gulf Coast 如何在大流行期间最大限度地利用初级保健环境中的门诊药师，并为在另一场全球卫生危机中创建可持续的计费和实践模式提供指导。
通过使用远程医疗服务，我们的门诊药师能够继续共同管理有记录诊断的慢性病，同时在全球卫生危机中保持医疗系统的收入。通过利用各种虚拟平台，门诊药师能够满足患者的需求，同时解决我们多样化患者群体对平台兼容性和用户友好性的相关问题。门诊药师使用传统的随诊评估和管理服务当前程序术语计费代码，并带有虚拟就诊修改符进行计费和跟踪。
在大流行的头 7 个月中，我们的门诊药师利用各种虚拟护理平台完成了 447 次患者就诊。在此期间，我们的门诊药师解决了各种人群健康指标，特别是针对未开列降胆固醇药物的糖尿病患者，除了进行慢性病管理。我们的门诊药师对审查和联系的患者中，有 23%成功启动了他汀类药物。通过采用虚拟护理方案，我们的门诊药师能够有效地共同管理和教育患者，同时提高质量指标，并在全球卫生危机期间为医疗系统产生 50662.24 美元的计费就诊。在初级保健诊所增加门诊药师的虚拟就诊，既增加了获得医疗保健的机会，又改善了患者的护理质量和结果，同时限制了当地卫生系统的收入损失。
