Dr Tina Joseph Outlines Pharmacists' Role in Managing Chronic Diseases, Value-Based Care Models

Tina Joseph, PharmD, BCACP, assistant professor, college of pharmacy, Nova Southeastern University, discusses the role of pharmacists in helping manage chronic diseases and the transition for integrating pharmacists into value-based care models.

Transcipt

What role do pharmacists have in helping the healthcare team manage chronic diseases?

There’s a huge roll for pharmacists to manage chronic diseases. The challenge with chronic diseases is that patients have to do a lot of work every single day to manage them. So, it can’t be like you give an antibiotic for a pneumonia for five days and then that’s it. With something like diabetes there’s a lot of emotional factors that go into it, there’s a lot of medications, diet, exercise, and monitoring the blood sugar. Pharmacists play a huge role and I think a lot of people are not aware that we can help educate them on diet, on exercise, and the medications. So, we play a huge role in not only that but also in motivating the patient. I think pharmacists are very natural communicators, because we’re always having to speak to patients and I think helping to be their cheerleader helping them understand what’s going on with their disease state is an important role for pharmacists.

How has the transition been for integrating pharmacists into value-based care models?

I would say in the beginning, this is my third year trying to attempt to integrate pharmacists into an accountable care organization and it has been challenging, but with that it’s very rewarding. Having the opportunity to speak to the corporate office, clinical, and staff, about the value of a pharmacist has been so rewarding. This is because now they are so interested, whereas in the past they really haven’t been because there has been no reimbursement tied to it. So, now that we have quality metrics that pharmacists can help with it’s a much easier conversation to have with these organizations.