Take a look at this site for an overview of this concept, as well as links to other sites with more information. This article describes the role of the pharmacist within this system.
Can you think of any additional roles that a pharmacist could play in a system such as this? How pharmacist friendly does the concept appear to be? Would you be interested in practicing in such a model?
35 comments:
I think that this model is pharmacist friendly and will help move the field of pharmacy forward by increasing the role that pharmacist play in the primary care of patients. It also seems to me that it will help bridge the communication gap between the pharmacist and physicians. I would be interested in participating in this type of a model which would allow for a more primary care role and a team approach to providing beneficial health care.
I personally love the idea of a Medical Home. I think that it would be an ideal job to be able to work together with a team of health care professionals from different areas of expertise to fully ensure that each patient is being taken care of in the best way possible. I don't understand why there is so much animosity between the different healthcare professions, namely physicians and pharmacists. In a perfect world physicians would realize just how valuable pharmacists are to ensuring the health and safety of all of their patients. Unfortunately some of the reasoning behind not wanting to include pharmacists is the issue of money. Of course, if we offer our services we will have to be paid for them. And we aren't cheap! I think it is very unfortunate that some physicians would rather earn a bigger paycheck than do what is best for their patients.
Courtney Black
WUSOP 2015
The concept of the medical home seems to be very pharmacist friendly due to the fact that it encompasses the needs of the whole patient and not just a specific disease state such as in MTM. Pharmacists can help with medication recommendations, interactions, or even over the counter products and supplements that can contribute to the overall health of the patient. Patient’s shouldn’t have to be in a certain disease state to benefit from a pharmacist’s knowledge and guidance. Having a pharmacist in this model provides very comprehensive care for patients. I would definitely be interested in working in a model such as this because it offers patient interactions, communication with other health professionals on a daily basis, and a constantly changing job as you monitor new patients each with different medical backgrounds. It sounds like a very engaging and challenging job that allows a pharmacist to impact the overall health and wellbeing of patients. .
I think that including pharmacists in medical homes would be an excellent way to provide much better care for the patient. It is beneficial for the pharmacists to be a part of the system for the physicians because it spreads the workload and allows the physician to be more patient interactive. This is a prime example of providing pharmaceutical care and will be better for the patient all around.
I think this is a great way to promote the areas that pharmacist are accomplished in now, when it comes to MTM and healthcare in general. This model will also promote the usefulness of a pharmacist's aid to the doctors final decision for the patients medication. In the long run I think this will create more jobs in the medical field as well because this is going to pave the way for more specializations in areas that are now done under general circumstances. I only see this moving in a positive manner for the healthcare field overall.
I think that the idea of the "medical home" is very pharmacist-friendly and would help to evolve our role as a pharmacist. The practice of pharmacy is slowly moving towards this idea, with MTM and other clinical skills being implemented now. The idea of the "medical home" would also help to open communication between physicians and pharmacists. Having access to a patient's recent lab test results and chart notes would help pharmacists make better recommendations on drug therapy and overall better outcomes for the patients.
I can understand why physicians wouldn't want pharmacists "acting" as physicians as we would be in a medical home. It is the same reason we don't want a tech to check another tech. It's not our job to be a patients physicians. I know pharmacists want to move the profession forward. But, I think we need to keep our practice focused on the pharmacy aspect of health care. I wouldn't want to practice in a medical home.
For the most part I believe this model is pharmacist friendly. The MTM aspect of this model is definitely an appropriate role that pharmacists should fill. Thinking about implementing the model I believe it can be best served by having pharmacists have an office in the building where the physician and even other members of the medical team are located. This helps ensure the patient can interact with every member of the team and use the services provided in a more timely manner. I would be very interested practicing in a model such as this.
I think that the medical home is a very promising idea for pharmacists. It is a model that will inevitably provide more jobs for pharmacists. However, will the medical home ever be an accepted model that will be proven to be successful and sustainable? I think this model will help to combine the efforts of all different types of health care professionals and most importantly benefit the patient more. The patient can access all of these professionals that are focusing on all of their different disease states whose main goal is to provide a healthier life to the patient. I am optimistic about this concept. I think it will expand the role of pharmacists and if successful overall, will provide a multitude of new jobs.
JCRUMP P1
I think that this model is definitely something that a lot of pharmacist will be interested in the future. Patient care should not be shouldered by physicians alone. It would be a greater benefit to the patient if they were receiving care from many diffident aspects of medicine.
This model of patient care looks ideal from a theoretical view, but there are challenges to implementing the model. I wonder, how many Pharmacists are willing to be treated/paid like nurses by the physicians who run this show? Ideally the pieces of the team would be equal, but there are few doctors who would be so accommodating.
I love the idea of the medical home because it would be really convenient for patients to visit different specialist all in one central area. And as we have already stated, the most important thing is to please the patient. As pharmacists we would still be an important part of the team, even though it is primarily physician-based. But in all honesty, you must first visit a physician for a diagnosis before dispensing the prescribed medication anyway.
In response to Courtney Black's comments, I truly do not think there will ever be parity with doctors to pharmacists. Doctors have been educated and trained to act as the center of any medical-related issue, although the good ones will listen to the inter-disciplinary opinions of the medical team. And we pharmacists only very recently took our rightful place in the team as medicine experts, and I am excited to see the need for clinical pharmacists grow. So older doctors will not relinquish control, while the younger doctors take time to hear what you have to say.
The interdisciplinary approach seems very appropriate, but the statement was very vague on how this medical home is to function. Is it an actual physical location? Is it computerized and on-line? How will these teams meet and communicate? Even the words "Medical Home" sounds like it refers to a nursing facility. Too broad, and not enough details and explanation.
I think that the medical home model idea is a big step forward for pharmacists and their role in a clinical setting. This defines our role in terms of MTM and how we interact with patients. Some of the previous posts mention that we can serve in terms of drug education and help patients learn and understand information related to drugs.
Having said that, I think this is viable in theory at the moment on a large scale. I think society still needs to learn and understand what pharmacists do on a daily basis. I do not think pharmacists are fully appreciated in clinical roles because unawareness on what a pharmacist can do.
The concept of the patient centered medical home focuses around the idea of allowing the physician to cater more time to each patient. This is accomplished by having a team based medical approach, employing a variety of medical professionals in one setting. Studies have shown that this team-based medical approach lowers the number of ER visits and saves both hospitals and patients money, so this approach to patient healthcare seems very plausible from a numbers perspective.
I feel that pharmacists could benefit from this healthcare "model." The approach focuses on pharmacists providing both comprehensive medication management and medication therapy management in a way that allows the pharmacist and physician to collaboratively work together in an efficient manner that is beneficial to both the healthcare providers and the patients. These services seem very reimbursable on paper, which is of course the most important part of making this form of service work, so I think that pharmacists and other healthcare professionals alike will see positive outcomes from putting this form of practice into place.
I feel that the best way to implement the medical home model is through the collaboration of health care professionals in person, meaning the establishment of physical sites to serve as medical homes. I believe this is the only way that the medical home model can be successful, as it would certainly be appealing to patients if their healthcare needs were centralized in one location. A medical team operating out of one location can eliminate a lot of the inconvenience associated with traditional health-care models, including long distances between doctor’s offices and pharmacies and the communication barrier that is present when pharmacists cannot directly interact with other members of the team. I do not think that patients will be as open to medical home models if they are not centralized in this way, which is why I see potential in this area but not in the idea that medical home models can be implemented online or over long distances. That being said, I think I would be willing to work as part of the medical home model, as it appears very pharmacist friendly and offers pharmacists MTM opportunities. Pharmacists in this setting should be able to connect more with patients, so long as the model operates the way we would want it to. This, of course, remains to be seen, as there are very few models thus far, physicians and pharmacists are still engaging in “turf war”, and pharmacists are still debating being a part of this model on the grounds of compensation.
The idea of a Medical Home excites me. It makes the patient the center of the model, which is the way it should be. It also gives us as pharmacists more recognition of our skills. However, I think it's going to be hard to get everyone on board with this, especially physicians that believe they are most important. Working in teams is usually better than working alone because there are way more opinions available to ensure the right care is given. I would definitely work in this type of environment if it was available.
I think that the idea of a medical home is a great idea. I believe that pharmacists would fit in well because it would be someone who could make sure that medication therapy for all the patient's problems are the best choice for them. When you have a team working on each individuals medication therapy I think that you would see much better results to patient's illnesses. The question of this topic for me is if this model of the medical home will ever take off and be able to overcome all of the challenges of getting it started all over the country.
Nathan Batchelder, P1
I would love to practice in a medical home. After reading the article and the website I agree with Dr. deHoll in not knowing exactly what kind of physical place this would be. But the general idea of patient care that is continuous instead of sporadic excites me.
As of now the model does not seem very pharmacy friendly. The website about it does not even contain the word pharmacy or pharmacist. This being said if pharmacists start showing how and why they would be effective in this model we can get our foot in the door and hopefully be included in this team down the road.
I worry about the general public being accepting of this model. From my experience, there are enough young, progressive physicians who will embrace pharmacy input. The medical home model will be a smooth transition from several health care systems where teams of several health professionals already assess therapy of inpatients. The general public, though, will not necessarily be so accepting. While the medical home model may decrease the overall cost of healthcare, it may increase the initial cost for some patients. Getting the patient on-board to pay for over-the-phone appointments (like the website discusses) will be difficult and will likely meet extreme resistance. It is a great model and opportunity for pharmacy, but there are hurdles to overcome.
I would definitely be interested in practicing in a patient-center medical home. I believe this concept is very pharmacist friendly and will help the pharmacy profession move forward in a positive direction. I also think this will help physicians give better patient care by working side by side with a pharmacist.
I believe the Medical Home model is a very good idea for Pharmacists to become involved with. This opportunity will further increase the role of a Pharmacist. It will also allow better care of a patient if the pharmacist and physician are easily accessible. By including a pharmacist in this model, a physician will also be able to have more time to spend on treating the patients condition by allowing the pharmacist to interact with the patient about the medication that will be used for drug therapy. This model will also decrease the communication barrier between pharmacists and physicians. This model has many benefits for everyone involved in patient care and I would be very interested in this model as a career.
The idea of the medical home will call for an increase in a pharmacists role in the patient care. The medical home will bring a completeness in my opinion between health-care providers to improve pharmaceutical care. The spread of the patient care between physicians and pharmacists would help to ensure the best care for patients.
Andrew Helms
I would definitely be willing to work in a medical home because here the patient is the focus of the team. It allows for convenient and optimal pharmaceutical care for the patient. The only thing I would be concerned with would be compensation and the cost. Because let's face it, no one wants to work full time for free, just out of the "goodness of their heart." Focusing on whether or not the cost to run this "medical home" is worth it for the patient would be a key aspect in determining how much society will embrace this idea.
Kyle Crisco, P1
Class of 2015
A medical home sounds like the answer to increasing optimal patient care. A patient that is able to have a physican, pharmacist, and other healthcare professionals working together to maximize therapy allows a patient to receive the best care they can. I think it would be beneficial to the patient and to the overall healthcare team/field if medical homes were implemented more. I would be very interested in practicing in a medical home because it involves all of the aspects of pharmacy that I like and more.
I love the idea of the medical home not only because it will allow for more pharmacist jobs to become available but also because it will keep the pharmacy practice fresh with new opportunities. Part of the reason that I was drawn to pharmacy was because it is constantly changing which will keep me from getting bored with my profession. This concept will provide pharmacists with a new way to approach patients in addition to the "old" or traditional pharmacy practices.
I think the patient-centered medical home model is an extremely pharmacist-friendly concept. It is also a model that I would consider practicing in. I think this model is a perfect example of the evolution and expansion of the field of pharmacy and our involvement in direct patient care. I am also in support of the development of closer working relationships between physicians and pharmacists, which in my opinion can only optimize patient care and ensure that patients are getting the best treatment possible. I hope to see the patient-centered medical home model become something that is commonly used and practiced by physicians and pharmacists across our nation.
I think that while the “patient-centered medical home” model is a great step for the pharmacy profession I also think that the biggest winners will be patients. However the implementation of the model occurs, if a pharmacist can be reviewing and discussing with other health-care providers the patients overall drug therapy the patient will be a winner. Having a pharmacist, the medication specialist, review what all the diagnostic specialists are trying to achieve for the patient and make sure they are on the safest and most effective treatment(s) just makes sense. The most exciting part of the model should be the outcomes we could achieve for the patients.
Jonathan Graham, P1
The idea behind a Medical home is good but the reality of it becoming the best source of care where all health care professionals get along is not the case. Doctors are taught to take control of the situation and evaluate the best needs of the patient. This is why you often see doctors not listening to pharmacists recommendations upon calling to switch to a different medication than they prescribed. From experience, younger doctors or ones that we have tried to gain a relationship outside of the health care setting are more willing to listen to the pharmacist when it comes down to dealing with medicine. Back to the Medical home, the idea of all professionals working together and equally for the good of the patient is highly unlikely. From what I can tell, the doctors are the ones in charge and may not allow pharmacist to have any sort of control or even pay pharmacists accordingly. If this model was perfected, there could be a chance that this would ultimately benefit the patient.
I think that this would be a great idea for a new type of job. However, noone knows if it is going to do well or not. I think that it is a good way to increase the different kind of jobs in this industry. I believe that this is a great oppurtunity for the industry to keep expanding and to see if there is a way to get new buisnesses in supporting the idea of having a pateint on centered medical home.
Matt Nettesheim P1
I think this model is pharmacist friendly. The role of the pharmacist is fairly limited and practicing in a medical home opens up new avenues for the growth of the profession. Also, this would allow patients to have a more consolidated medical team and will share the responsibility so they do not have to solely rely on the physician.
I think that the medical home, like most ideas, is a good one in theory. However, the biggest obstacle will be the financial costs that could go along with this. Changing around the layouts of how the current medical offices and hospitals are set up could be a big financial burden and therefore deter many health care professionals from that idea. Pharmacists taking on more responsibility would lighten the burden from physicians, but would also lighten their salaries. This is something that will keep physicians from agreeing to this change.
The medical home concept is a fantastic idea. The pharmacist gets to play a much larger role in the clinical aspects as well as the direct theapy that patients are going through. Another thing is the team work approach. This cordinates care of patients and will definitely improve outcome as pharmacuetical care will be at its optmal level.
Thank you
Jennifer Adjei (P1)
The concept of medical homes appears to be very pharmacist friendly. Pharmacists are able to exercise their comprehensive knowledge of medication therapy in order to provide exemplary care to their patients. A pharmacist has the chance to be active in improving a patient’s health during critical stages in their lives, and also the chance to give tips and recommendations to all patients, healthy or not. This may seem ideal for many pharmacists who genuinely look out for the best interests of the patient, while potentially increasing their income. Constant communication with other healthcare professionals, mainly physicians, can increase a pharmacist’s clinical knowledge, while a pharmacist can help enhance a physician’s medication knowledge. This concept positively builds on to the profession of pharmacy by laying the foundation needed in order to pave a new road in pharmaceutical care.
Moe Sobh
WUSOP Class of 2015
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