Carilion will use federal grant to help with prescriptions – www.roanoke.com

With a $4.2 million, three-year federal grant, Carilion New River Valley Medical Center plans to train pharmacists to play a bigger role in managing patients' prescription drugs and preventing hospital readmissions.

The Carilion Clinic hospital was among 81 recipients of Health Care Innovation Awards announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday.

"We think it will really help deliver a completely different level of care and modern care in rural Virginia," said Dr. John Piatkowski, the hospital's administrator.

Carilion has teamed up with Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy, Aetna and CVS Caremark for the grant. The partners will work to provide a new model of managing prescription drugs in patients with chronic disease.

In doing this, they estimate that $4.3 million in health care costs can be avoided, with much of the savings from preventing unnecessary hospital readmissions, Piatkowski said.

The project will train pharmacists to be more directly involved in patient care, said Bill Lee, the program's lead pharmacist.

While pharmacists are involved with patient care during a person's hospital stay, they have little direct interaction with patients and are rarely involved after a patient is discharged.

Under the proposed model in the grant, Carilion will teach pharmacists both in the hospital and at retail drugstores to play an active role in making sure patients not only understand their medications, but also are properly filling and taking prescription drugs. Pharmacists will also look for any changes that need to be made to a patient's prescription and communicate those needs to the patient's doctor.

"I'm going to meet with you the moment you get in the hospital," Lee said. "I'll also meet with you during the stay. And I'm going to have the opportunity to explain your medications and why you need them, and I'll have the mechanism to make sure they are filled."

Pharmacists will continue to communicate with patients outside the hospital, Lee said.

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