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pharmCare™ is a console that attaches itself to the dispensing system to provide a patient-centric view of the pharmacy's dispensing activities. It provides staff in the pharmacy the tools to build and maintain a patient case file for customers - the cornerstone of any pharmacy health services system. pharmCare (healthcare) is the future of Pharmacy.
pharmCare™ is a professional services platform that integrates with the pharmacy dispensing system to provide a patient-centric view of customers. Pharmacists wishing to develop a services based business model need to change the way they view customers. Whereas dispensing systems view customers as scripts, pharmCare presents customers as patients.
phamCare's innovation and point of difference lies in its workflow design that incentivises pharmacists to record services because of its minimal disruption to their time critical dispensing process. For example, it takes approximate 6 seconds to capture a clinical intervention (CI) in pharmCare. Compare that with current systems which can take up to 2 minutes to record a clinical intervention. pharmCare has been developed for pharmacists who find their current software's workflow so "clunky" that they have opted for an ad-hoc sticky-note systems in preference to using the software .... and for those who don't bother recording CIs because of the disruptive impact that their current software has on their dispensing process. pharmCare offers a slick, modern, simple and efficient alternative to current professional services systems ..... at a fraction of the cost.
pharmCare is a web-based console that runs in an Internet Explorer browser. It presents real-time dispensed scripts in a patient-centric form where the customer is at the centre of the view (rather than the script). After a script has been dispensed the pharmacist can capture a professional service, such as a clinical intervention or a MedsCheck, by pressing the [Alt] + [Tab] keys (to switch the screen to pharmCare), record a note of what needs to be done before pressing [Alt] + [Tab] again to return to the dispensing screen to issue the next script. The process takes less than 5 seconds .... see screenshots below. pharmCare adds the patient record and the What needs to be done note to a task list to be completed once the busy dispensing period has subsided and the pharmacist is able to allocate the time to record the full details of the service. pharmCare formalises the ad-hoc sticky-notes system used by many pharmacists to capture clinical interventions and other professional services. By computerising this ad-hoc system, pharmCare is able to legitimise the process and sow the foundations of a systematic professional services business model within the pharmacy.
Adopting a services based business model within the community pharmacy can only succeed when all the staff (pharmacists, techs, front of shop and owners) buy into the model and all staff have the tools available to implement the strategy. pharmCare is a real-time platform that captures the dispensing activities of all the dispensaries within the pharmacy (across multiple pharmacists) into a single patient-centric view. This real-time centralised view is not limited to only the dispensing computers, but can be accessed and shared across every computer in the pharmacy, including the POS computers and from the private in-pharmacy consultation rooms. This unique feature of pharmCare propagates the concept of the customer as a patient to all the staff, and sets up a system where by all staff can market health services to customers, either under the direction of the pharmacists (via the What needs to be done notes) or by carefully designed alerts. The final step in the equation is benchmarking and monitoring. pharmCare has consoles that allow the professional services champion to capture, analyse and report on activity statistics across multiple stores.
pharmCare™ is the framework from which the professional service modules are made available to the pharmacy. The framework has been designed around the principals of simplicity and minimising disruption to the pharmacist's workflow. The interface is keyboard friendly so pharmacists do not have to continually swap between mouse and keyboard during data entry.
In its first release, pharmCare comes with three professional services modules; Clinical Interventions, MedsChecks and Vaccinations. The platform is generic in nature and supports an unlimited number of services. The development of new services will be prioritised by industry demand, but scope exists for individual pharmacies to work with Medscope to develop customised modules to support specific health service initiatives. If your pharmacy needs systems support to implement a health services program, contact Medscope to discuss. enquiries@medscope.com.au
The Clinical intervention (CI) module follows the same pharmCare principles of simplicity, usability and efficiency to encourage pharmacists to engage with the software to capture and record clinical interventions. A common problem with the existing professional services platforms is that their clunky workflows dis-incentivises engagement and pushed pharmacists toward an ad-hoc stick-notes system of recording (or worse not recording at all) in preference to recoding CIs in a managed, computerised system.
The pharmCare clinical interventions module not only provides an engaging and quick recording interface, but also supports the creation of templates (of commonly used CI phrases) to add another level of efficiency to the recording process.
The clickable screenshots below (and the descriptive text contained within them) outline the process and features of recording Clinical Interventions in pharmCare.
There are two types of Clinical Intervention templates in pharmCare, and two ways of creating them. Local templates are local to the pharmacy. They can be edited and/or deleted by the pharmacy. Global templates (multi-store setups) are created, maintained and distributed to stores by the group's administrator. Individual pharmacies cannot edit global templates. Both local and global templates are displayed in the context sensitive libraries. The most flexible way of creating templates is via pharmCare's Settings. Using this method, the pharmacist has more control over the rules that govern when a template is listed in the library. Rules can be created that are based on one or more drugs (defined by either generic name or active ingredient) and/or one or more recommendation types. If a rule does not specify any drugs or recommendation types, the rule will apply to ALL drugs and ALL recommendations respectively. Screenshot 1 to 3 demonstrate this method of template creation. A quick single-click short cut method of creating new templates in pharmCare is available whilst recording a new clinical intervention. Once the pharmacist types text in either the Pharmacist Notes or the Details of Recommendation fields, a blue plus icon will appear. Clicking on this icon will automatically capture the text and create a new template. The rules associated with the new template can be refined by editing the rule (named by the date it was created) via the pharmCare Settings as described above. Screenshot 4 below demonstrates the one-click method of creating a clinical Intervention template.
Clinical intervention alerts can be created to track Target Drugs. Any script dispensed containing a target drug is listed in pharmCare's Dispense Alert folder ... unless a clinical intervention has already been recorded for the script, or the script has already been addressed and removed from the list. As with templates, alerts can be Local (created and maintained by the pharmacy) or Global (created and maintained by the group administrator in a multi-store setup). Global alerts cannot be altered by a local store.
pharmCare provides a set of simple functions to manage claiming. In a multi-store setup, claiming can be managed by the group's administrator on behalf of all the stores.
The administration functions for the pharmCare professional services modules are accessed via the corresponding folder under the Services node
The success of the pharmCare philosophy of simple engaging system design that incentivises community pharmacy to adopt professional services is evident in the success of Medscope's MedsCheck module (MedsCK™). In the four years that MedsCK has been commercially available, the module has become the leading software in its class, with over 250,000 reviews completed. MedsCK's high adoption rate can be attributed to:
While conducting a MedsCheck interview, it's important to have the pharmacist engaged with the patient rather than having their head buried in the computer screen hunting for, and entering data. In many cases, pharmacists find their current system's workflow so poor that they prefer to first record the interview outcomes on paper while in front of the patient, and then re-enter the data into their computer after the interview is completed; adding significant time to the process. The MedsCheck module addresses this problem by collating the patient's information (dispensing history, items of concern, symptoms etc.) into a single one-click list accessible from the main action plan screen. This clever design feature allows pharmacists to complete the action plan efficiently while still remaining fully engaged with the patient. This is best explained by viewing the screenshots below that outline the process of recording a MedsCheck in pharmCare.
pharmCare provides a set of simple functions to generate the 6CPA Excel claim file, and to track payment status. In a multi-store setup, claiming can be managed by the group's administrator on behalf of all the stores.
Since vaccinations are seen as a medical procedure, it is important that the recording system has adequate controls in the workflow to ensure adherence to procedures. pharmCare's Vaccination module has separate managed vaccine recording, administration and discharge sections with automatic auditing, minimising the risk of non-compliance.
The clickable screenshots below (and the descriptive text contained within them) outline the process and features of recording an in pharmacy vaccination.
pharmCare has its own internal appointment book that can be used to schedule vaccination appointments.
Even though Medication Reviews (HMRs and RMMRs) are NOT part of the professional services subscription suite, pharmCare is linked to Medscope's Medication Review Mentor (MRM). Reviews performed in MRM will appear in the patient's service history in pharmCare.
Medication Review Mentor (MRM)™ is Australia's leading HMR/RMMR management system. Specifically designed for accredited pharmacists, MRM provides management, decision support, reporting and business development in one package. Manage your entire HMR/RMMR business from a single platform .... go to web site.
If you have (or are planning) a trial program and you need a platform to deliver it to a select group of pharmacists, then talk to us. pharmCare's versatility and ease in which it can be implemented (via the cloud) make it ideal for this purpose. We can develop time-limited trial modules targeted to select users (with an internet connection). At the end of the trial we will collect and deliver the trial data in a nominated format. <
Medscope is committed to a continued development program that aims to develop and release new modules to meet Pharmacy's expansion into Professional Services. In addition, as part of a multi-store Group subscription, Medscope can customise any Professional Service module to better meet the group's internal processes and workflow. br> Next Professional Service being developed: Sick Leave Certificates.
Annual subscription: $960 all inclusive. pharmCare is licensed on a per store basis. Your annual subscription includes:
Multi-store licenses are available for implementing and administering pharmCare across multiple stores. These accounts are designed for organisations wishing to develop a centralised professional services program that can be rolled out to all stores within the group.
A separate pharmCare group administrator account is used to manage, set targets and monitor the group's activity at a store level. The administrator portal has been designed to enable the group to manage their own affairs independently of Medscope. This includes creating new store accounts (and disabling old ones). The ability to set targets and monitoring performance (across the group and at a store level) is a key requirement to implementing any business strategy. pharmCare provides detailed statistics to enable the professional services coordinator to track the performance and manage the group's professional services program.
Organisations wishing to develop software to support specific health service initiatives, can take advantage of pharmCare's generic structure to develop custom modules. Depending upon the license arrangements, Medscope can develop customised modules for the group under the license agreement ... That is at no extra cost.
pharmCare™ is a cloud-based application that is delivered to pharmacy by typing www.pharmcare.com.au in a Microsoft Internet Explorer browser (version 8+). The software connects to the dispensing back-end database using Microsoft's ActiveX technology, which is only supported by Internet Explorer. pharmCare, therefore, does not support other browsers such as Safari, FireFox or Chrome.
Being a cloud-based application, pharmCare does not require any software to be installed on the computer, and updates occur seamlessly. The I.T cost of installing and maintaining pharmCare is zero. Another important point of difference is that unlike some other systems, that continually polls the dispensing system database (and is known to place a significant load on the database, markedly slowing the dispensing performance) pharmCare is an event driven application that only accesses the database on demand. The load on the database is minimal and results in no noticeable dispensing performance degradation.
