A technical assistance program approach for pharmacist clinical services integration in primary care organizations

Abstract

Background: Little is known about the use of technical assistance (TA) programs to facilitate the integration of pharmacist clinical services in primary care settings.

Objective: Design, implement, and evaluate a TA program to advance pharmacist integration and clinical services in primary care.

Practice description: Structured TA program for developing new or enhancing current integrated pharmacist services was utilized in 4 primary care organizations (i.e., federally qualified health center, accountable care organization, and an academic and regional health system).

Practice innovation: Holistic TA program with a logic model, organizational stages of pharmacist integration, project prioritization, and implementation plans.

Evaluation methods: A mixed-methods contextual inquiry approach for integration of pharmacist clinical services. Quantitative analysis was used for TA program activities, time spent, pilot project data, and a web-based survey for post-TA program assessment. Coincidence analysis was used to assess organizational commitment to TA services. Qualitative analysis was used for data collected through semi-structured key informant interviews and team meeting activity reports.

Results: TA program team spent 1872 hours over 11 months on program development, logistics, implementation, and project oversight. TA services included 88 onsite and virtual meetings, 11 onsite pharmacist coaching sessions, 6 workflow mapping sessions, and updating online learning resources. Primary care organizations that had already hired a pharmacist were more likely to uptake TA services. Most useful TA methods were webinar meetings (89%) and on-site pharmacist coaching (88%). TA project results were used for strategic planning (73%), pharmacist value/impact assessment (72%), pharmacist capacity modeling (68%), and workflow design (65%). A key learning from the TA program was the importance of a qualified pharmacist with clinical service experience in primary care settings and population health teams.

Conclusion: TA program for the pharmacist clinical service integration has broad application to primary care organizations with diverse organizational structures, payer mixes, and practice settings.