HealthPRO awards contract to NTS

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – HealthPRO has awarded its national Telepharmacy contract to Northwest Telepharmacy Solutions (NTS) to help support quality patient care at Canadian member hospitals. NTS, a leading provider of telepharmacy services in Canada, can provide hospitals access to 24/7 real-time medication order processing and review by an experienced hospital pharmacist.

“Through this new contract for professional and telepharmacy services, committed members in provinces where telepharmacy services are approved by the provincial Colleges of Pharmacy, will have access to virtual pharmacists around the clock to help meet provincial regulatory standards and guidelines from the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities,” said Patricia Macgregor, clinical director, HealthPRO.

She added that, “Members can count on a pharmacist’s support to supplement their resources to deliver expanded service hours, while also tapping into an alternative source for organizational support and operational consulting services to improve future service delivery.”

According to the most recent Hospital Pharmacy in Canada Report, only 6% of Canadian hospitals provide pharmacist services 24/7, compared to at least 80% of hospitals in the United States.

Use of telepharmacy to support medication safety overnight in real-time accounts for this stark difference in standard service provision. The NTS telepharmacy model allows for the sharing of pharmacist resources among several hospitals which keep costs manageable, while closing this long-standing gap.

“Medication systems and the medications themselves are complex,” said Kevin McDonald (pictured), founder and director of NTS. “While they are often lifesaving, they can also create grave harm when used incorrectly. Telepharmacy is the ideal means for hospitals to improve the safety of medication use at any size of hospital in a very cost-effective manner. This is absolutely essential when hospitals move to advanced technologies like Computerized Prescriber Order Entry (CPOE) and automated dispensing units.”

Prescription orders written on paper or entered by physicians directly into the hospital’s Electronic Medical Records (EMR), are transmitted to NTS’ team of telepharmacists to clinically review and intervene when appropriate, providing a safety net for patients and prescribers, around-the-clock. NTS has recently launched PowerGridRx, a new telepharmacy software to allow for more efficient and streamlined service offerings with the ability to connect every hospital pharmacy in Canada to a single platform.

NTS can support hospitals of all sizes, providing customized hours to meet the needs of each hospital pharmacy. With NTS’ highly skilled and experienced hospital telepharmacists, they are able to step in and help out, with very little notice.

NTS also provides a menu of à la carte customized services, such as Accreditation preparation and readiness consulting for provincial college pharmacy inspections (e.g. Ontario College of Pharmacy), on-call formulary reviews, committee involvement, leadership support, and Central Intravenous Additive (CIVA) training and guidance to ensure compliance with NAPRA standards.

“We have also launched our Virtual Medication Reconciliation on Discharge (VMRD) program which includes follow-up within 72-hours to help decrease hospital readmission and Emergency Room visit rates,” said Sammu Dhaliwall, senior manager of Business Development at NTS. “Our VMRD program has the ability to enroll patients on admission into the program, preventing any gaps of patients transitioning home without receiving medication reconciliation and counselling.”

About HealthPRO
HealthPRO is Canada’s group contracting provider for healthcare. Over 1,300-member healthcare facilities across the country count on HealthPRO to reduce the cost of high-quality products and services they use, improve patient safety, help maintain assurance of supply and pursue new ideas and innovations. The outcome is unprecedented buying power and market influence for Canadian healthcare facilities. For more information, please visit www.healthprocanada.com.

About Northwest Telepharmacy Solutions
Northwest Telepharmacy Solutions is a leading provider of remote pharmacist services with over 60+ hospital clients across Canada, along with servicing Family Health Teams and Long-Term Care Homes. With over 100 pharmacists on staff with expertise in all areas of healthcare, Northwest Telepharmacy Solutions can provide hospitals access to expertise not previously available, especially in rural and remote locations as well as hospitals of all types in urban areas to expand clinical pharmacy services. For more information, please visit Northwest Telepharmacy Solutions at https://www.northwesttelepharmacy.ca.