Telehealth
NTS to provide 24/7 telepharmacy to CHAMP hospitals
November 3, 2021
DEEP RIVER, Ont. – Several of the Champlain Association of Meditech Partners (CHAMP) hospitals successfully transitioned over to the new Meditech Expanse platform, which includes Computerized Prescriber Order Entry (CPOE), in early October 2021. To facilitate around the clock review of new medication orders, the CHAMP hospitals have contracted NTS Virtual Health Solutions to provide telepharmacy services 24/7.
“We are very excited to bring our expertise in telepharmacy to support the CHAMP hospitals,” said Kevin McDonald (pictured), director of NTS Virtual Health Solutions. “Through telepharmacy we can now ensure every new medication ordered is clinically reviewed by a pharmacist, most before being administered to the patient, in order to meet Accreditation Canada standards.”
The CHAMP hospitals which have moved forward to incorporate telepharmacy simultaneously with Meditech Expanse Go Live include Queensway Carleton Hospital, Glengarry Memorial Hospital, and Arnprior Regional Health. All three hospitals have been able to leverage the national HealthPRO telepharmacy contract to implement telepharmacy services in an economical manner.
“Providing top-shelf clinical pharmacy services in a cost-effective manner is very important today, “said Sammu Dhaliwall, senior manager of business development of NTS. “Hospitals are under great pressure to stay within budget as they incorporate new technologies to improve care. We have worked hard to offer different models for hospitals to consider when looking at telepharmacy services – allowing each hospital to customize our services to their needs without compromising the patient’s care.”
To facilitate the transition to Meditech Expanse, NTS met with the hospital’s pharmacy management team on a weekly basis preparing for the Go Live on October 13th, 2021. NTS established a team of experienced hospital pharmacists, several with Meditech Expanse expertise, to help provide cut-over support for two of the hospitals.
“The cut-over process requires every current medication being used by the hundreds of hospital inpatients to be re-entered into the new system prior to Go Live,” said Dhaliwall. “The ability to provide additional pharmacist resources to complement the hospital on-site staff for cut-over is very much appreciated by our clients since transitioning to a CPOE environment is a very labour-intensive process.”
“With an increasing number of hospitals moving to CPOE over the next several years, we see our organization continuing to be a vital solution to the 24/7 world of healthcare,” said McDonald. “Healthcare is 24/7, and the benefits of pharmacist availability around the clock providing patient care activities is very real.”
NTS Virtual Health Solutions is Canada’s leading telepharmacy provider of remote hospital pharmacist services working with over 60 hospitals across Canada including hospitals utilizing EPIC, Cerner and Meditech Expanse.