What’s the best way to improve performance and optimize the care of patients using the EQuIPP™ platform?
The answer is quite simple. Education and teamwork!
After a recent user group meeting, it’s clear that pharmacists are striving to improve adherence and want to know better ways to address gaps in care. As a pharmacist myself, I can attest that pharmacists are passionate, caring and highly trained medical professionals that are looking to better the lives of the patients in the community. It was also great to see and hear that many pharmacists want to better understand and utilize EQuIPP™.
So how can we as pharmacists continue to improve?
Here are my three best practices as the next steps to move your EQuIPP™ performance to the next level!
1. Quality measure training – many pharmacy groups will already utilize their own set of trainings and other content on measures, adherence or even how to use EQuIPP™. However, we’ve updated some of our own content and the ways in which a pharmacy can access it! Like anything in life, you may gain knowledge at some point but that may be lost or forgotten as you go through other experiences. That’s why it is important to continuously review information, even if you think you already know it. My personal recommendations on how to learn about EQuIPP™ and quality measures include:
- EQuIPP™ Educational Video Library – this set of short and easy to understand videos focus on a number of topics from quality measures, to optimizing adherence to understanding statin measures. These videos are best utilized in short bursts where your team members can absorb a high amount of content in a short time
- Quality Corner Podcast – PQS launched a podcast in November 2019! We discuss timely topics about impacting quality measure performance, but we also delve into current topics for pharmacy. This is a great 20-minute resource that is provided in a more casual format.
- PQS Support – Need to hear from us directly? We have a dedicated team that responds to pharmacists! We understand that measures are intricate or that sometimes you don’t have the time to dive into the FAQ section of the dashboard. We’re happy to assist and cut through the “noise” to get you the right answer.
2. Teamwork – many pharmacists like to manage the systems they are working with, yet pharmacists should work with their fellow staff members and consider how they can utilize EQuIPP™. This can free up the pharmacists to spend more time working directly with patients. Use some of the educational resources listed above to make sure your technicians and pharmacy interns understand the importance of adherence. How can you have these staff members assist in patient follow up? While some interventions will still require the pharmacists, technicians can certainly identify if there are MTM case opportunities or ensure that patients have been enrolled in refill programs/medication synchronization.
3. Continuous process – Pharmacists have a lot on their plate, especially during the winter months of the year. They may check EQuIPP™ for a while and then forget to check or they may have other priorities that come around. While it is true that pharmacists have many competing priorities, adherence is a continuous evaluation. If some months go by without a “touchpoint” for that patient, we are reducing one of the most important aspects of the patient-pharmacist relationship… the frequency of contact! Patients trust their pharmacist, and they see their pharmacist more frequently than any other healthcare provider. Make each of those encounters about improving that patient’s health!
Hopefully your pharmacy team can find this set of information and resources to be helpful. So far, our content has been a mix of topics we’ve identified internally at PQS, but it is also based on feedback we’ve had from pharmacists. We hope to build more content based on the questions that we receive as that should better serve to address questions from the pharmacists and technicians who are using EQuIPP™. We look forward to your new questions and ideas about how we can improve EQuIPP’s educational materials!
