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Walgreens Pharmacy In The Methodist Hospital At Sugar Field

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My practice site was a Walgreens pharmacy located in the Methodist Hospital at Sugar Land. This site was unique in comparison to other community pharmacy as it served as it serves as a specialty pharmacy, bedside delivery pharmacy, in addition to responsibilities of most traditional pharmacies. The specialty side of this practice provided an opportunity to work with physicians, patients, and insurances. This is because specialty drugs tend to be expensive and are usually not covered by insurance. In order to get the patients the specific medication they need, we must work with the patient and physician to justify the need for the medication to insurances through submission of prior authorizations. The bedside delivery component of this …show more content…

However, this medication was not covered on the patients plan and required us to submit a prior authorization form. This task required me to contact the patient’s dialysis center where I got to discuss with the patients nurse about lab values, medication history, and health conditions. I was then able to gather enough information to form an adequate justification for the patient’s use of Veltassa instead of Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate, and began a prior authorization submission. After submitting the form to the insurance, I had to once again contact the nurse so that they could then verify and complete their portion of the prior authorization form through the web site Covermymeds.com. This encounter provided a great example of inter-professional teamwork as both parties got to understand more about each other’s role in health care. On the pharmacy side, the nurses got to see how pharmacists could help provide their insight on medications to find alternatives for patients with special circumstances. On the nurse’s side, the pharmacist can see how nurses play an important role in helping patients get the specific care needed even as the patient steps out of their workplace. An elderly patient once came to our pharmacy to pick up a medication that required injection administration. When the patient found out that the medication had to be taken using an injection, they explained that

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