INNOVATIVE PRACTICE FORM

Name: Mark Meeker

Address: 3909 Central Ave., Hot Springs, Arkansas 71913

Fax #: (501) 525-5733

E-mail/information service: Set up but not working at this time.

Briefly describe the innovation:

Mr. Meeker’s pharmacy is affiliated with Health Trust, a national organization of independent pharmacies. This organization is encouraging pharmacists to move to the forefront of patient healthcare. Health Trust accomplishes this by moving there affiliated pharmacies to adopt the policy of Life-scan (which is a term that describes total patient care). Mr. Meeker’s pharmacy is exemplifying is policy by implementing various new services for his patients. He has an Herbal Medicine shop in which he uses the ancient remedies from the "Egyptians" and "Chinese" to cater to his patients. He seemed very enthusiastic about this new policy and convinced that herbals have a place in modern medicine. I found this very interesting! Mr. Meeker also has a Women’s health service that is a separate part of the pharmacy dealing with female issues, such as: PMS, osteoporosis, migraines and fibrous myalgia. They also provide saliva testing for hormones. His pharmacy also has a diabetic shop where diabetics can come for information (they have over 500 items of information) and screenings. Along with diabetic screenings, the pharmacy also offers asthma and blood pressure testing. He uses the Dynapulse system for his blood pressure screenings and a peak flow meter for his asthma patients, which he tests once a month. The Dynapulse and diabetic screenings are hooked up to his computer software, which is the JASCORP encounter system developed by Jean Anne Stafney. Mr. Meeker’s pharmacy has also started compounding. He says that compounding is a major part of today’s pharmacy practice and that the compounding he does is not the "typical" compounding learned in school. He is a member of the PCCA and he attended seminars sponsored by the organization to learn these new practices. He is also going to be using a capsule compounding machine. Many of these new innovations in Mr. Meeker’s pharmacy are still being set up.

Method of Reimbursement:

Mr. Meeker said that his method of payment and reimbursement will be the patients. He has his patients sign-up for an appointment and pay a certain fee per month. He is not going to charge for the Blood pressure screenings because he said that there are too many places in the city that give free screenings. He is going to charge for the maintenance program for patients with hypertension when they realize what an added benefit the screenings will be at his pharmacy. The diabetic and asthma services will have a charge. He also added that few pharmacists are being reimbursed on a regular basis, but Mr. Howard Biel (a pharmacist who helped develop the JASCORP system) has over 25% of his patients signed up for counseling services and that he charges 15$/month; he charges the fee to the patients’ credit card number.

Mr. Meeker said that the JASCORP encounter system is a fully documented system. It records each visit with a patient because the screenings are hooked up to the system (Dynapulse and diabetic life scan). In the diabetic life scan, the patient brings in his or her glucometer machine and it plugs into the system where JASCORP can read information. The patients record relevant information, like blood sugars, dosage, and schedule in the glucometer and the diabetic life scan program can print a complete patient history. The same is true for the Dynapulse, except the readings are taken and recorded by the system. JASCORP can also process codes for insurance billing and patient codes that enable the system to tract individual patients.

Specialized Training:

Each new service at Mr. Meeker’s pharmacy requires training. For the herbal medicine training, they had to attend training sessions conducted by an herbal specialist, and for the compounding education, he had to attend a three-day session sponsored by the PCCA in Houston. Dr. Vliet, a hormonal therapy specialist, conducted two seminars in which they attended for their Women’s Health service education. As for as the individual screenings, the pharmacists attended sessions conducted by their National or State Associations. The JASCORP encounter system required a three day session in Dallas and there is a three day follow up session, which he said was coming up soon, where they can address any problems or concerns about the system.

Software/instrumentation required:

As mentioned before, the software that runs Mr. Meeker’s pharmacy is the JASCORP encounter system. It is a fully functional system that records each visit with the patient. It allows documentation of SOAPS (Subjective/Objective/Assessment Plans) for each encounter with patients. The Dynapulse and diabetic life scan programs are also essential to the new practices. He also has three herbal CD-ROM’s and a peak flow meter.

Interviewed by: Benji Newman