peopleCare Awarded Funds to Support Pharmacist-Led Medication Reconciliation Research

In April 2017, the province announced 15 new projects to receive funding from the Health Technology Fund, via the Office of the Chief Health Innovation and Ontario Centres of Excellence. Among the new awardees was a commitment of a $476,348 investment for a project being worked on by peopleCare Inc., along with Hogan Pharmacy Partners and PointClickCare.

“We are thrilled to be provided this funding, which will be used to support our project with Hogan Pharmacy, called Pharmacists-led medication reconciliation at time of LTC transition,” said Jennifer Killing, Vice President of Quality and Innovation at peopleCare Inc. “With these monies, we’ll now be able to put resources into researching the benefits realization of our innovative interdisciplinary approach, which uses technology to support residents at times of transition into long-term care.”

Essentially, the team will create a communication and documentation tool to ensure the accuracy of medications when seniors are transitioned into long-term care, whether they are coming from the hospital (including readmissions) or consultant appointments. Moreover, ensuring pharmacists are involved throughout the transition process means the right people will have access to the right information, at the right time, with an end result of more resident-centred care.

“We believe that pharmacists leading medication reconciliation at times of transition should be the standard in Ontario,” added Killing. “We’ve already seen a reduction in medication errors and omissions, an increase in nursing time which can be focused back to direct resident care, and improved resident outcomes in our homes.”
The grants provided by Ontario’s Health Technologies Fund support the development of Ontario-based health technologies that improve care for people, bring value to the health care system and create jobs. The system that peopleCare and Hogan Pharmacy are championing promotes efficient collaboration among pharmacists, physicians and nurses to prevent medication errors.

Research has now commenced to provide data to support these observations at four peopleCare homes.

“Investing in health care communications tools helps to reduce the gap between health care service providers, including between hospitals and long-term care facilities,” said Daiene Vernile, MPP for Kitchener Centre. “This will improve the health and well-being of everyone in the Region of Waterloo, and will help to make difficult transitions easier and safer for patients.”

Download Article Here Tavistock Gazette – pharmacy research award – June 7, 2017