Engaging with In-need Rural Patient Populations through Public Health Partnerships

A public health partnership was established between a state Medicare Regional Care Collaborative Organization (RCCO), the state health department, a pharmacy school and three community pharmacies located in rural Colorado to optimize the utilization of a free public health service provided through each pharmacy. Fourth-year pharmacy students were allocated year-round by the University of Colorado to support disease management and medication therapy management (MTM) services offered to patients in three rural towns served by the RCCO. Faculty from the school of pharmacy reviewed data provided by the RCCO to identify patients who could benefit from MTM or disease state management (DSM) services. These patients were contacted and encouraged to take advantage of these free pharmacy-based services. Additionally, a number of targeted interventions were performed within these populations to optimize their health. Concerted efforts were made to improve information flow and communication between these pharmacy sites and partnering medical offices. Additionally, pharmacy students were successfully integrated in to medical offices to work alongside medical providers in these communities. This manuscript describes the implementation and coordination of this project as well as the impact these pharmacies had on the communities they served.