Diabetes Treatment Action Steps for Pharmacies
The following information is intended to be a general overview of some action steps a pharmacy can consider implementing to increase quality and performance in this area. It does not constitute legal or other professional advice by Health Mart®. Each pharmacist should apply his or her own professional judgment.
1. IDENTIFY GAPS
Look for potential gaps in therapy — no RAS antagonist.
- Participate in medication therapy management (MTM) programs that include targeted interventions that help identify gaps in care. These types of programs can help identify patients for you.
- As part of your prospective drug utilization review (DUR) for patients with diabetes who are on an oral diabetes agent along with a hypertensive medication, check to see if the patient is on an ACE, ARB or renin inhibitor.
- Similarly, when counseling diabetic patients, review the patient profile or ask open-ended questions to determine if a potential gap in therapy exists.
- Leverage technicians and the whole pharmacy team to refer patients with diabetes to the pharmacist for counseling and the identification of potential gaps in therapy.
2. DISCUSS WITH PATIENT
If a gap is identified, discuss it with the patient at the pharmacy or by phone.
- Ask open-ended questions to find out what the patient might have tried in the past or may know about these types of medications. Ask for permission to discuss the benefits of using these types of medications because the patient has both diabetes and hypertension. Focus on the protective benefits to the kidneys.
- Offer to call or fax the prescriber to request a new prescription.
3. CONTACT PHYSICIAN
If applicable, contact the prescriber by phone or fax to let him/her know about the potential gap in therapy identified, as well as any pertinent information from the discussion with the patient.
- Use physician fax templates (such as the samples in Appendix C) and customize as needed
- These recommendations are endorsed by the National Kidney Foundation Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative. Use evidence-based information as needed to inform your discussions.