VA to expand pharmacists' roles in health care management

The Department of Veterans Affairs hopes to expand pharmacists’ roles as health care providers for veterans living in rural communities. 
The VA is working on a five-year, $70 million project, in partnership with the VA’s Clinical Pharmacy Practice Office (CPPO) and its Office of Rural Health. It will create 115 new clinical pharmacy specialist positions in outpatient clinics managed by VA facilities.
“We really wanted to focus on key areas and develop an enterprise-wide initiative that would integrate our clinical pharmacy specialists into rural area care teams,” Julie Groppi, the national pharmacy benefits manager for CPPO, said.
There are nearly 3 million rural veterans enrolled in VA health care programs, with Veterans Affairs being the only source of health care provided.
“Rural patients often have more difficulty in coming to their main VA medical center for their care, and they have many care needs,” Groppi said. “We’ve tried to give sites a lot of flexibility. They might decide that they want to place a clinical pharmacy specialist at their clinic. Or they may decide that they want to us telepharmacy to have virtual meeting, and use telephone…to support patient care.”