With community pharmacies taking on an ever greater role in delivering patient first contact, Community Pharmacist Consultation Services (CPCS) are a fundamental step forward not only in maximising pharmacist skills but in unlocking vital new revenue streams.
We’ve created a dedicated CPCS solution fully integrated to Pharmacy Manager and while the national procurement model currently in place to support community pharmacy contractors to deliver the CPCS has been extended, we are keen and ready to discuss how we are supporting our pharmacy customers.
In this blog we outline the importance of CPCS as a revenue source for Community Pharmacy and explain the value of integrating full CPCS support into the core Pharmacy Services solution to enable customers to run dispensing and services side by side.
Integrating Pharmacy into Urgent Care
So much has changed since the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) was launched by NHS England and NHS Improvement in October 2019, to progress the integration of community pharmacy into local NHS urgent care services, providing more convenient treatment closer to patients’ homes.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, patients have increased their reliance on – and awareness of – community pharmacy. This has created new pressures and demands, which makes the additional revenue on offer from service provision increasingly attractive.
The first phase of the CPCS offered patients the option of having a face-to-face or remote consultation with a pharmacist following an initial assessment by an NHS 111 call advisor. Following a period of successful piloting, the service was extended to include referrals for lower acuity conditions from general practice, as well as from NHS 111. Over the next three years new services will be added, including CPCS Discharge, CPCS Urgent Care and CPCS A&E.
Extending Pharmacy Role
The service is helping to alleviate pressure on GP appointments and emergency departments, in addition to harnessing the skills and medicines knowledge of pharmacists. The value of this revenue stream to pharmacists is significant, with figures suggesting by 2024, £249 million in funding will have moved to CPCS. So why are many pharmacies still failing to maximise this opportunity?
One of the challenges has been the limitation of the tools available to process CPCS claims, forcing pharmacies to log in and out of different systems to support consultations. However from 1st April 2022 (postponed from October 2021), pharmacists will have access to a range of CPCS IT systems for the first time.
With many pharmacists keen to expand the range of services they deliver, building on strengthened community relationships and the growing role as first contact for patients to add new revenue streams, what do they need to look for in a CPCS solution?
Pharmacy Services
For overloaded pharmacies there is no leeway for additional admin overheads or the adoption of another IT solution. No one wants to learn another system. Staff on the frontline have no tolerance for logging in and out of systems as they move from dispensing to consultation.
To make CPCS work for the business, services must run efficiently side by side with dispensing – and provide the business with information required to improve efficiency and profitability. Which is why Cegedim has developed Pharmacy Services, a completely integrated solution that is designed from the ground up to support pharmacies in all day to day activity.
The solution is seamless and intuitive, which means it can be easily adopted by existing Pharmacy Manager users. Plus, it is available on any device, which means staff can move into the consulting room with a tablet or smart phone, and back into the pharmacy, delivering efficiency to the pharmacy team, allowing them to respond to patient needs.
Integrated Business Solution
The goal of the PMR needs to be focused on freeing up valuable pharmacy time away from tasks that could be automated by technology. Without this, pharmacy simply won’t have the capacity to focus on Services. Furthermore, historically PMR solutions have been dispensing centric, focusing on the prescription as opposed to the patient and their wider clinical needs. Compounding this problem is siloed patient data which is often inaccessible directly by the PMRs. This adds unnecessary time and effort to pharmacists who need to check the relevant patient medical record as part of the Services they perform.
Cegedim’s latest Pharmacy Services platform addresses a number of these problems. Firstly, with direct integration into Pharmacy Manager, pharmacy teams are actively alerted to the arrival of a Service opportunity. A mobile optimised platform ensures Service delivery is flexible and the intuitive, intelligent workflows deliver an efficient experience to the pharmacy teams. Automated claiming ensures pharmacies never miss out on those essential payments.
Whilst Pharmacy Manager is already integrated into the NHS 1-click SCR, we feel added value could be provided to pharmacy if they had access to the wider electronic patient records. Pharmacies and the PMR are often an afterthought and the industry should be considering easy access to this patient data directly from the PMR. This will ultimately safe guard patient care whilst delivering efficiencies to the pharmacy teams.
Conclusion
With services set to become an ever increasing proportion of overall revenue streams, pharmacies need the right support. CPCS needs to be part of the core PMR – not a separate add on that requires staff to move between systems and screens. From immediate visibility of referrals to simple, automated payment claims, a streamlined, efficient consultation process will improve the patient experience and help to maximise revenue opportunities.
And, of course, there is no need to wait for April 1st. Indeed, we would advise all our customers to get started far sooner because any technology change takes time. Those pharmacies that start preparing now and get ahead crowd can have access to Pharmacy Services from January 1st.
Watch our short video to see how our CPCS Solution Pharmacy Services can help you