When pharmacist, licensee, and owner Kinjal Solanki installed real-time integration (RTI) with Netcare at her pharmacy in Calgary, she knew what to expect. Kinjal had previously used RTI in another pharmacy and knew it would be a good move for her and her team.
“I had a bit of an idea how it works and how it would help us,” said Kinjal. “The best thing about real-time integration is when you have to create a new patient’s profile, you just type in the patient’s healthcare number. The system can create the patient’s file in seconds. You have all the patient’s information on the screen instantly. You just have to verify the information with the patient. It’s very easy.”
Saving time creating a new patient profile is just one of many benefits of using RTI in a pharmacy, which will be a requirement for licensed pharmacies as part of the new Standards for the Operation of Licensed Pharmacies (SOLP) as part of Domain 5 (Information management). Unlike most of the standards, which take effect February 1, 2025, the RTI requirement comes into effect on July 1, 2026, giving pharmacy teams the time they need to install the technology required; ensure team members are trained; and develop new policies, procedures, and workflows as deemed necessary.
What is real-time integration with Netcare?
Alberta Health indicates that real-time integration “allows your pharmacy system and the Electronic Health Record (EHR or Netcare) to communicate key information about your patient at the point of care. This communication is seamless, and occurs while you are interacting with your patient in real time. This means that you don’t have to leave your pharmacy system to view medication information in Alberta Netcare, and you don’t have to use Pharmacy Batch to submit your data.[1]
Being able to use your pharmacy system to enter information real-time into the patient’s EHR is a huge benefit to patients, according to Cliff Lindeman, Program Manager; Prescribing, Analytics & Tracked Prescription Program (TPP) Alberta for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.
“With nightly batch entries, there’s a risk for medication errors such as incorrect doses, duplicate therapies, or dangerous interactions that are not flagged due to a delay when that information is loaded into health data systems,” he said. “Accurate and streamlined delivery of information across systems should be improved through RTI. RTI allows for real-time collaboration among healthcare providers, which is especially important for patients with multiple healthcare providers.”
There are many other benefits to both pharmacy teams and patients by entering and retrieving data using RTI. For one, Cliff noted that RTI will help improve medication management for patients.
“Real-time access to patient medication histories enables healthcare providers to make informed decisions for therapy adjustments, especially for patients on multiple medications,” he said “It may reduce the risk of drug interactions and enhance therapeutic effectiveness. For patients with chronic conditions, continuous monitoring of treatment effectiveness and side effects is crucial. RTI may facilitate more timely adjustments to therapy based on real-time data and person-centred care. RTI could contribute to a tailored treatment plan, integrating data from various sources and ensuring that care is aligned with the unique health conditions of patients and their preferences.”
Mazen Jarjour, a community pharmacy licensee in Calgary, has been using RTI with his pharmacy system for six years. Mazen appreciates one feature of the system where it notifies pharmacy teams if prescriptions were filled at another pharmacy.
“At multiple steps across the workflow, the system shows the patient’s Netcare medication profile,” said Mazen. “If a medication was dispensed at another pharmacy, it will appear with a red highlight. This helps our pharmacists identify and address possible therapy problems such as duplications, dose discrepancies, and drug interactions for those medications.”
This feature of RTI is also beneficial to help prevent fraud and potential misuse of drugs.
“It decreases the likelihood of duplicating dispenses,” said Cliff. “If there is a medication that is prone to abuse or misuse, real-time integration should, in a timelier manner, flag those medications that were already dispensed where a batch may take longer. More immediate access to prescription patient data helps identify discrepancies that may indicate fraud, so it should reduce fraudulent activity pertaining to addictive medications.”
Here are some of the other benefits of using RTI in pharmacies, according to Alberta Health:
- You can view, add, and update patient medication information in the EHR automatically as you perform these functions in your local system.
- You won’t need to open Alberta Netcare Portal to view dispenses from another pharmacy. You can view your patient’s provincial Medication Profile within your pharmacy system.
- Your medication dispenses are available immediately to other clinicians.
- You can quickly check eligibility for Alberta government-sponsored programs and obtain and/or verify personal health numbers from within your pharmacy system. For example, eligibility for the influenza vaccination program through Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan.[2]
Applying for and having RTI installed in your pharmacy takes time. Mazen encourages pharmacy teams who have not incorporated RTI yet to start thinking about it now.
“Integration will result in some changes in workflow.,” said Mazen. “It will introduce new tasks such as viewing a basic medication profile, viewing an advanced medication profile, and verifying a patient’s demographics. I think it is a good idea for pharmacy teams to have a look in advance into what’s going to change depending on the pharmacy software system being used in to prepare for the integration.”
Kinjal agrees.
“This is a really good tool to have in the pharmacy,” she said. “My advice is to go ahead and register yourself for real-time integration. It saves lots of time for pharmacists and technicians. It helps our team, the doctor, everyone to know what’s going on with the patient in real time.”
For more information or to enroll please contact the eHealth Services Provider Support at Alberta Health at 1-855-643-8649.
[1] Retrieved from https://www.albertanetcare.ca/PharmacyIntegration.htm on December 6, 2024.
[2] Retrieved from https://www.albertanetcare.ca/PharmacyIntegration.htm on December 6, 2024.
