What's in the Newsletter

• Project Updates
• Your Telepharmacy Sites can Participate in ONE Rx!
• Opioids in the News 
• Available Recordings

Project Updates

Friends, we have completed one year of ONE Rx. During the last year, your work has been recognized around the country for it's innovativeness,  patient-centered approach, and for being a precursor to pharmacists working as providers. The ONE Rx team has shared your work widely, and it is proud to be collaborating with you to deliver this service. Congratulations on your work, and we look forward to additional developments and innovations in the next year.
The ONE Rx Team

A friendly reminder about ONE Rx screenings:                

1. All patients that present to the pharmacy filling an opioid prescription qualify for ONE Rx screening. This includes any controlled substance that contains an opioid or opioid derivative (i.e tramadol, fentanyl, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, acetaminophen/codeine). ONE Rx screening can provide informational support to patients using these medications and even less potent opioids have the potential risk for opioid use disorder and/or overdose.

2. For chronic opioid patients, ONE Rx has offered a general recommendation that patient screening would be most appropriate at 6 month intervals. If the pharmacist feels that a patient requires more frequent screening due to changes in prescription (i.e. strength change, formulation change, changes in co-morbidities), the professional judgement of the pharmacist is the most important determinant in offering the survey at an appropriate interval. For stable patients that do not have changes in prescriptions or health conditions, a six month screening can offer valuable information regarding opioid risk stratification and also solidifies the pharmacists priority in patient safety during opioid use.

Your Telepharmacy Sites can Participate in ONE Rx!

Have you ever wondered how the ONE Rx process can work in a telepharmacy? The ONE Rx team reached out to a telepharmacy site to gather a few tips/tricks for successful implementation.

The Ye Olde Medicine Center in Park River, ND has shown the remarkable capability of incorporating the ONE Rx screening process into their telepharmacy location in their Drayton Drug location. Laurie Larson was gracious to offer some tips to incorporating the ONE Rx process effectively and efficiently in such a pharmacy practice site. Here is what tips she had to offer for other telepharmacies:

1. To improve efficiency, have the pharmacy technician facilitate the introduction of the screening tool to the patient. This conversation will enable open communication with pharmacy staff and establish a patient safety focus to served patients.

2. In addition to the video feed/picture of the prescription to be verified, also include the ONE Rx risk screening for pharmacist evaluation.

3. By presenting the pharmacist with the prescription AND screening results, it will allow the pharmacist ample time to plan specific interventions for opioid harm reduction.

4. After pharmacist consultation and tailored education, the pharmacy technician offers valuable assistance with the input of the screening results and the outcomes worksheet from pharmacist intervention into REDCap documentation software.

Optimizing the communication with telepharmacy technology during the ONE Rx process is fundamental of efficient patient service delivery. By utilizing the knowledge and skills of the pharmacy technician, telepharmacies have shown continued success in ONE Rx screenings to optimize patient safety outcomes. 

Opioids in the News 

Michael Dulitz, Opioid Response Project coordinator for Grand Forks Public Health, received the Trailblazer Award at the govenor's Recovery Reinvented conference this month for his innovative work implementing programs such as ONE Rx. This helped to increasing access to treatment and changing the conversation around the disease of addiction.

Learn more at: https://recoveryreinvented.com/events/2019/

Available Recordings