OOSTBURG, WI (WHBL) - Ten years ago, the technology was not there to allow a pharmacist to do their work remotely, meaning if a place wanted a pharmacy they needed a pharmacist to be on site at all times.
Today, the technology is there, and that means Oostburg has a pharmacy for local residents to go to for prescription and over the counter medications. Prevea Health and village officials Wednesday held a ribbon cutting and blessing service for the location, called an HSHS Prescription Services.
The site will be run as a remote pharmacy, an idea that came from a pharmacy technician from St. Clare Memorial Hospital in Oconto Falls. “A remote pharmacy is really a place a patient can go to have their prescription filled by a pharmacy technician," says Dan DeGroot, the hospital's COO. "The technician will take the prescription and actually fill it. Then through tele-video monitors the pharmacist, who is at a distant location, will actually assure that the prescription is filled correctly, and then have a virtual meeting with the patient to educate them on the prescription, how it is to be taken, any side effects they may experience and be sure that it’s not going to affect any of their other medications.”
DeGroot says the way their hospital serves their surrounding area make remote pharmacies a viable option. “We serve a lot of rural communities in northern Wisconsin, and these towns and villages have no pharmacies. So we know that if patients have convenient access to filling their scripts, they will be twice as compliant in taking their medications, and thus more healthy. So the thought was can we put remote dispensing pharmacies in these rural communities so patients can fill their scripts conveniently closer to home, or even in their town or village. What made it possible was the tele-audio technology that allows us to do that.”
Current laws allow a pharmacist to cover up to four remote locations at one time, which is done through Prevea at its now seven sites. Oostburg is the first remote pharmacy south of Oconto Falls. “Oostburg really doesn’t have this service available," says Prevea's Kate Hogan, "and with our clinic located here it’s just a natural progression to add this service and allow people to get access to their pharmacy needs without having to go all the way to Sheboygan, and that’s just a great convenience that makes sense for everybody, we thought.”
Hogan says work on this location was done over the past year with the clinic next door to make sure it can be done. “Just filling out the space and making sure that we had everything that would help the community. Anyone can come in from the outside or the Prevea clinic and bring their prescriptions to this location. They can also pick up other things that you can pick up at a local drugstore as well. So, it’s a wonderful service to just run right over here, get their prescription filled or refilled if their doctor calls it in; simple, easy, quick.”