How Digital Transformation Will Accelerate the Delivery of Culturally Competent Care by Pharmacists

Joy Somogyi
Sr. Director Product Marketing & Development, Omnicell

I recently spoke with Dr. Shafiq Rab, MBBS, MPH, CHCIO, FCHIME, Chief Digital Officer and System  CIO at Wellforce, about his perspectives on digital transformation and culturally competent care.

Digital transformation is the digital way of life. When we digitize processes, we not only connect different methods, but end up connecting people as well. The benefits are many, including faster and more efficient business processes. For healthcare, one of the biggest opportunities for digital transformation is freeing up time for care providers to focus on the patient.

Gone are the days where doctors took hand written notes, filed paper folders for each patient, and had to rely on their medication knowledge to make sure any new prescriptions wouldn’t negatively interact with the patient’s current medications. Today all patient data is stored in one place, where all care providers can access it, and potential medication interactions are automatically flagged.

The daily job of a pharmacist can be full of time-consuming manual processes. Inefficient workflows and lack of data visibility compound Pharmacy challenges. Leveraging medication inventory management tools are helping many health systems like Wellforce to improve efficiency. Automating workflows with comprehensive, real-time data provides actionable insights to better optimize our inventory and reallocate human resources, ultimately allowing our pharmacists to provide top of license care.

Pharmacists are well-equipped to spend time at the bedside, answering questions from patients about their medications and treatments. They understand drug interactions, medication adherence, and how to talk to patients in a culturally competent manner that respects diversity. Understanding the culture and diversity of our patient population, and respecting that diversity, is important when giving a drug. It makes you a better communicator and creates a stronger bond with the patient. Culturally competent care not only respects the patient, but it also leads to increased drug adherence and ultimately lowers the cost to serve the patient.

Learn more about Dr. Rab’s perspective on the pharmacist’s role on the care team by viewing this recent webinar on how digital transformation frees pharmacists to provide culturally competent care to all patients.

Watch now.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author(s). These views are always subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and may not be held in perpetuity.