2020 Pinnacle Award Recipient: OhioHealth
Group Practice-Health System-Corporation
OhioHealth is a private, not‐for‐profit, health system in central Ohio, serving patients in 40 counties through 14 hospitals, hundreds of physician practices, and 10 free‐standing emergency departments. In addition, the OhioHealth Pharmacy Services program also includes home infusion, three community pharmacies, investigational drug service, six hospital infusion clinics, and 14 anticoagulation clinics.
One of OhioHealth’s newest and most successful pharmacy programs is the OhioHealth Population Health Pharmacy Services (PHRxS). Contained within the larger Pharmacy Services Team at OhioHealth, PHRxS is a highly effective team of 15 pharmacy staff members who care for multiple populations (Primary Care Network, OhioHealth’s Direct to Employer Network, OhioHealth’s Clinically Integrated Network and Accountable Care Organization, and the Ohio- HealthyTM Medical Plan) with the primary goals of improving patient outcomes and reducing total cost of care (TCOC) with a patient‐centric experience. This highly dynamic team has delivered tremendous quality improvement and financial savings to patients, providers, employers, payors, and the OhioHealth organization since 2018. The services offered by PHRxS include Medication Therapy Disease Management, Diabetes Prevention, Diabetes Management, Asthma Management, and Benefits Management Consulting and Solutions. The team has demonstrated strong medication outcomes, not only representing disease state improvements, such as with diabetes and asthma, but also with reduced utilization (ED and admissions) and prevention of adverse events. The medication therapy disease management program includes high-risk patient management, a pharmacist consult service, and transitions of care. This program alone achieved $1.6 million in cost avoidance in reduced ED utilization, hospital admissions, disease progression, and acute disease related events between July 2018-July 2019. The PHRxS benefits (pharmacy & medical) management and consulting solutions have achieved $2 million in direct medication cost savings for 2019-2020 through formulary and utilization management.
In a relatively short time, the OhioHealth PHRxS team has delivered significant TCOC reductions through cost avoidance ($1.6 million), direct cost savings ($2 million), and per member per year costs ($200 per member per year savings for asthma program). This success strongly rep- resents the practice of pharmacy as the account- able owner of the medication use process. As demonstrated by these robust outcomes, patients, plan sponsors, and the OhioHealth system have received significant benefit through pharmacists and certified technicians optimizing the medication use process, driving improved outcomes and lower overall health care costs.