2019 Pinnacle Awards
The APhA Foundation celebrated the 22nd Annual Pinnacle Awards and Reception on the Potomac View Terrace at APhA headquarters. See below for more information about the recipients and to view images from the event.
Click below to read the press release
Click through the images from the Pinnacle Awards
At the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Rosemary architected its $250 million decade-long national strategy to integrate palliative care into the nation’s hospitals. The number of palliative care programs in acute care facilities increased from a handful in 1999 to 1,900 in 2018. She is recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Also at the Foundation, Ms. Gibson led national patient safety and quality initiatives in partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. She wrote Wall of Silence: The Untold Story of the Medical Mistakes that Kill and Injure Millions of Americans, the first book to tell the human story when patients are harmed in the course of medical treatment. Her interviews with patients inspired the funding of the first rapid response systems in U.S. hospitals, among other innovations. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and the London School of Economics.
Category 1 Award:
Individual Award for Career Achievement
Rosemary Gibson, MS
Rosemary Gibson is author of China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine. The book chronicles the shift to China as a major source of America’s generic and other medicines and the impact on our health and national security. Ms. Gibson is Senior Advisor at the Hastings Center and Perspectives Editor at JAMA Internal Medicine. She is the recipient of the highest honor from the American Medical Writers Association for her outstanding contributions to the public’s interest in reporting on critical health care issues.
Category 2 Award:
Group Practice–Health System–Health Care Corporation
Premise Health
Operates health and wellness centers for large organizations, including many of the Fortune 1000. Its unique position – located onsite or near where people work and live – allows Premise to take a personalized approach to care that enhances quality, experience and value for patients. This approach has earned it one of the highest patient satisfaction scores in the healthcare industry and resulted in better outcomes and lower costs.
Premise’s pharmacy model is unique. Premise pharmacies are funded by organizations to provide direct care to their populations, allowing Premise pharmacists to spend more time with patients. Additionally, Premise pharmacists and technicians are trained on and universally deploy wellness coaching techniques that support patients in their health goals. Premise pharmacists and providers utilize one electronic health record, which creates opportunities to collaborate with each other and outside providers. It also allows them to monitor clinical performance and adverse medication effects.
Two programs best represent how Premise’s pharmacy model cares for members. The first, Care Connect, leverages a proactive approach to medication management. Premise pharmacists reach out to patients regularly, helping them avoid missing doses and anticipating concerns before they arise. This approach saves time and money for patients.
The second, Dimensions, is a chronic conditions program, where eligible members commit to meeting routinely with a pharmacist. This pharmacist is in a patient-facing role; instead of dispensing medications, he or she has the freedom to fully support patient care. Dimensions is extremely successful because of its ability to marry lifestyle changes with condition management, while also providing patients with month-to-month accountability. Premise exceeded the 95th percentile for HEDIS in hypertension and A1C control in a study for one organization.
For employers, this unique model means real savings. One Premise client reduced medical and prescription costs by $13.8 million over three years, while another experienced risk-adjusted cost savings for attributed pharmacy patients of $217 PMPM verses patients attributed to community pharmacies. In fact, through its work Premise has discovered that when primary care providers and pharmacists collaborate on patient care, clients experience 40 percent savings. These savings are beneficial for clients, but the real success is that savings exist because patients are healthier. Through its unique approach, Premise is helping people get, stay, and be well.
Category 3 Award:
Nonprofit Organization–Association–Public/Private Partnerships
The Norton Sound Region Children's Coalition
comprises of a very remote area of Alaska. Accessible mostly by small airplanes where traditional healthcare is difficult to accomplish, Norton Sound Health Corporation provides services to Nome and 15 surrounding village communities that make up the Norton Sound Region.
With the first pharmacist-driven collaborative agreement in 2012, pharmacists started vaccinating adult patients with influenza, pneumococcal, and zoster vaccines. Moving forward to August of 2017, the healthcare team agreed that pharmacists should not be limited to vaccinating only adult patients with three vaccines. Pharmacists were approved to vaccinate all patients regardless of age with any vaccine that was indicated.
With physician buy-in, innovation in reducing healthcare barriers, and advocacy for necessary childhood vaccines, a team – comprised of a physician, 2 pharmacists, a nurse, and community health aides - increased completed vaccination series from 24% to 47%, saw more than70 children and administered 212 vaccinations in the village community of Shishmaref.
The success of this trip created The Norton Sound Region Children's Coalition lead by two physicians, Dr. Kyle Pohl and Dr. Jay Flynn, and two clinical pharmacists, Dr. R. Kylea Goff and Dr. Heather Lefebvre. The focus of the coalition is to not only see pediatric patients for well-child visits and immunizations but also to provide education for parents and communities on the importance of children’s wellness. A Facebook education page for the region was created, a detailed report identifying our children’s healthcare needs was developed, and pharmacists/pharmacy students have provided presentations about wellness and vaccines within the local school system.
The pediatric team has visited 14 villages with more than 77 days of clinic and have completed over 1300 well-child visits. From January 1, 2018 through July 15, 2019, the pharmacists of the team administered close to 8,000 immunizations. To show the significance for this data: this past September, the pediatric team traveled to the village community of Brevig Mission and over a 3-day span, the 366 vaccinations were administered, and 55 well-child exams were completed; raising the completion rate in Brevig from 22% to 74.39%. In October of 2017, our region was at 60% (female) & 49% (male) for completed HPV series. In October of 2018, we are at 88% and 86%, respectively!
Our pharmacists continue to find additional opportunities to decrease barriers and provide immunizations throughout the region decreasing the risk of complications from vaccine-preventable diseases. Without the support of the physicians and the value of pharmacists, this coalition would not have been so successful.
2019 Innovation in Pharmacy Practice Lecture
Delivered by:
Rosemary Gibson, MS
Author of China Rx
Senior Advisor at The Hastings Center