UK College of Pharmacy Working to Create a Healthier Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 7, 2011) − Diabetes educators at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy will soon collaborate with pharmacist educators at St. Claire Regional Medical Center and community pharmacies in Morehead to offer patient care services to St. Claire employees with diabetes.
 

Project IMPACT Diabetes is a pharmacist-provided patient care service where pharmacists, as part of the larger health care team, provide diabetes education and medication therapy management to improve glucose control, medication use and self-care practices. 
 

“We feel this project is part of our land-grant mission,” said Trish Rippetoe-Freeman, principal investigator on the grant and director of the Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Practice. “It is incumbent on us as Kentucky’s flagship, land-grant university to utilize the information and best practices we have developed within the College of Pharmacy to reach out and better lives across this state. And this project will do just that.”
 

Project IMPACT is made possible by a grant to the UK College of Pharmacy's Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Practice, through the American Pharmacists Association Foundation.
 

"The project is designed to translate the successful PharmacistCARE diabetes program that has been offered as a benefit by UK Human Resources to UK employees with diabetes to St. Claire Regional Medical Center and their employees with diabetes," said Freeman.
 

St. Claire employees with diabetes will have the option of receiving care at the worksite via clinical pharmacists employed by St. Claire or via community pharmacists from a newly established network of pharmacies providing services within the five county region from which St. Claire employees are drawn. The initial and follow-up assessments are provided by pharmacists who have expertise in diabetes care.
 

In the diabetes program, pharmacists will work closely with patients other health care providers for medication adjustments and recommendations. Pharmacists will conduct initial medication therapy management and diabetes assessments with the patient and then follow-up every one - three months to resolve any drug therapy problems and reinforce education.

The program's pharmacists may engage in Collaborative Care Agreements, as defined by the Kentucky Pharmacy Practice Act with physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants for medication management.

Media Contact: Ann Blackford at (859) 323-3587 or ann.blackford@uky.edu