The Central Louisiana Medication Access Program
In 2000, The Rapides Foundation, a nonprofit hospital conversion foundation in Alexandria, Louisiana, sponsored a study to identify medication-access and education issues in its community. It collaborated with the executive director of Senior PHARMAssist to conduct a community-needs assessment in six parishes in central Louisiana. Senior PHARMAssist is a program in Durham County, North Carolina, that assists the elderly by providing prescription medications and coordinating with their physicians to make sure that the drug regimens are appropriate and affordable. On the basis of its study, The Rapides Foundation recommended a medication-access program centered on the local public hospital clinic and pharmacy. Another suggestion was providing an option to use outside community pharmacies for those patients who were under the care of private-practice physicians. As a result, the Central Louisiana Medication Access Program (CMAP) was begun in 2001 to provide prescription drugs and medication education to people who cannot afford them.
The CMAP has three distinct components: the initiation and ongoing operation of a subsidized outpatient pharmacy at the region's public hospital, the formation of a community-based prescription card benefit system utilizing existing community pharmacies, and the establishment of community-based liaisons among clients, manufacturers' patient assistance programs, and physicians' offices. This article focuses on the first component, the subsidized outpatient pharmacy at the region's public hospital.
This program serves individuals who use the outpatient clinics at the state-run public hospital in central Louisiana, Huey P. Long Medical Center (HPLMC), a member of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences CenterHealth Care Services Division. The hospital opened in 1939 and provides care to the medically indigent population of central Louisiana. This is a public health facility that, under section 340B of the Public Health Services Act, may purchase medications at 51% off the wholesale cost. It is the oldest health care facility in the state system and is staffed by 542 employees, including 117 registered nurses, 38 licensed practical nurses, 4 inpatient pharmacists, 4 outpatient CMAP pharmacists, 43 active-contract physicians (including 23 regular full-time physicians), and 30 privileged emergency medicine physicians, as well as 9 medical residents each month. In the 2001-2002 fiscal year, the hospital had 4,323 inpatient admissions, which accounted for 18,744 inpatient census days, and a daily inpatient census of 60-75 patients. During that year, the emergency room reported 51,954 visits, while outpatient visits totaled 60,644. The patient population consists primarily of low-income uninsured people.
Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2004;61(6) © 2004 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
Cite this: Outpatient Medication Assistance Program in a Rural Setting - Medscape - Mar 15, 2004.
