Tele Pharmacy
In 2014, Shawn started working with a local pharmacy owner about possibly locating a satellite pharmacy in our downtown. The idea was that a small pharmacy could not pay for a licensed pharmacist to be in each satellite office. However, a small pharmacy could pay one pharmacist to be on call for the pharmacy assistants and to counsel patients on their medicines through video calls. At first, when Shawn floated the idea past me, I was skeptical. I thought it was illegal to not have a pharmacist on site and wondered if having one consulting from another location via technology would really be within the law. Would people be turned off by having to consult with a pharmacist through a computer screen?
In the early part of 2015, I happened to go visit my aunt and uncle, in Charlottesville, Virginia. My Uncle Rick, a successful businessman had retired and volunteers his time as a Senior entrepreneur in residence at the University of Virginia’s Innovation Laboratory (aka the iLab) hosted by the Darden School of Business. (Basically, I imagine Rick, a brilliant guy, hanging around lots of other equally brilliant students working up business plans for some seriously cool projects which might take me years to understand.) While I was in town, I had the pleasure of touring the campus and taking a look-see around the iLab. Rick introduced me to one of the students he worked with and when I inquired about the venture, the answer was “tele health.”
And that is when a light bulb went off. I knew that little ole rural Shawn wasn’t so crazy. In fact, what one might consider “new-fangled” was right in line with the rest of the world.
By 2015, our tele-pharmacy was up and running in our downtown and continues to thrive and be a great asset to our community.
TeleHealth
A couple of years later, in 2017, my best friend told me about Teladoc and how she visited a doctor through an app on her phone and got a prescription for her daughter when they were out of town. I was intrigued.
With a growing family and hectic schedules, I downloaded the app. Since we were already conversing with a pharmacist through a portal at our pharmacy, I could definitely see how a doctor visit would happen in much the same way.
A couple of months later, I woke up on Saturday with what I suspected was pink eye. I didn’t want to wait two days for drops, so I logged into the app, made an account, and made an appointment for later in the day.
I went about my day and happened to be in Walmart (don’t worry, I washed my hands profusely) when it was time to connect with a doctor through the app. I chatted with her briefly. She looked at my eye through the phone camera and called in my prescription to the very Walmart I was in. It was easy, seamless, and took very little time.
That day, the service cost me $75 and my credit card on file was charged. I thought that was a small price to pay for convenience. (Just last year, my husband’s insurance company started covering Teladoc visits and our visits now cost $45.)
What’s Next?
If I can go to the doctor while I sit in my car and I can go to the pharmacy in town and get the meds I need without driving, overseen by pharmacist hours away, what else can we do with telehealth?
What could we do with mental health in the tele world?
Just this week, Shawn sent me this short article. You should read it, but in case you are a skimmer, Michigan schools are piloting a tele mental health system in schools with a company called Spectrum Health. Basically, students can have access to a master’s level counselor or social worker through a teleportal if they are not getting the help they need through traditional channels.
This could be a game-changer for rural schools. I sent the article to my superintendent because she is a visionary like Shawn. I am a doer, but I don’t always have the vision.
I don’t know the specifics of how we can use telemental health in our rural schools but here is what I DO know. Each year, the number of kids who have generalized anxiety grows. Each year, I worry that I do not have enough one on one time to spend with kids who need mental health support. In addition to supporting students, I have to do paperwork, PBIS, supervision, college and career planning, state reporting, state testing, scholarships, AND scheduling. I am not complaining, I am concerned.
Aside from educators experiencing more work than time in the day, our rural communities also lack resources. Mental health providers are scarce and sometimes being seen can mean a 35-minute drive or making an appointment that is weeks away. With telemental health, we could call on mental health providers in bigger areas that have the personnel. Providers could help serve kids that are struggling and have been unable to secure ongoing mental health support.
Just last week, I had the opportunity to pass my contact information along to someone at Chestnut Health Systems to possibly start a conversation about telemental health.
I have been taking notes from several visionaries in my life. (Ahem…. one on of which promised he’d write and share some of his big ideas and hasn’t….. but I digress.) Planning is important but so is starting. Don’t plan to get everything exactly right or you’ll never get started. Start and figure out the details later.
Big ideas can be scary. Sure, it might fail. But you will never know until you try.
Love,
Stef