Matthew Gavidia

 interviewed Elizabeth Spurlock, MA, PHR, the director of HR Business Partner at Texas Oncology, on how burnout among physicians, nurses, and hospital administrators has impacted the role of the pharmacist in patient care.

 So, I think for us, going back to that system in that value chain of information, part of the issue that we're experiencing and seeing with new employees is that there's been a lot of turnover and a lot of burnout.

So, part of that lends to onboarding and training, and so, if our employees don't have those resources to set things up appropriately down the line, then it does lead to issues kind of further down the chain.

But one of the things I love about some of our Texas Oncology clinics is that we do have pharmacists on site. So, I think having them being a part of a lot of the cultural initiatives that we're focused on there really helps. But I would say we've got to fix the upstream issues with onboarding and training so that is a smooth process down the line.

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Elizabeth Spurlock, MA, PHR, director of HR Business Partner at Texas Oncology, discusses how burnout among physicians, nurses, and hospital administrators has impacted the role of the pharmacist in patient care.

Expert: Burnout in Oncology Pharmacy May Be a Result of Issues Relating to Onboarding, Training of New Employees

Associated with improved patient satisfaction and quality of care, 

 (SDM), which is the process by which clinicians work with patients to explore care choices, and 

 (PtDAs), the evidence-based tools designed to educate patients about their options, have garnered conflicting data regarding their impact on cost and utilization.

Panelists of a session presented this week at the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) 2021 Annual Meeting noted that SDM and PtDAs’ influence on medication adherence may signal beneficial cost implications from these patient-centered strategies.

“Stakeholders often assume that engaging in SDM will reduce health care costs, which is the third part of the 

” said panelist Kimberly Westrich, vice president of Health Services Research at the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC). “They think it might do this by empowering patients to make treatment decisions that reduce unnecessary, invasive, or costly care, but the actual impacts of SDM and PtDAs on cost and utilization have not been well studied.”

During the session, “The Impact of Shared Decision-Making on Cost and Utilization and Implications for Value-Based Care,” Westrich was also joined by panelist Theresa Schmidt, vice president at Discern Health. Both panelists’ respective organizations are seeking to further explore whether SDM and PtDAs reduce health care costs and utilization.

Click to continue reading on The American Journal of Managed Care.

Matthew Gavidia

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