Can Pharmacists Support Food-Is-Medicine Care? Yes, But...

Supporting food-is-medicine (FIM) care is part of the broader effort to scale pharmacy services and build sustainable care models. As care teams evolve, here’s how we could see this effort bear fruit.

At this year’s NACDS Total Store Expo in Boston—an annual conference sponsored by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores—the stakes were clear: Healthcare is hurting, but we can take steps to heal it.

Here is one example of the hurt: We don’t have enough primary care providers.

There is only one primary care provider for every 1,500 people, as I mentioned on a panel at the NACDS conference. This affects nearly two-thirds of all U.S. counties. It’s a nationwide problem, in other words, and it’s prompting care teams to work together in new ways. As innovative services like FIM care gain traction, accessible pharmacists can collaborate with physicians and dieticians to boost access to care for patients with chronic conditions like diabetes or hypertension—and help close the gap.

But to fully leverage clinical services like FIM care in the pharmacy setting, we need sustainable care models that allow for coverage and reimbursement. We also need interoperability, so that pharmacists can screen, educate and refer patients to dieticians, and effectively work with all members of the evolving care team.

The Evolving Care Team

In a bonus episode at the end of the first season of our podcast, Kroger Health President Colleen Lindholz explained how she is working to deliver holistic patient care with a FIM strategy.

“Everything that we do at Kroger is in service of our profession,” Lindholz says. “Not just the pharmacy profession, but the nursing profession and the dietician profession.” With this team-based approach—and with thousands of retail chain pharmacies in its combined food and drug stores—Kroger is well-positioned to provide holistic patient care, including FIM care.

There is ample support for a Kroger-style, team-based approach.

In our annual clinician survey, we found that physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are seeing the value in partnering with pharmacists who can support routine care and medication management for chronic conditions.

But there is another prerequisite to closing the gap: data.

Clinical Data Sharing & Interoperability

FIM care—along with any other patient care services pharmacists might provide as their roles expand beyond dispensing—takes information sharing and documentation. Pharmacists need standardized, bidirectional information exchange solutions that improve their ability to provide and scale FIM care interventions.

As I said at the NACDS conference, pharmacists are taking on more clinical care, and interoperability is a key factor in this effort.

Along with pharmacists who are empowered to support FIM care and other patient care services as part of the evolving care team, interoperability is how we’ll build sustainable care models that will meet the moment in healthcare.