Answering Your Top EQUIPP Questions From 2023

Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, partners with fellow teammate Connor Kovatch, Customer Experience Specialist to run down answers to the top EQUIPP questions from 2023.
 Kovatch addresses common questions that EQUIPP users have had related to medication adherence performance rates. Questions cover scenarios where patients have discontinued medications, are in hospice care, or have recently deceased.  

Transcript

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00:00:01:20 - 00:00:25:04

Connor K.

So I previously mentioned before our knowledge base, this is going to be our help center for all the resources, webinars, podcasts and measure specifics and details. So this is something that we're continually updating to provide the most up to date support resources as well as optimizing the way that our users can find and locate the correct information. The link to knowledge base can be found at the top of the equip page by clicking on the support icon with the question mark.

00:00:25:06 - 00:00:35:21

Connor K.

This is also going to be the location for us to submit a hope ticket to our support team to answer any sort of questions and concerns for our users.

00:00:35:23 - 00:01:00:24

Intro

Welcome to the Pharmacy Quality Solutions Quality Corner show where quality measurement leads to better patient outcomes. This show will be your go to source for all things related to quality improvement and medication use and health care. We will hit on trending health topics as they relate to performance measurements and find common ground for payers and practitioners. We will discuss how the EQUIPP platform can help you with your performance goals.

00:01:01:01 - 00:01:37:09

Intro

We will also make sure to keep you up to date on pharmacy quality news. Please note that the topics discussed are based on the information available at the date and time of recording. Information or guidelines are updated periodically and we will always recommend that our listeners research and review any guidelines that are newly published. Buckle up and put your thinking cap on the Quality Corner show starts now.

00:01:37:11 - 00:02:01:02

Nick Dorich

Hello Quality Corner Show listeners. Welcome to the PQS Podcast where we focus on medication, use, quality improvement and how we can utilize pharmacists to improve patient health outcomes. I'm your host Nick Dorich. This episode today is somewhat of an annual or traditional topic for us at this time of the year. This is kind of an easy grab, folks, I'll admit it, because it's the end of the year, so it's easy to take a look back.

00:02:01:04 - 00:02:20:23

Nick

What happened during the year. And for this, the purpose of this podcast, we're going to talk about some of the most frequently asked questions that we get at EQUIPP support today and that we got through 2023. Now, I'll preface this all by saying that, you know, we did launch a new version of the equipped user interface in the late fall 2022.

00:02:21:04 - 00:02:42:13

Nick

So this year had a lot of folks trying to navigate the new dashboard for the first time. We had a lot of folks getting really excited about the new information that they could utilize, especially for the enhanced services and EQUIPP. So for today's episode, we've brought on a special guest, one of my teammates here at us, and that is Connor Kovach, and Connor is our customer experience specialist.

00:02:42:15 - 00:02:45:19

Nick

Connor, welcome to the show. How are you today?

00:02:45:21 - 00:02:47:11

Connor K.

Good, Nick. Thanks for having me.

00:02:47:13 - 00:02:56:10

Nick

Excellent. So, Connor, before we get into this episode, can you give us a quick rundown on what it is that you do here day to day at PQS?

00:02:56:12 - 00:03:15:13

Connor K.

Sure, Absolutely. So I handle all things support. So for any of our users out there that have sent in a support ticket, you may have seen my name in the bottom corner of that response. When it comes to creating accounts, updating accounts, pretty much all things support, as well as managing our knowledge base to update the most latest updates to our support and help center.

00:03:15:15 - 00:03:35:13

Nick

Yeah, I always like to point out when I speak with pharmacist or pharmacy team members that our support team there, they are actual real people. Connor is not in a I bought or at least not yet, but he's an actual real living, breathing human person and probably also one of my one of my rivals that peaks when it comes to excellent and beard growth and and grooming.

00:03:35:13 - 00:03:53:01

Nick

So Connor great teammate here at PQS. Great guy we love to have him here but he we have him here today to talk about the EQUIPP support because he probably spends more time talking with pharmacy team members about EQUIPP and helping them help, helping to point them to the right resources than anyone else here at PQS.

00:03:53:05 - 00:04:09:16

Nick

So if you need to really find out, hey, what are some of the questions that other pharmacies are asking or how they're looking to use, EQUIPP or what how are the right how do you use the tool in the right way? Connor is probably the best person, if not the best person to answer those questions with. So, Connor, glad to have you here today.

00:04:09:18 - 00:04:17:14

Nick

Before we get into the questions, we're going to pause for a quick moment and get a quick message from the rest of our team.

00:04:17:16 - 00:04:42:04

Breakdown

Now it's time for the breakdown as quality corner show host little as three main topic questions. Our guests will have a chance to respond and there will be some discussion to summarize the key points. This process will repeat for the second and third questions, which will wrap up the primary contents for this recording. After that, I expect to end on a closing summary, usually containing a bonus question.

Now that we have the start of the process, let's jump into the questions.

00:04:49:08 - 00:05:10:21

Nick

All right. Connor. We're back and we're ready to cover our questions for today's episode. So I want to start with the new user interface for EQUIPP that we launched that I mentioned in October of 2022. So it's pretty new still. But folks have been using the new dashboard and what has been the most exciting feature or features about the new dashboard and how have folks responded to it?

00:05:10:23 - 00:05:32:12

Connor K.

Absolutely. So one of the largest improvements of the new platform is going to be the all patient view. This new view allows pharmacy staff to take more of a holistic approach. Their entire pharmacy's patient population instead of only being able to view the outlier patients. One of the largest benefits of this view is that it can also be filtered and customized to view the patient opportunities that might also be approaching an outlier status.

00:05:32:18 - 00:06:07:13

Connor K.

And with the proper engagement, attention can be corrected to maintain the highest level of adherence throughout the rest of the year. Another exciting addition is going to be the enhanced services opportunities. These new programs allow pharmacies with additional engagement opportunities to not only boost patient adherence, but to also earn more potential revenue for their pharmacy. And the last improvement that strongly impacted how pharmacies are utilizing EQUIPP in 2023 and hopefully into 2024 is the ability to sort filter and rearrange their patient data within the dashboard to make more of a customized approach that fits each pharmacy specific plan on utilizing the data provided.

00:06:07:15 - 00:06:28:07

Nick

Excellent. Kind of. I think the summary part or the summary point to to all of this is really that it's about how we make the patient the patient opportunities, patient detail more upfront and forward for the pharmacies. Right? So that all patient view, it allows them to let's say the pharmacy is looking at Joe Smith and Joe Smith is non adherence for their cholesterol.

00:06:28:07 - 00:06:49:09

Nick

PDC Well before the pharmacy reaches out to Joe Smith, let's view Joe's profile right. Does Joe have other medications? Are there other opportunities? Are there things like screening opportunities that are available for Joe? So this route allows the pharmacy to really take that more holistic view and and refer to and follow up with Joe as that patient and not just as a disease state or a measure.

00:06:49:09 - 00:07:08:17

Nick

So I think that part there is really exciting and it's very positive that pharmacies have responded in that same way and that that's been one of the most exciting parts, the enhanced services as well. One of the new features we're allowing pharmacies to provide services outside of just the medication adherence experience, which is also just really fantastic.

00:07:08:17 - 00:07:29:01

Nick

So a lot of great things there. We're really excited that not only have pharmacies been using these new features and these new capabilities, but they've also been loving them So fantastic all around there. For our next question, Connor. Let's talk about what our the I'd mentioned this. This was the intent for the show, talking about the frequently asked questions.

00:07:29:06 - 00:07:47:08

Nick

So, you know, what were some of those most ask questions that you saw through equip support about the data, about the quality measures. And then as a follow up, as a follow up to that, are there any new resources and training opportunities that you would recommend that every pharmacy should review before they start using the dashboard?

00:07:47:10 - 00:08:07:14

Connor K.

Yeah. Nick Absolutely. So one of the top frequently asked questions is going to be over discontinuing medications, whether the patient stops taking them or the discontinue from a provider. So if a patient has already received two fills of an eligible medication to qualify within a specific PDC measure, they are going to remain within the PDC measure throughout the end of the measurement period.

00:08:07:16 - 00:08:32:16

Connor K.

However, the patient will not be included if they've had less than two pills within that measurement period as well as for the next measurement period. If they've already been discontinued and they don't continue to fill, they won't remain on those scores either. Another common question is for hospice care for patients that are admitted into hospice. So once the communication has been received and processed by the proper channels, the patient will be removed within the measure and they're no longer going to be contributing towards that score.

00:08:32:18 - 00:08:54:10

Connor K.

However, they will be counted towards the measure until they're data entry into hospice care. But there's no further action required of the pharmacy to either start or initiate this process. The last comment coming last question is going to be for deceased patients. So if and when a patient does end up passing away, they are no longer going to be evaluated for the applicable measure from their date of death.

00:08:54:10 - 00:09:16:24

Connor K.

Moving forward, however, the pharmacy notes plan will still be evaluated for the time period when the patient is alive. This can certainly take a few monthly data refreshes before the patient is removed from the equipped dashboard and the last commonly asked questions. It's going to comes to a pharmacy logging question. If a pharmacy doesn't know if they have an older account, if they need to sign up for a new account or if they need to update their registration information.

00:09:16:24 - 00:09:34:15

Connor K.

So really, for the users that are listening, if you guys have any questions at all about how to log in, please reach out directly to us and support at pharmacy quality dot com. So I previously mentioned before our knowledge base, this is going to be our help center for all the resources, webinars, podcasts and measure specifics and details.

00:09:34:17 - 00:09:57:22

Connor K.

So this is something that we're continually updating to provide the most up to date support resources as well as optimizing the way that our users can find and locate the correct information. The link to knowledge base can be found at the top of the equip page by clicking on the support icon with the question mark. This is also going to be the location for us to submit a hope ticket to our support team to answer any sort of questions or concerns for our users.

00:09:57:24 - 00:10:24:00

Nick

Yeah, Connor, great information here, and I'm going to transition from where you ended and then go back to some of the earlier comments. But yeah, if pharmacies, if pharmacy team members, if you're part of an organization that has pharmacies to use EQUIPP, if there are questions on the information, the data, the measures, how to log into EQUIPP, it's one of those items where please make sure to use that support feature on the on the user interface on the dashboard where to contact us at the support at pharmacy quality dot com email address.

00:10:24:05 - 00:10:37:17

Nick

There's a lot of examples I've seen or had follow up with folks that said, Hey, I started looking at the data. I didn't know what it meant or I didn't know how to log in and I kind of stopped there. And we don't want that to be the case, folks. We want to make sure we want we want to talk to you.

00:10:37:17 - 00:11:00:04

Nick

So please contact us with those questions and those information. As it relates to Connor, your earlier statements about some of the fake news, a couple of things that I'll point out for folks real quick is that for the measures, these are standardized quality measures. So these are measures either from the Pharmacy Quality Alliance or by the National Committee of Quality Assurance (NCQA).

00:11:00:07 - 00:11:20:21

Nick

So these are not measures or rules that we at PQS set or that health plan set. These are set and defined measures that have specific data sources. So there are many situations and scenarios and Connor mentioned just a couple of them, many, but not all of these scenarios can be accounted for in some way, shape or form with the data, but it may take some time.

00:11:20:21 - 00:11:37:12

Nick

And the key thing that matters for all of this is that it does need to be based on the claims, medical eligibility or details that the health plan has or receive. So if there's not a claim, whether it's a prescription, Right. We get this question right on. Hey, why doesn't a prescription build for cash count towards the patient's adherence?

00:11:37:16 - 00:12:02:16

Nick

Well, it's not billed to the health plan. Same thing when it comes to things like hospice days, Right. If the patient doesn't have codes or IDs, the hospice, they're not going to be removed from that measure. So those are parts where we can always define or help explain these situations for the pharmacy. Many of them, based on what a pharmacy can do or bill is not going to necessarily be something that they can change, but we can help to inform and help them understand just what is this data looking at?

00:12:02:16 - 00:12:22:09

Nick

How do they use that data information and how do they get the most benefit in following up with these patients. So, Connor, we'll move to our our kind of last question. This is a summary question. We like to leave it on a generally positive and uplifting note, and this is somewhat a call to action for our pharmacy listeners and for our folks, the pharmacists, the pharmacy technicians.

00:12:22:11 - 00:12:29:19

Nick

From your perspective, what are your tips for successfully starting the New Year and optimizing the use of the EQUIPP dashboard?

00:12:29:23 - 00:12:54:04

Connor K.

So I would definitely say that teamwork and involvement of the entire pharmacy staff team to start up strong in the beginning of the year to keep patient engagement adherence as high as possible, to maintain that throughout the rest of the year. One to the pharmacies can use this to look at previous years data, to also study the historical trends, to then focus on that again in the beginning of the year to try to maintain that the highest score possible throughout the rest of the measurement period.

00:12:54:06 - 00:13:12:02

Connor K.

So pharmacies that utilize equipped by creating either a weekly or monthly routine and rhythm is a great way to stay engaged as well as knowledgeable of the measures, scores and changes of those scores. Pharmacies can stay on top of any updates or new programs that become available by subscribing to our monthly newsletter, as well as participating in our monthly webinars.

00:13:12:04 - 00:13:24:22

Connor K.

Lastly, the ability to again, like customize, filter and even download Patient Outlier listings to review them as a team and discuss the best way to engage with those patients can strongly influence, you know, how they're utilizing the data within EQUIPP.

00:13:24:24 - 00:13:44:01

Nick

Yeah, I think the biggest item here, Connor and this could be an easy motif to to rip off of, but when it comes to using EQUIPP, you just need to make it a habit. So start the new Year with forming a new habit. Or, you know, most most folks will have a New Year's resolution. Make yours for your pharmacy to use, EQUIPP, make the most of that information.

00:13:44:01 - 00:14:09:03

Nick

It may take a little bit of learning to get used to it, but for many of the pharmacies that are really our cases of best practices or best examples, you start small, you have a you have a champion in your pharmacy that really knows how to use and navigate the dashboard, and they can go through and really delegate some of this information, some of these opportunities, making sure that they're checking the opportunities that refresh on a weekly basis, focusing on the My Programs tab, focusing on the enhanced service.

00:14:09:03 - 00:14:29:16

Nick

I think those are the most popular areas. So start using folks and when you have questions, make sure you contact our support. It will more than likely be counter. It's there responding it. And again, Connor, as you can hear, as you can hear him now, he is a real human being person that gets to help and and work with your team so you can really make the most of this information.

00:14:29:18 - 00:14:44:18

Nick

Well, what Connor, I don't want to keep you too long on the show here, because I'm sure that you've already just in the time that we've been recording, you've probably already gotten lots of questions from pharmacies that you'll need to respond to. So I'll I'll let you get back to the normal day job. But before we do that, I've got a couple of rapid fire questions for you.

00:14:44:24 - 00:14:46:15

Nick

Are you ready?

00:14:46:17 - 00:14:47:17

Connor K.

Let's do it.

00:14:47:19 - 00:14:57:08

Nick

All right. Question number one What makes you most appreciative to work with and assist pharmacist and pharmacy technicians?

00:14:57:10 - 00:15:14:05

Connor K.

So I think that knowing that pharmacies truly are on the front lines of patient care and typically they're seen more regularly than the primary care providers being able to aid support them when it comes to really focusing on the patient's overall care, making sure that they have the most up to date knowledge and engagement for their medications.

00:15:14:07 - 00:15:22:00

Nick

Excellent. Love it. Next question What superhero would you want to work with as you support pharmacy teams?

00:15:22:02 - 00:15:34:06

Connor K.

Oh man, I think I would definitely have to choose Deadpool. Deadpool always makes everybody laugh with, you know, quote unquote Deadpool stuff. And in the world of pharmacy, I think we can all agree that laughter truly is the best medicine.

00:15:34:08 - 00:15:46:07

Nick

I personally love that answer and that choice. So two thumbs up from from me as the host on that one. Next question. What's one personal recommendation for a good, healthy and happy life?

00:15:46:09 - 00:16:05:16

Connor K.

So living in a technology driven world, you know, most people are even working remote from home these days. I definitely recommend to sometimes, you know, close the laptop, shut everything down, spend time with families and friends outdoors, whether it's the mountains, a park, the beach, or just maybe a garden in the backyard. Getting a little bit of sunshine and fresh air, I definitely think can do a lot for somebody.

00:16:05:18 - 00:16:15:19

Nick

Great answer. And our final question, Connor. What game show or reality TV show could you go on as a guest and do you think you could win?

00:16:15:21 - 00:16:26:15

Connor K.

I would have to say Jeopardy! For some reason, my brain just fills with random facts that have nothing to do with, you know, anything. Sometimes the random trivia facts is just what sticks out.

00:16:26:16 - 00:16:48:05

Nick

Or I will note that you missed the opportunity to to answer in the form of a question. And I think the correct answer would have been what is Jeopardy? But that's okay. All right. Well, kind of we appreciate having you on the show today. I'll say this or just note this as we go to close the episode. But if there are questions about equip where you can find some of the resources, information that Connor talked about.

00:16:48:07 - 00:17:10:03

Nick

You can check out our resources section on EQUIPP if you already are an equipped subscriber. If you have questions on, Hey, do I have an equipped log in or some of the information? You can either use the support feature that is on the website or contact support at pharmacy quality dot com. Again, Connor as lead on our support team is going to be likely the person that's answering or he may do some triaging to other members of our team such as myself.

00:17:10:05 - 00:17:16:09

Nick

But Connor, I want to thank you again for appearing on the show today and thank you for all your work to support the pharmacies. Any final words?

00:17:16:11 - 00:17:18:24

Connor K.

No, no, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

00:17:19:01 - 00:17:32:16

Nick

Excellent. Well, folks, with that, that means we have wrapped up another episode of The Quality Corner Show. We thank you for joining us today and we hope you listen to our next episode. Before we go, we have one final message from the team.

00:17:32:18 - 00:17:54:06

Outro

The Pharmacy Quality Solutions Quality Corner Show has a request for you. Our goal is to spread the word about how quality measurement can help improve health outcomes. And we need your help in sharing this podcast to friends and colleagues in the health care industry. We also want you to provide feedback, ask those questions and suggest health topics you'd like to see covered.

00:17:54:08 - 00:18:16:13

Outro

If you are a health expert and you want to contribute to the show or even talk on the show, please contact us using email info at pharmacyquality.com. Let us know what is on your mind, what we can address so that you are fully informed. We want you to be able to provide the best care for your patients and members, and we wish all of you listeners out there well.