Theme: Models of Care Year: 2024
Background: Poor or limited access to healthcare requires rapid community-level response to address equity. Mobile health clinics that include a pharmacy bridge this gap by meeting people where they are including persons who use drugs (PWUD). We outline the challenges to piloting the first legal retail mobile pharmacy clinic in the U.S. and share how patients have been utilizing our services including Community Health Worker (CHW), clinical, and pharmacy engagements.
Description of model of care: The intervention is a novel mobile hub-and-spokes model that integrates mobile retail pharmacy services for PWUD at risk and /or living with HIV in Connecticut (CT). Community healthcare workers (CHWs) assess the needs of persons and provide OUD/SUD screening, perform rapid HIV and HCV testing, and connect patients to a medical provider via telehealth or in person. Electronic prescriptions generated from the clinician are sent to the mobile retail pharmacy where there is a pharmacist to (a) fill all prescriptions including PrEP/ART, HCV treatment, and naloxone, and (b) dispense medications directly to the patient including administering injectable medications and vaccines.
Effectiveness: Since our pilot launch in mid-December 2023, CHWs provided care to 76 persons. Individuals received services, including blood pressure (n=58), blood glucose (n=20), HIV testing (n=21), and HCV testing (n=21). Housing and insurance issues were addressed by CHWs. Clinicians provided consultations (n=36) regarding various medical conditions. 93 prescriptions were dispensed to 30 community members including 70 (75, 26%) medications for PrEP, hypertension, diabetes, and infectious processes; and 23 (24,73%) vaccines were administered.
Conclusion and next steps: Through community engagement and legislative change, we are addressing health disparities for PWUD by increasing access to care through the first mobile retail pharmacy and clinic. As we expand access to underserved communities, we are also intensifying our efforts to reach individuals in need of substance use disorder treatment.