Practice spotlight: a telepharmacy model of care for hospitals.

Weeneebayko General Hospital in Moose Factory, Ontario, is a 30-bed acute care hospital that serves the 9000 residents living on the James Bay coast of Ontario. Most of the population consists of Native Canadians living in 6 communities, 4 of which are accessible only by plane or by boat. Traditionally, the hospital pharmacy was to be staffed with one full-time hospital pharmacist. There are also 2 community pharmacies in the region, 1 in each of the larger communities of Moosonee and Moose Factory. Over the years, the Weeneebayko General Hospital had trouble recruiting and retaining personnel for the hospital pharmacist position, and in 2004, the hospital again found itself with no pharmacist in this position. Although arrangements have sometimes been made for a consultant pharmacist when the pharmacist position was vacant, care was compromised during these periods of nonavailability. In 2004, in an attempt to find a long-term solution, a telepharmacy model of care was implemented. Kevin McDonald, a pharmacist who was familiar with the hospital and its staff through previous work on site, started serving the hospital from a home office in a different city, supplemented by twice-yearly on-site visits. Telepharmacy can be defined as the use of electronic information and communications technologies to provide and support pharmaceutical care and distribution of medications when distance separates the pharmacist from the hospital. The model was designed with the intention of duplicating as many of the services that a pharmacist would provide if he or she were on site as possible.