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A Step Forward
QR Codes: A Digital Avenue for PMI by Will Lockwood A small change is promising to make a big difference in efforts at Hobbs Pharmacy to make sure its patients have the medication information they need. What’s new? A QR, or quick response code. obbs Pharmacy is closing in on its 50th year in business, reports pharmacy manager Eric Russo, Eric Russo, Pharm.D. It offers retail and closed-door longPharm.D., next to term care dispensing, home infusion, and compounding. an example of the QR code on a “We offer a full selection of pharmacy services,” says prescription vial. Russo, “but we also see ourselves as a very traditional “If they have pharmacy in that we promote high-touch customer access via our QR service.” So Russo and his colleagues are always on the code, they get a lookout for technology that’s better for the patient while trusted source of also helping the pharmacy further this patient-centered information that’s approach. It’s not surprising then that the Merritt Island, branded through Fla., pharmacy jumped at the opportunity to be the first Hobbs Pharmacy.” Rx30 pharmacy to go live with a new QR-code-driven digital medication information resource from VUCAHealth, called MedsOnCue. cation, they don’t have the information they need.” The Point and Scan patient may then call the pharmacy or, even more likely, may go online, where it can be hard to tell if the medicaHere’s how it works: A patient uses the camera and a free app on his or her smartphone to scan the two-dimensional tion information is from a trusted source. “But if they QR barcode, and this links to video and text-based medi- have access via our QR code, they get a trusted source of information that’s branded through Hobbs Pharmacy,” cation information. This affords Hobbs Pharmacy’s patients with a sophisticated multimedia resource that Russo says Russo. “And with video, text, and the option to contact the pharmacy, we can also cater to the different ways a and his colleagues see as a supplement to paper patient medication information (PMI) efforts. “The reality is that person may want to learn about medications.”
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a lot of patients don’t read the paper PMI they receive,” he says. “The paper gets thrown away when the patient gets home and then, a few days later, when they are experiencing something they think may be a side effect of the medi12
ComputerTalk
QR Codes for Pharmacy Creating a QR code isn’t difficult. They are in common use these days, and you can even use various resources on-