Telepharmacy from ScriptPro Helps Bring Needed Services to Grand Canyon

You might not expect to find pharmacy services in a remote area like the Grand Canyon, but as telemedicine advances, and ScriptPro becomes one of the top providers of telepharmacy, even the most secluded areas are able to offer pharmacy access to people who need it.

The Grand Canyon, known as one of the most spectacular natural wonders of the world, is now home to some pretty “spectacular” pharmacy technology.

Just a few years ago, receiving access to pharmacy services was a challenge at Grand Canyon National Park. The closest pharmacy was 100 miles round trip according to Mary Lou Brubaker, PA-C, PharmD, and Director of Pharmacy for North Country HealthCare. She notes,

“Sometimes prescriptions were mailed, sent by courier, or a patient would have to make the drive. Unfortunately, these options were inconvenient for patients and many prescriptions were never filled.”

Mary Lou didn’t give up. She kept looking at options that would allow North Country to operate a remote pharmacy at the Grand Canyon site, and finally found the solution while at an ASHP Conference — ScriptPro’s Telepharmacy.

Using telepharmacy allows North Country to provide onsite pharmacy services at the health centers in the Grand Canyon and Kingman, AZ. However, Arizona currently does not have rules and regulations for telepharmacy. Mary Lou explained,

“We had to present to the State Board of Pharmacy to request a waiver to operate telepharmacy. ScriptPro helped guide us through the process and came with us for the presentation to the Board. We were granted the waiver for the Grand Canyon and Kingman locations.”

A pharmacist in the North Country HealthCare pharmacy in Flagstaff uses telepharmacy to verify prescriptions and counsel patients while certified pharmacy technicians working at the Grand Canyon and Kingman medical centers dispense the prescriptions.

Thanks to the collaboration of the Park Service, North Country HealthCare, and ScriptPro’s Telepharmacy, the residents and visitors of the Grand Canyon now have pharmacy services available to them. The pharmacist conducts high quality, safe, and efficient remote prescription filling, verification, and counseling using ScriptPro Telepharmacy between locations.