University of Southern California School of Pharmacy California Right Meds Collaborative

2021 Hypertension Control Exemplar

The University of Southern California School of Pharmacy California Right Meds Collaborative (CRMC) made changes to their Comprehensive Medication Management (CMM) services to patients with hypertension during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CRMC was established in September 2019 as a consortium of health plans, pharmacies, and academic and professional organizations in Southern California. CRMC is committed to improving the use of evidence-based therapy and medication adherence by incorporating the clinical pharmacy services of a network of 14 community-based pharmacies.

Successful Strategies

When the pandemic began, CRMC had to ensure all participating pharmacists were trained in providing CMM via phone and secure video telehealth platforms. In 2021 CRMC demonstrated that 263 patients with uncontrolled diabetes receiving CMM through CRMC-associated pharmacists experienced an improvement in several disease control measures within 5 months.

Patients with uncontrolled blood pressure at baseline experienced an average reduction in systolic blood pressure of 23 mmHg and achieved blood pressure control rates of at least 85%. CRMC continued to expand its network as COVID-19 spread and patients with hypertension and other chronic illnesses became more hesitant to go to in-person medical appointments.

“Health care inequities in under-resourced communities are driven in large part by limited access. The California Right Meds Collaborative (CRMC) brings together health plans, physicians, and highly trained pharmacists to optimize medication therapy through comprehensive medication management delivered from pharmacies with a trusted relationship in their local communities, often with culturally and ethnically aligned staff. CRMC ensures delivery of high value to all stakeholders by targeting high-/rising-risk patients and providing value-based payments, along with an aggressive continuous quality improvement process. With 90% of the U.S. population living within 5 miles of a pharmacy and over 67,000 pharmacies in the United States, CRMC is a scalable model that leverages an underutilized health care delivery and access point.”

—California Right Meds Collaborative, Los Angeles, California

Photo: Dr. Jessica Abraham with a patient.

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