Cross, Blackwelder featured in Pharmacy Today

JOHNSON CITY Dr. Brian Cross, an associate professor with the East Tennessee State University College of Pharmacy, and Dr. Reid Blackwelder, a professor with ETSUs Quillen College of Medicine, recently were featured in an issue of Pharmacy Today magazine.

The article showcased in the American Pharmacists Association publication tells the story of the pairs physician-pharmacist collaboration at ETSU Family Physicians.

Blackwelder told the magazine that the clinics have worked hard to foster a collaborative culture where everybody has a voice. Were all there to make our patients get the best outcomes.

Focusing on the Kingsport clinic ETSU Family Physicians is also located in Johnson City and Bristol the article details a typical day in which patients are seen by a health care team. That team includes a nurse, a faculty physician, family medicine resident and medical students, a faculty clinical pharmacist and student pharmacists, and a pharmacy resident rotating through the service.

Not only does Cross say such teamwork can result in a better outcome for the patient, but it also creates an area of mutual respect among health care professionals, he said.

Cross goes on to discuss what is needed to sustain such team-based care, including an improved reimbursement system through insurance companies and further study of the outcomes of such models of care.

To read the article in its entirety, visit http://www.pharmacist.com/blackwelder-and-cross-collaborate-family-medicine-clinic.