Lindsey Valenzuela joins California Society of Health-System Pharmacists board
(February 7, 2023 – Palm Springs, CA) When the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP) announced the results of its 2023 board of directors’ election in January, Lindsey Valenzuela, PharmD APh BCACP and Associate VP of Population Health Integration at Desert Oasis Healthcare (DOHC) was one of six new members elected to their leadership team. CSHP’s stated mission is to “Empower pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to promote wellness, patient safety and optimal use of medications.”
Dr. Valenzuela knows the CSHP well already. “I became a CSHP member during my residency at Desert Regional Medical Center (DRMC) and I admired the CSHP leaders who inspired us to push beyond perceived limitations,” said Valenzuela. “They had a collective vision for the future of pharmacy and population health that continues to inform how pharmacists and other trained professionals can team with primary care physicians to provide complete patient care.”
Pharmacy as an essential member of DOHC patient care teams
During her pharmacy residency at DRMC, Dr. Valenzuela began working with Teresa Hodgkins, PharmD BCACP. Dr. Hodgkins had been the first doctor of pharmacy DOHC hired back in 2005, to help create and launch the Comprehensive Medication Management (CMM) program. Hodgkins, now VP of Clinical Quality Initiatives for DOHC said, “If the CMM program had launched even within just these last few years, the ramp-up would have been much quicker. It’s not only that physicians now know what to expect from pharmacists, but there’s more willingness to come together as colleagues. Back then, we didn’t have the same robust ability to coordinate that we have today.”
When the Comprehensive Medication Management pilot program launched in 2005, it began with a disease-state focus, offering anticoagulation therapy. Soon, additional disease-specific programs were added, including Hepatitis C and, eventually, diabetes. As the rate of poorly controlled diabetes dropped significantly, DOHC earned a five-star Medicare Advantage rating.
Joining DOHC as a full-time employee allowed Dr. Valenzuela to become an important team member as the program evolved to a whole-patient approach under a new name: Population Health and Prescription Management (PHARxM™) or “Farm” as known at DOHC. Valenzuela became Administrator of PHARxM™, one of the departments she now directs, along with Health Education and the DOHC Cardiology program.
Learn more about the beginnings of PHARxM™ at DOHC from the case example on pages 27-30 of this 2016 report called Get the medications right: a nationwide snapshot of expert practices.
PHARxM™ assures public access to COVID-19 and MPX vaccines and boosters
In 2019, the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) and the Community Pharmacy Foundation (CPF) honored Valenzuela with the Community Pharmacy Innovation in Quality Award. This was in recognition of her leadership of a DOHC team of 24 pharmacists, three pharmacy residents, and many technicians to improve care quality, medication optimization, and patient outcomes.
With PHARxM™ now expanded far beyond that 2019 number of pharmacy professionals, the team has myriad duties as it continues to support thousands of patients. Most of these patients are living with multiple, complex chronic conditions, often requiring multiple medication therapies. Under Valenzuela’s leadership, PHARxM™ had implemented an innovative, pharmacist-led, personalized care model that provides medication-therapy management services and structured care plans to manage disease.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, DOHC set into place an evolving plan to deal with the threat. As soon as vaccines became available, Valenzuela’s PHARxM™ team collaborated with DOHC leadership to extend COVID-19 vaccination efforts to protect our community – now well over 110,000 vaccinations within the DOHC service area. Valenzuela’s staff has also been instrumental in keeping DOHC members and the public “in the know” with a robust collection of COVID-19 information and resources on MyDOHC.com. Monkeypox (or MPX) subsequently became a part of vaccination response, as DOHC complied with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.)
As DOHC continued to make vaccines available to its members and the public in 2021, their Mobile Health Clinic (MHC) became a vital service delivery vehicle – literally! The MHC visited many local employer groups, including a variety of local school districts, to assure anyone who wanted a vaccine could get one easily and free of charge. Tapping close relationships with local senior centers, the PHARxM™ staff also made sure that the centers were reaching out all seniors in their service areas wanting vaccines and boosters as those became available.
Founded in innovation, PHARxM™ pairs human touch with technology
In 2019, DOHC’s PHARxM™ already had a five-year partnership in place with Rimidi, a cloud-based connected software solution enabling personalized management of chronic conditions. That relationship took a big step forward in June when they announced a “connected insulin” delivery system, offering pharmacists a way to analyze and refine insulin dosages for diabetes patients. In July 2020, PHARxM™ again partnered with Rimidi to use an app that helped to identify patients with COVID-19, to help slow spread of the virus and to optimize treatment.
Earlier in 2020 and behind-the-scenes, PHARxM™ began a multi-year commercial partnership with Arine and its “Virtual Pharmacist” software platform that combined data science with clinical expertise. Also in 2020, DOHC announced a “behavioral economics” collaboration with Wellth, to improve care plan adherence for individuals diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes by providing a financial incentive. In late 2021, DOHC expanded the Wellth program to include behavioral health patients, as well as those with cardiovascular disease.
In 2022, eligible DOHC members began to access an artificial intelligence (AI) program from Lark Health to prevent and manage atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and coronary artery disease (CAD.) Watch for more news, soon to be announced, of how DOHC is continuing to improve patient care by working with an internationally known technology brand.
With a commitment to technology advances as an essential part providing real value-based care, Valenzuela says, “Innovative service delivery provided by high-touch pharmacists only matters if the patients who need those services can tap them easily without running into very real barriers, like money. That’s why we remove as many of those barriers as we can, like not charging co-pays. Combining technology advances with increasing physician acceptance of pharmacy, helped DOHC to become an early adopter of the move to value-based care.”
Press Contact
Rob Banchich
Director of Marketing
Desert Oasis Healthcare
About Desert Oasis Healthcare
Formed in 1981 as one of the first medical groups in the desert communities of southern California, Desert Oasis Healthcare (DOHC) continues to advance with changes in the healthcare market. DOHC provides primary and immediate care, home health, palliative care, clinical research studies and other services to more than 60,000 members/patients living in the greater Coachella Valley and the Morongo Basin of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The multidisciplinary and comprehensive care programs of DOHC are committed to educating individuals on preventive health care in their daily lives, reflected in the DOHC motto, "Your Health. Your Life. Our Passion." For more information, visit www.mydohc.com.
