CVS Health announced a new clinical affiliation with Tucson Medical Center Tuesday, but officials stress that patients remain free to choose other pharmacies.
When it made the announcement, the Rhode Island-based pharmacy retailer and health care company also said it had entered a similar affiliation with Rush University Medical Center in Illinois.
The two new clinical affiliations brings the total number of health system and health care provider affiliations for CVS Health and its MinuteClinic operations to more than 50 across the country, CVS Health said in a news release.
The partnership is primarily for data sharing, where the two entities are integrating their electronic health records systems, officials said. At the same time, they stressed that the data sharing is going to physicians, and pharmacies will not have access to individual patient records.
“Ultimately we can create ways to exchange data by being on the same EHR (electronic health records) platform,” said Susan Willis, executive director for network development at Tucson Medical Center.
If a patient affiliated with TMC One, TMC’s physician group, goes to a CVS MinuteClinic, for example, that information will be electronically transmitted to their physician, which had not happened in the past, Willis said.
The agreement does not extend to other pharmacies, but it is not exclusive so the hospital is open to form similar relationships with other pharmacies in the future.
The system will create quarterly reports that will flag patients who did not fill their prescriptions and therefore might not be complying with their recommended treatment.
“In that case the physician may want to reach out to that patient. There is always a possibility the prescription was filled at another pharmacy, but they could ask the question,” Willis said.
“This is about data sharing for improved management of patient care… Data is everything in health care — you can take better care of people and do it faster.”
CVS/pharmacy has more than 7,800 retail pharmacy locations across the U.S. and more than 900 walk-in clinics, company officials say.
Contact health reporter Stephanie Innes at sinnes@tucson.com or 573-4134.
