In most health care systems, the relationship between prescribing clinicians and pharmacy teams is distant at best—often separated by systems, delays, and administrative red tape. But in St. Luke's integrated model, collaboration is built into the workflow. 

 Here’s how that plays out in real life. 

 A nurse practitioner was in the middle of a patient visit when a question came up about a new drug that had just entered the market. The patient was curious and wanted to understand if it could be the right option for their condition. 

 In a fragmented system, the provider might have had to make an educated guess, put the prescription on hold, or wait hours—sometimes days—for a response from a third-party pharmacy benefit manager. Instead, our nurse practitioner opened a real-time internal chat with our in-house pharmacy technicians. 

Within minutes, the pharmacy team replied: the new drug lacked strong evidence of superior efficacy. They not only flagged the concerns but also offered up several proven, cost-effective alternatives—saving the clinician time and helping the patient get the right treatment faster. 

This type of immediate, informed response simply doesn’t happen in most traditional healthcare systems. It eliminated guesswork, prevented unnecessary costs, and most importantly, helped the patient feel confident in their care. 

The result? 

• Better clinical decision-making, in real time. 
• Lower administrative burden. 
• And a patient who walks away with answers, not uncertainty. 

This is what true integration looks like: clinicians and pharmacy teams working side by side—not just to move faster, but to move smarter.