About |
PharmaCare, a Mesa, Arizona based high-tech, long-term-care pharmacy has solved the challenge of disjointed service issues, while maximizing patient outcomes and controlling pharmacy costs. They’ve unraveled many of the key challenges of disjointed service issues, while maximizing patient outcomes and controlling pharmacy costs.
Unfortunately, most long term care pharmacies have not built the communication systems to ensure appropriate medication management. Many pharmacies consider their mission to be filling and delivering drugs a success, lacking the ability to identify and act upon opportunities to improve patient outcomes.
However one local pharmacy has risen to the challenge. “Getting the drugs on time is no longer sufficient. It’s crucial that healthcare providers partner with pharmacies that have the infrastructure to get the right medications right off the bat, reducing the time it takes to “adjust” a patient’s medication regimen,” said Larry Donnelly, owner of PharmaCare. “While medications are being adjusted, that patient is less medically stable, may have trouble following a diet without help from drugs, and is less likely to participate in outpatient treatment, thus more likely to return to the hospital.”
“PharmaCare was built specifically to help solve the difficulties healthcare providers face, rather than as a tool to maximize pharmacy profits,” said Donnelly. “The income a pharmacy receives pales in comparison to the overall savings and improved outcomes potential that a pharmacy may impact.”
According to March’s edition of the Phoenix Business Journal, PharmaCare has implemented an innovative system that helps arm skilled nursing facilities with medication management and communication tools necessary to improve quality and reduce costs. These tools were also designed to cut hospital readmission rates.
Pharmacies play a big role in successful patient outcomes, as well as impact the facilities’ operating expenses. It’s not just the cost of the drugs, it’s the impact those drugs have on the patient. Therefore, communication between care providers is critical to ensure patients get better quickly and cost is controlled. PharmaCare implements a seamless communication system that helps to decrease lengths of stay, speed recovery, and improve outcomes. Working with the prescribers, PharmaCare can target the right medications to stabilize patients so they may maximize their own recovery.
Innovative features include:
• Collecting diagnosis, symptoms, patient goals, allergies and participation in the admissions process to develop a short and long-term patient care plan with care team members
• Digitized communications that maintain a permanent record of voice, email and fax communications
• Seamlessly share critical information between team members
• ePrescribe, reducing turnaround times
• Live links to payers for fast prior authorizations
• Full clinical and financial modeling support BEFORE the resident is admitted to ensure the patient is appropriate AND the most effective medication (clinically and financially) is dispensed for supported diagnosis.
• Patient-specific drug regimens that target the most effective medications for each diagnosis/symptom
• Manage prior authorizations with links to payers guaranteeing the resident gets the medications quickly, without tying up your staff resources chasing down prior authorizations
• On-Site Pyxis for urgent medication needs and new patient drug starts
• Drug compliance after the patient is discharged
• Live link medication administration records between the patient care team and PharmaCare
Although the full extent of the impact of healthcare reform remains to be seen, much of the scaffolding for change is already being built. But skilled and long term care providers will not be able to avoid more substantial, transformative change to both financing and care if they hope to thrive in a post-reform environment. Ultimately, that will entail a wholesale redesign of care delivery.
PharmaCare's innovative design, which takes advantage of powerful high-tech communication capabilities and old fashioned customer service gives healthcare teams the tools that they need to thrive.