Cardinal Health names three winners of Best Practices Competition

WASHINGTON — Cardinal Health this year named three winners of its prestigious Independent Pharmacy Best Practices Competition, in place of just one, during the company’s Retail Business Conference in late July.



The Best Practice Competition winners — Mac’s Pharmacy in Knoxville, Tenn.; TLC Pharmacy in Mission, Texas; and Mingo Pharmacy in Mingo Junction, Ohio — were selected as industry trendsetters whose successful, real-world models serve as an example for other community pharmacies across the country. All three winners are featured in the 2014 Cardinal Health Retail Pharmacy Best Practice Guide, which includes case studies for each, along with dozens of other best practice stories from retail pharmacists across the country.



Cardinal Health’s Bill Hayden, VP sales west region, introduced the three Best Practices Competition winners, saying: “This year, rather than choose three finalists and then one winner, we decided to award all three.”



Mac’s Pharmacy in Knoxville, Tenn. — run by Mac Wilhoit and his son, Mike — utilized a program that synchronizes and packages monthly prescription refills in ways that greatly improve the success of patients taking the right medicines at the right times. “Under the MediSync [and MediSync Plus] program[s], the pharmacy takes full control of a patient’s medication management by handling refills, prior authorizations and medication changes,” Hayden said. “Each patient is also assigned a MediSync coordinator who calls every month for pill counts, to check adherence and to go over the patient’s medication needs.”



The pharmacy filled six more refills per prescription, per year on average for each customer. “The majority of the patients who are on this program are the ones who are on the most medications,” noted Mike Wilhoit. “A lot of them are on 10 or more medications. By getting them on the program, they don’t have to worry about refills. All those things are being taken care of for them.”

At TLC Pharmacy in Mission, Texas, which suffered a sharp downturn in its durable medical equipment business when Medicare implemented a competitive bidding policy that shifted sales to larger suppliers, operations manager Joe Vargas shifted its focus to items that needed a clinician’s touch and weren’t easily subject to competitive bidding. One of its most successful strategies was focusing on fitting therapeutic shoes for diabetic patients. With four technicians trained on fitting shoes, the operation sells as many as 20 pairs of therapeutic shoes per day. “These patients [also get] their diabetic test strips and supplies when purchasing shoes,” Hayden noted. “Aiding in their success, TLC Pharmacy found a supplier partner in Independence Medical that was critical in helping them secure advantageous pricing on some of their medical supplies. TLC Pharmacy is a perfect example on how you can capitalize on a tough situation and still be competitive in your business.”

“We looked at our current market and our patient’s needs, but most importantly we looked at the product mix that we were carrying and basically focused on those products that were not going to be included in competitive bidding,” Vargas said.

And at Mingo Pharmacy in Mingo Junction, Ohio, pharmacist Frank Vostatek went back to school to become a registered nurse. He may be the nation’s first registered pharmacist who is also a registered nurse and a family nurse practitioner. “Not only is he providing better patient care in his community, he’s also helping his business grow,” Hayden said.

Vostatek said these additional licenses allow him to tap his deep knowledge of pharmacy and “practice at the top of my license.” He can administer all injections, and provide comprehensive wellness and illness care to children and adults. In coordination with a physician, he now also can write prescriptions. “As a pharmacist, we’re in one of those professions where right now it seems like we only get paid for what we sell. Really the most valuable part of what we do is what we know, and it’s hard to be remunerated for that,” Vostatek said. “I was tired of having customers, and I wanted to convert those into patients. … Being a nurse really helped me change my whole philosophy on how I view the patients who come into the pharmacy.”

To help support Vostatek, Mingo Pharmacy built a 1,300-sq.-ft. clinic addition, adding four patient suites that provide a broad range of urgent care services. “Another thing that we did was we incorporated a conference room into our pharmacy, which is already being used by a licensed chemical dependency counselor,” added Melissa Vostatek, fellow owner/operator. “We made a lot of changes, and the community is very excited about those changes we made.”

The 2014 Best Practice winners directed a $3,500 donation — made by Cardinal Health — to the pharmacy school or pharmacy association of their choice. The donation recipients included the Tennessee Pharmacy Association, Texas Southern University and Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.