Independents win for innovation
LAS VEGAS — Three independent drug stores in the Cardinal Health network were recognized for their innovative approach to community pharmacy during Thursday’s opening session of the company’s annual Retail Business Conference in Las Vegas.
The trio of winners of the annual Independent Pharmacy Best Practices included Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Whiting, N.J., which was honored in the Wellness Advantage category for its Discharge Rx Care program that helps transition patients from an extended care facility to their own home; Katterman’s Pharmacy in Seattle in the Retail Advantage category for the creation of a unique travel vaccination program; and El Dorado TrueCare Pharmacy of El Dorado, Kan., in the Business Advantage category for employing a restaurant-style paging system to ease bottlenecks at its drive-through prescription window.
“We are humbled by their commitment to excellence in community pharmacy,” Cardinal Health SVP of Retail Independent Sales Steve Lawrence said, announcing the winners. “They demonstrate what it takes to be positioned to win in today’s changing healthcare landscape.”
Al Patel, owner of the Whiting, N.J., Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy, explained that since implementing the program in early 2013, Discharge Rx Care program has helped lower nursing home and hospital readmission rates for more than 250 patients.
Under the program, he explained, Medicine Shoppe pharmacists work with nursing homes to prepare the medications for a patient prior to his or her discharge. The pharmacy provides special adherence packs for morning, noon, evening and bedtime doses. A pharmacist delivers the medications on the day of discharge and provides patients and caregivers with a thorough review of each drug.
In addition, the pharmacist completes a full medication reconciliation and removes any expired medications, or medications that could cause harmful interactions, from the patient’s medicine cabinet. Weekly follow-ups ensure that patients understand how to take each medication and do not experience any side effects.
Meanwhile, Beverly Schaefer and Steve Cone, pharmacists and owners of Katterman’s Pharmacy, have worked diligently to keep their offerings fresh and relevant for their customers. Running the Seattle-based store since 1996, the pair has constantly reinvented their business to ensure it stays on the cutting edge.
The store’s travel-related immunization program offers patients a quick, convenient and wide array of vaccines, they said. In addition, the store offers travel consultations and an extensive line of travel-related general merchandise.
Schaefer explained that this one-stop travel shopping experience and the relatively quick access to vaccines that her pharmacy can provide has helped her and Cone attract an increasing portion of the area’s travel vaccination business.
With pharmacy at the heart of every independent drug store’s operation, El Dorado TrueCare Pharmacy pharmacist and owner Mike Bellesine has ensured that his prescription-dispensing operation is at the top of its game.
With his store’s drive-up window service causing patients what he describes as “more pain than convenience,” Bellesine said he began to worry about customers looking for alternatives to the pharmacy. On its busiest days, the pharmacy fills more than 900 prescriptions, often resulting in a long line of cars waiting to use the drive-through window.
Borrowing a long-time practice used by restaurants, Bellesine began giving patients who use the window numbered pagers that can be accessed anywhere in the store’s parking lot. When a patient’s prescriptions are ready, the pager is activated and the patient can drive up to the prescription window for instant service.
Bellesine said that since employing the pager system, his drive-up window has seen an increase in the number of prescriptions filled at the window from about 50 a day to more than 120 a day.