Presentations highlight health system pharmacy innovations to control costs, increase revenue and maintain patient care
ANAHEIM, December 08, 2014 – Innovative solutions to help hospital and health system pharmacies contain costs, grow pharmacy revenues, and maintain patient care are the focus of five abstracts selected for poster presentation at this year’s American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting, currently underway.
“With the continued evolution of payment models and reduced reimbursement, hospitals and health systems are increasingly looking to pharmacies to help control costs and increase revenue while maintaining quality patient care,” said Mark Eastham, Sr. Vice President and General Manager, McKesson Pharmacy Optimization®. “We are committed to delivering impactful results for our customers and we are honored that ASHP is featuring a number of abstracts that highlight McKesson customers and solutions.”
ASHP to Feature McKesson Customers and Solutions in Five Poster Sessions
ASHP will feature McKesson customers and solutions in poster presentations covering the following topics:
- "Economic impact of a patient assistance program in an academic medical center” — Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and McKesson; December 8, 2:30–4 pm PST.
Hospitals are finding it increasingly challenging to recoup some of the financial losses they sustain when providing care for the uninsured and underinsured. Patient assistance programs (PAPs), sponsored by pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturers, help hospitals capture some of these losses by replacing the medication or medical device administered or dispensed to an indigent patient. However, many hospital pharmacy and patient services staff have found it challenging to stay abreast of the shifts in PAP recovery and stay current with over 400 manufacturer programs. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, in partnership with McKesson’s MedSource® program, successfully designed, implemented and quantified a PAP that helped recoup an average actual recovery of ~$174,700 per month in medications and devices.
- “Conversion to the biosimilar tbo-filgrastim as a cost-savings initiative in a community medical center” — Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell, Montana, and McKesson; December 8, 2:30–4 pm PST.
Health system pharmacies must balance the promise of biosimilars with new policies and procedures to evaluate safety, therapeutic equivalence and other factors. This presentation provides details on an automatic therapeutic interchange program of filgrastim to the biosimilar product tbo-filgrastim at a 155-bed acute care facility. After an extensive literature and drug utilization review of filgrastim, unanimous support from the hematologists and oncologists in the medical center allowed for a successful implementation of filgrastim orders to be automatically changed to tbo-filgrastim by the pharmacy department. Quantification and monitoring with objective data was done using the McKesson Drug Spend Trend Report. Year-over-year results showed a >50% reduction in the amount of money spent on filgrastim and tbo-filgrastim as a result of the conversion without impacting patient outcomes and care.
- “Economic impact of two antimicrobial stewardship initiatives at a tertiary care academic medical center” — Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery, Alabama, and McKesson; December 8, 2:30–4 pm PST.
Baptist, a 454-bed medical center, is always evaluating cost containment opportunities in its pharmacy department. The medical center implemented two antimicrobial initiatives designed to promote judicious use of antimicrobials. Collaboration with prescribing physicians in the medical center allowed for a successful implementation of these initiatives and the cost savings was quantified using the McKesson Drug Spend Trend Report. The first initiative was a formulary interchange from doripenem and meropenem, which resulted in a cost savings of $78,426 (56% reduction) over one year. The second initiative was to implement guidelines for use based on the results of a medication use evaluation on linezolid, which resulted in appropriate prescribing and a cost savings of $41,697 (21% reduction) over one year.
- “Centralized automated dispensing machine batch fill in an integrated delivery network (IDN)” — MedStar Health System and McKesson; December 9, 2:30–4 pm PST.
Health systems are challenged for new and creative ways to reduce cost and improve workflow efficiency without an impact on quality care. MedStar Health System, an IDN in the Baltimore–Washington, DC area, decided to centralize the batch cabinet fill for automated dispensing cabinets (ADC) for 6 of its 10 hospitals. By centralizing the batch cabinet fill they were able to reduce on-hand inventory at these hospitals and streamline and compress the batch cabinet fill process, freeing up technician and pharmacist time. McKesson’s Pharmacy Optimization team supported them through planning and implementation and continues to support them in the next phase. Based on the success of this initial centralized batch cabinet fill, MedStar plans to launch Phase II of the program and expand the number of hospitals participating in the centralized fill.
- “Quality, productivity and economic results of a metered dose inhaler to nebulizer interchange in a large, regional referral medical center” — Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville, TN, and McKesson; December 9, 2:30–4 pm PST.
Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, a 541-bed regional referral medical center, implemented an initiative to interchange inhaled medications for chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD) to the nebulizer formulation. Collaboration with other departments in the medical center allowed a successful implementation. Measuring and monitoring outcomes was done using analytics tools that focused on quality, workload and financial savings, including the McKesson Drug Spend Trend Report.
ASHP Hosted Automation and Technology Session and Management Case Study
In addition to the poster sessions, ASHP will feature McKesson customers and solutions in networking sessions covering the following topics:
- The networking session “Supporting Pharmacy Technician Workforce Development to Advance the ASHP Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative (PPMI)” will be hosted by the ASHP Advisory Group on Pharmacy Support Services. Cindy Jeter, CPhT, of McKesson Health Systems, will be a roundtable facilitator for this networking session on Tuesday, December 9 from 11:15 am – 12:15 pm PST. The session will center on evolving practice changes that are transforming the role and scope of responsibility of the pharmacy technician, with discussions centering around challenges facing pharmacy technicians, strategies to bridge the training gap, and educating and elevating the current workforce.
- An informatics networking session titled “To Infinity and Beyond! Pharmacy Technicians as Informaticists” will be facilitated by Barbara Giacomelli, PharmD, MBA, FASHP, of McKesson Health Systems on Tuesday, December 9 from 8 – 9:30 am PST. This presentation will outline the role pharmacy technicians can provide in hospitals related to informatics and review career opportunities in informatics for pharmacy technicians. This session will feature case study examples of how other hospitals and health systems are utilizing technicians to support automation and technology.
For more information, please visit McKesson’s online newsroom at www.McKesson.com/newsroom.
About McKesson
McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 15th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit www.McKesson.com.
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