OREANDA-NEWS. December 07, 2015.  McKesson will showcase its comprehensive suite of technology solutions and clinical expertise designed to help hospital and health system pharmacy leaders improve their bottom line, without compromising quality and safety at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting 2015, which runs from December 6–10, 2015. The McKesson Booth #725 will host solution demonstrations and customer presentations, and pharmacy consulting experts will be on hand for one-on-one discussions designed to show pharmacy leaders how McKesson can help move their pharmacy forward together.

“Changing reimbursement, along with increased focus on quality and patient satisfaction, continues to put pressure on health system pharmacies to be seen as a center of care rather than cost,” said Mark Eastham, senior vice president and general manager, McKesson Pharmacy Optimization®. “Our pharmacy consulting team — composed of former health system pharmacists and hospital administrators — can help identify opportunities and work with health system pharmacies hand-in-hand to achieve success in three critical areas: rigorous financial performance, employee collaboration for operational efficiency, and integration of critical technology systems.”

McKesson Booth

Visitors to McKesson Booth #725 will learn how the Power of “&” can work for them by taking advantage of the following opportunities:

  • One-on-One Consulting: Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in one-on-one conversations with McKesson Pharmacy Optimization consultants. During this time, attendees can learn about best practices and solutions to challenges ranging from supply chain efficiency, to specialty and ambulatory pharmacy, to 340B and drug spend analysis.
  • Boothside Chats: As part of these informal sessions, McKesson experts and customers will share their personal experiences and insights on managing common issues facing health system pharmacies. Sessions include:

Monday, December 7: Increased Supply Chain Efficiency

  • 12:00 noon: “Strategies to Centralize Your Medication Distribution” — Barbara Giacomelli, Pharm.D., MBA, FASHP, area vice president, McKesson Pharmacy Optimization
  • 12:30 p.m.: “Implement Central Fill in Your Outpatient Pharmacy” — Mark Edwards, director of product management and engineering, McKesson Pharmacy Systems & Automation

Tuesday, December 8: Improved Financial Outcomes

  • 1:00 p.m.: “Discover Hidden Revenue in Your Pharmacy” — Terry Smith, M.S., R.Ph., area vice president, McKesson Pharmacy Optimization and Greg Doerr, B.S., MBA, R.Ph., managing consultant, McKesson Pharmacy Optimization
  • 1:30 p.m.: “Manage Operational Expenses, Increase Profitability” — Holly Lewis, senior director of strategic initiatives, McKesson Pharmacy Systems & Automation

Wednesday, December 9: Actionable Pharmacy Insights

  • 1:00 p.m.: “340B Tips, Tricks and Traps” — Andy Wilson, B.S., Pharm.D., FASHP, vice president, McKesson 340B Solutions and Kevin Scheckelhoff, MBA, R.Ph., assistant vice president, McKesson 340B Solutions
  • 1:30 p.m.: “Optimize Your Pharmacy with Business Analytics” — Joseph Ross, director of innovation, McKesson Pharmacy Systems & Automation

Solution Demonstrations

Attendees can get a first-hand look at a number of solutions designed to address top pharmacy challenges.

  • McKesson Health Systems: McKesson helps customers improve financial outcomes through its evidence-based programs, products and services including specialty and ambulatory pharmacy consulting, pharmacy revenue cycle analysis and support, and indigent drug recovery solutions. In addition, McKesson’s supply chain management solutions such as its competitive generics portfolio, Lean Six Sigma methodologies and training, timely drug shortage information, specialty inventory management technology, and single-source access to specialty products help customers increase efficiency and deliver measurable, time-saving results. McKesson provides actionable pharmacy insights through detailed drug spend analytics, 340B program management, improved billing accuracy and more.
  • McKesson Pharmacy Systems & Automation (MPS&A): MPS&A offers two new solutions to improve pharmacy outcomes: Adherence Performance Solution and Clinical Programs Solution. The Adherence Performance Solution online dashboard provides valuable data to help health system pharmacies understand and act on patient medication adherence behaviors. The dashboard identifies patients to target for an adherence program based on their current level of adherence and generates data to compare adherence performance to the rest of the market segment to prove the value of the pharmacy to preferred prescriber networks. The Clinical Programs Solution platform integrates with MPS&A’s pharmacy-management system so that health system pharmacies can easily add and manage multiple clinical programs for patients. Whether health system pharmacies use stand-alone vendor services or self-directed programs, the Clinical Programs Solution can save time and money by automatically synchronizing enrolled patient data between clinical programs and the hospital pharmacy’s system, identifying potential vendor programs for patients with specific medical conditions, and giving them easy-to-use tools to build their own customized clinical programs.
  • Parata: McKesson’s automation partner, Parata, will be demonstrating its Parata Max® and Parata Mini® robotic dispensing technology to show how automation solutions can: fill scripts safely; prevent controlled-substance diversion; manage an increasing script volume; and store, monitor and track drugs safely and securely. Parata automation allows health system pharmacists to free up labor for other value-added activities, such as medication reconciliation consulting, patient education, and post-discharge interventions to improve patient outcomes. Parata’s PASS 208™ adherence strip packager will also be featured within the McKesson booth to show how health system pharmacists can make it easy for patients to take the right medication at the right time, every time. PASS adherence packaging organizes medications the way patients take them, by day and time of dose, and empowers pharmacists to take a more proactive role in patient outcomes, avoid readmission for discharged patients, support common “med to bed” health system programs, and provide services to other health system entities such as a hospice or care center.

ASHP Poster Presentations to Feature McKesson Solutions

ASHP will feature a number of customers and solutions in poster presentations covering the following topics:

  • “Uncovering Hidden Opportunities to Expand Pharmacy Revenue” — Monday, December 7, 2:30–4:00 p.m. An in-depth hospital assessment identified failure to bill for wasted, unused drug product that remains from single-dose vials. Results demonstrate that a pharmacy-driven program can generate additional collectable revenue throughout a hospital system, thus positively impacting pharmacy budgets.
  • “Economic Impact of a Pharmacy Council on Drug Cost Containment Goals” — Tuesday, December 8, 2:30–4:00 p.m. Creating a systematic approach to evaluate and implement drug cost containment goals in a healthcare consortium by forming a Pharmacy Council.
  • “Economic Impact of an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in the First Year” — Tuesday, December 8, 2:30–4:00 p.m. Antimicrobial stewardship aims to optimize clinical outcomes through a variety of interventions. This review quantifies the impact of an antimicrobial stewardship program on medication costs in the first year at a 222-bed hospital, which involved a savings of \\$440,921, representing 3.6% of total drug spending.

ASHP-Hosted Educational Sessions, Management Case Studies, and Safety & Quality Pearls

ASHP will feature McKesson customers and solutions in education sessions covering the following topics:

  • Management Case Study: “Diagnosing the Health of Your Supply Chain: A Qualitative Approach to Benchmarking and Performance Improvement” — Sunday, December 6, 3:15–3:45 p.m. The session will review how to create meaningful questions to assess pharmacy supply chain performance and how an assessment of supply chain processes can lead to a process improvement plan.
  • “I Want That! Technology Innovations 2015” — Monday, December 7, 2:00–3:30 p.m. The session will highlight how batch cabinet refill data was assessed to develop a single database and a centralized batch cabinet refill station.
  • “Be Careful Little Eyes What You See” — Monday, December 7, 2:00–4:00 p.m. This session will discuss interventions that have improved safety and quality of patient care in a health system.
  • “EMR Strategies: Clinical Improvements from ED to ICU” — Tuesday, December 8, 2:00–3:30 p.m. The session will cover key EMR trends and opportunities for pharmacy, including how to leverage EMR technology to capture the most relevant clinical information, and strategies and solutions of using EMR to drive ordering algorithm.
  • “I’m NOT a Widget! Moving Beyond Productivity Measures to Clinical Outcomes Accountability” — Wednesday, December 9, 8:00–9:30 a.m. This session will review productivity metrics that every clinician should know about their organization and evaluate two pharmacy scorecard elements that measure clinical pharmacy program outcomes.

About McKesson

McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 11th 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 mckesson.com.

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