The solution was “Do It Yourself.”
In 2011, Director of Clinical and Specialty Services Jonathan Van Lare concluded there had to be a better way to solve the Workflow Efficiency problems Pharmacy Advantage experienced on a daily basis. “Granted, we’d advanced beyond the old paper-based system, but we were still operating in multiple Access and Excel databases in addition to our dispensing system. Which meant that virtually all of our patient and clinical information had to be entered into each database separately.
The same problem. Over and over. And over.
“Worse still, there was no way to automatically populate forms with redundant data. Which meant that a complicated Medical Request Form could take up to an hour to prepare. And with every single manual entry in those forms, there was the possibility of human error. Insurance companies have such detailed data requirements, that something as minor as a single letter misspelled in a patient’s name could prompt a denial. This rejection would then result in the initiation of a long investigation process by our team to determine exactly where we’d gone wrong.
“And the worst part, in my mind, was: That’s not what our pharmacists and clinicians needed to be spending their time doing. These are people who’ve dedicated their lives and careers to treating patients, and some days they’re spending more than half of the day filling-out forms.
“Our goal every day is the same as any specialty pharmacy: Dispensing the right drugs at the right times to the right patients, and providing the kind of counseling support that ensures patients understand their medication protocols, then follow them.”
If you want something done right…
Given the size of pharmacy market, Jonathan logically assumed there was an existing software solution for Pharmacy Advantage’s workflow objectives. There wasn’t. That’s when Pharmacy Advantage entered the software business. Three years later, under the leadership of Jonathan’s development team — with input from literally every pharmacist and clinician on staff — Pharmacy Advantage moved its operations into the DromosPTM system. The impact was immediate.
“From a time-saving perspective, the single most important function DromosPTM offers is the form-building module that pre-populates MRF’s with recurring data. From a patient safety perspective, that module virtually eliminates the risk of human error.” The results are undeniable.
The numbers speak for themselves.
Pharmacy Advantage secured 28,675 prior authorizations during its first two years with the system (compared to 9,196 PAs during the two year-period before DromosPTM’s launch) without making a single data-entry error. Equally important, staff productivity improved exponentially. “I read somewhere that the average time of prescription delivery for a new patient in our industry is 12 days. We’re serving more than triple the patients since the inception of DromosPTM, and our average delivery time is two days.
Better patient care
“More importantly, given the access DromosPTM offers our clinicians to professional resources such as MicroMedix database and the McKesson dispensing system, we’re able to give patients the information they need — as clearly as possible — to ensure adherence to their protocols.
Mission accomplished daily
“What’s more, it’s enabled us to manage daily operational workflows at the management level. Now, a floor manager has instant access to each Disease State HUB’s responsibilities every morning. So if, for instance, the Oncology HUB is slammed and Hepatology’s workload is light, we can shift patients from one to the other. And again, with the information available at every clinician’s fingertips, there’s no dropoff in counseling quality — because everyone on our staff has the basic skills needed to serve patients, no matter their disease state specialization.
The bigger picture
“For our patients, that means consistently better outcomes. For Pharmacy Advantage, that means more manufacturers are interested in giving us access to dispense their medications. Before DromosPTM, a big part of my job was marketing our capabilities to them. Now, they’re inviting me out!”
