![]() ![]() There are studies that show that people go to their doctor 3 to 4 times a year, but they go to their pharmacist sometimes weekly. We’re essentially trying to make the pharmacy more efficient by freeing up time, since pharmacists are very highly trained professionals in the health field and they can do a lot based on their education and their experience. We also have a medical billing package, where pharmacies can become certified to bill through the pharmacy things outside of the drug benefit. We have lots of clinical tools too that are like programs in a box, so if you own a pharmacy and you want to start getting into flu vaccinations, we can help train you and procure the things you need to be paid for the program as well. We have tools that can help them manage their inventory better, and proprietary system called Cardinal Inventory Manager (CIM). The idea behind that is better clinical outcomes, where we can support and manage IDNs of different sizes.įor our retail pharmacies, we run the gamut. In the acute setting, we have the capability to do complete outsourcing of a hospital’s in-patient pharmacy to us We have approximately 150 IDNs that I mentioned previously, where there is an arrangement in place to manage some part of their pharmacy. What we develop and what we call solutions are sort of a suite of different services that go beyond just distributing the products. We don’t make any drugs, we only source our drugs from those manufacturers who make them, put them in our warehouse, and move them out for our patients. Weitzman: Well, what we consider the product are the drugs themselves. PT: When you talk about these touchpoints, is it more that Cardinal Health oversees operations or do they provide specific programs or products? Everything through our large chains, customers, regional chains, to our 20,000 retail independent community pharmacies, we service these pharmacies and make them better. That’s a captive, retail experience for that patient and we are very present as well in that class of trade. Things such as cholesterol or high blood pressure won’t typically require hospitalization, but their doctor wants them to be on the medication for their health. The other path is simple: as people age, they need maintenance medication. It seems like a nice simple process, but there are many hands behind the scenes that go into making it a good order and getting it out the door of our facility to hospitals or out-patient facilities. We also have your basic distribution, which is where a pharmacy places an order and we curate their order so they’re buying what they’re supposed to buy. We have distribution to free-standing hospitals. In my position, we actually organize ourselves around what we call, “class-of-trade,” touchpoints where you need a pharmacy to be supporting the patient. the hospital, the long-term care facility, and retail setting. Every step of the way, Cardinal has a touchpoint with the provider, i.e. could be through the hospital through some sort of emergency situation or a planned surgery of some kind, and then there’s typically a discharge management process. PT: Can you talk about the current distribution model and what it means for payers, hospitals and patients?ĭebbie Weitzman: I would say that there are two paths for the patient. Debbie Weitzman, president of pharmaceutical distribution at Cardinal Health, speaks to Pharmacy Times ® about the services that Cardinal Health offers across the distribution model during the Cardinal Health Retail Business Conference in Nashville, TN. ![]()
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