1 ADVANCE for Executive Insight

kyle kielinski
drugs, it manages, at the University of Kentucky,
50 percent of the organization’s expense budget,
$100 million in supplies and labor costs and
some 300,000 medication drug doses a month.
It was in the mid-2000s when Johnson noticed
more CPO positions emerging at institutions
such as The Cleveland Clinic and UPMC. At the
time, he was serving as pharmacy director at the
University of Virginia, and reporting to a vice
president responsible for the pharmacy, laboratory
and radiology.
“The problem was Pharmacy was two levels
away from the senior executive table,” Johnson
says. “That VP to whom I reported then reported
to the chief operating officer, who reported to the
CEO. Politically, it’s difficult to secure resources,
it’s difficult to move your agenda forward when
you are that far removed from the CEO.” But now,
at the University of Kentucky, Johnson has a direct
report to the CEO: “It allows me to be part of
the strategic planning of the organization.”
One way the hospital
pharmacy
can play a pivotal
role in a healthcare
organization’s
operations
is by saving money
for the health
system by working
with senior
leadership to craft
a business model
that optimizes
its expenses and
maximizes safety
for patients, Johnson
says.
Technology and Safety
One way the hospital pharmacy can play a pivotal
role in a healthcare organization’s operations
is by saving money for the health system
by working with senior leadership to craft a
business model that optimizes its expenses and
maximizes safety for patients, Johnson says.
“Pharmacy is in the greatest position to control
costs because we can affect physicians and the
drugs they choose to prescribe, which is the largest
expense for hospitals,” he says.
The pharmacy can streamline operations, increase
safety and reduce medication errors with
the help of technology. For Johnson, this is where
Talyst Inc. comes in. He says the company’s
hardware/software inventory management solutions,
in particular bar coding, make the pharmacy
safer. “We use technology to put bar codes
on all of our drugs,” Johnson explains. “When we
process a physician order, the electronic order
creates a pending action that requires pharmacy
staff to remove the drug from inventory, located
on the shelves or in the carousel [automated dispensing
machine], and then we use a handheld
scanner. When we scan that drug, assuming it
matches that pending electronic order, the drug
is released and we dispense it to the floor. If it
isn’t the correct drug, an error code will not allow
us to proceed.”
The process extends beyond the pharmacy
and to the patient bedside. An example: A papharmacy
tient is prescribed several medications to take at
9 a.m. The nurse comes into the patient hospital
room with separately packaged medications in
small containers with bar codes on them. “So not
only in the pharmacy are we scanning that drug
to ensure that we’re giving the right drug to the
nurse, the nurse also scans that drug, and then
she reaches over and scans a wristband on the
patient to make sure the patient is receiving the
drug that was ordered.”
Future
Johnson believes the hospital pharmacy holds
the keys to a health system’s success — from a
safety and a financial perspective. Solutions such
as Talyst are making this a reality. The University
of Virginia has seen fewer medication errors
since the system was installed, and pharmacists
are rounding with physicians in specialized areas
such as oncology to make recommendations as
to the best drugs to use.
“The CEOs and the senior leaders are under
incredible pressure to get control of costs, and
the one place where they can do that is with
Pharmacy,” Johnson says. “We can leverage this
technology to control the inventory. We can leverage
the technology to decrease medication
errors, and we can use the pharmacists to help
the physicians select cost-effective drugs and
drugs that have the best outcomes.”
ADVANCE for Executive Insight
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