Azina® revamped retail operations and established a thriving specialty program, setting the hospital up as a best-in-class model for innovation, high-touch care, and improved drug access. 

A Hospital Considers

NEW PHARMACY CAPABILITIES

A regional hospital in the south turned to Azina to optimize their retail pharmacy and realize new opportunities in the specialty pharmacy space. The existing retail pharmacy needed operational improvements to keep pace with 21st century operational demands. Leadership was ready to ramp up the hospital’s pharmacy capabilities to enable progress towards larger strategic goals.

Azina Steps Up Pharmacy Operations for

LONG TERM GROWTH

Azina’s experts conducted a full assessment of everything from A to Z, including workflow, staffing, inventory processes, customer service protocols, technology, equipment, infrastructure, and space. They developed a comprehensive plan that included the following:

New Retail Pharmacy

BUILD-OUT

Azina designed and supervised construction of a custom 1,200-square-foot retail pharmacy that reflected the strategic needs of the hospital currently and well into the future. In addition to new opportunities that Azina identified in the initial assessment, the redesign also created process improvements. As part of the build-out, Azina delivered a formal strategic and tactical business plan implementing the following:

1. State-of-the-art IT infrastructure and software
2. Robotic automation to house the top 200 meds and to count out and label the drugs
3. An integrated will-call system that highlights the patient’s name to speed service and processes
4. Detailed capital equipment plan
5. Inventory management processes
6. Clinical programs forged out of deep experience
7. 340B strategies for increasing drug access
8. Staffing models at all levels
9. Patient experience strategy, including a patient app, and a private on-site consult area for easy access and low wait times

The Specialty Pharmacy:

With a state-of-the-art retail pharmacy as the foundation, Azina built a specialty pharmacy capability initially focused on neurology and infectious diseases. This embedded specialty pharmacy has helped the hospital realize new sources of revenue, retain and grow the patient base, drive access to limited distribution drugs (LDDs), and continue to improve patient care outcomes.

Dual Accreditation:

Azina helped the hospital achieve dual accreditation. This demonstrates to payors, drug manufacturers and other key stakeholders that the specialty pharmacy is qualified to deliver quality patient care with expert personnel leveraging effective policies, procedures, and advanced technology.

Specialty Drug Access Program:

Azina helped the hospital gain access to more than a dozen specialty drugs by facilitating contracts with payors and access to critical LDDs from key manufacturers. As a result, the hospital increased script volumes across the program. Through provider education, patients gained access to effective medications and the pharmacy realized greater performance in capture rate, gross margins, patient satisfaction levels, and more.

The Results

Azina created a pharmacy operation for the future, improving medication adherence, lowering readmissions, increasing patient satisfaction, reducing employee drug costs, and boosting bottom line performance.

• Financial (AS MORE SCRIPTS QUALIFIED FOR 340B)
  • Average daily revenue increased from $10K to $36K
  • Average daily gross margin increased from $4.7K to $21K
  • Daily script count tripled from 4 Rx/day to 13 Rx/day
• Operational
  • Time to fill was 2.98 days
  • PDC is 96.7%
• Pharma Access with the Pfizer oncology portfolio
  • Filled over $1.1M in scripts

The hospital’s success can be attributed to increased script capture, enhanced provider engagement, and more 340B purchasing within a stronger, integrated program. Today, this hospital pharmacy represents best-in-class innovation.

Contact Azina today!