One of the largest health systems in the U.S. tapped Azina to build an existing specialty pharmacy into a system-wide powerhouse.

A Health System

LOOKING TO GET AHEAD

One of the largest health systems in the U.S. was growing rapidly and looking for new ways to keep pace with evolving operational demands. Because this hospital system prioritized exemplary patient service, clinical and operational excellence, and innovation in healthcare, they turned to Azina to expand and accelerate the growth of their existing specialty pharmacy.

The Azina team assessed the health system’s overall needs, key performance benchmarks, and challenges. From there, they mapped out a plan to make immediate improvements and support system-wide growth well into the future.

Azina's PLAN FOR SUCCESS

The Specialty Pharmacy:

The physical pharmacy space could not keep pace with the demands of the health system. They needed more room for staff, inventory, shipping, and equipment. Azina successfully modified the existing space to support operations while a new pharmacy was designed and built. The new space now includes upgraded workstations, Uline shelves, refrigeration, and more to help with planning for additional staff and medication storage in the future.

Specialty Pharmacy Operations:

Azina guided the system through an operational restructure that improved workflows, shipping, technology, and data/analytics reporting. Azina optimized the pharmacy team’s daily workflows and collection of patient therapy and outcomes data using TherigySTM, a product of Azina’s sister company, Therigy. The pharmacy implemented an automated solution for tracking and delivering prescriptions. Custom data analytics dashboards were developed to track operational and financial trends, monitor capture rates, identify leakage, measure performance, and optimize growth opportunities.

Growth Plan For The Future:

A marketing and communications plan has been developed and implemented to increase awareness of the specialty pharmacy across the organization and to optimize script capture. The Azina Patient Care Services Team works alongside the health system operations to accelerate intake, pre-auth, and clinical care management for their specialty patients. Pharmacy Liaisons have been added to the clinics to focus on oncology, neurology, and bleeding disorders, supporting prescriber engagement and patient medication education, ultimately driving additional medication volume through the pharmacy.

Drug Manufacturer Access:

Azina was able to troubleshoot pre-existing access barriers and create a pathway to highly sought-after drugs. The team established best-in-class processes to pursue new drugs in the R&D pipeline. This next level of access is critical for proper prescribing, patient health, outcomes and satisfaction, and the overall performance of the specialty pharmacy.

Dual Accreditation:

Azina helped the health system attain its second accreditation in less than three months, making them dual accredited in record time. This dual accreditation demonstrated the caliber of the specialty pharmacy to payors, manufacturers, and other key stakeholders. Azina continues to provide ongoing URAC reaccreditation support.

Payor Contract Access:

To strengthen payor contract access, Azina helped the health system prepare for gateway requirements, documenting processes and value-based care metrics. Azina is currently working on securing contracts with targeted payor networks and advising the medical contracting team with subject-matter experts who know how to get results.

The Results

By partnering with Azina, the health system has accomplished the following results:

Financial and Operational Growth

1. Average daily script volume increased 41%
2. Patients/day increased by 46%
3. Rx/day growth increased to 566 prescriptions; an increase of 51.5%
4. 32.4% patients qualified for 340b
5. Oncology revenue increased by 8%
6. Inflammatory revenue increased by 26%
7. Average time to fill improved from 1.54 days to 1.25 days

Contact Azina today!