We are about to change over from Morris & Dickson to McKesson as our wholesaler. Though I have been here through many wholesalers, this is the first time I will be going through it as the buyer. Does anyone have any suggestions? I want to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Name of Facility: Christus Jasper Memorial

City, State: Acute

Years as a Buyer: 3

Hi Jill,
I don't envy your position in changing wholesalers and I have never gone through it, but I just wanted to say that we use McKesson as our distributor and I LOVE them! The website is really easy to navigate and gives you tons of info and their customer service is amazing, they are always so helpful! Any issues that you may have, they will help you resolve quickly. Is your sales rep coming to help you at all?

Good luck in your switch!

Name of Facility: Lower Keys Medical Center

I am glad to hear that. We have used larger wholesalers before and the customer service left alot to be desired. I hope that I will be able to say the same thing. [Smile

Name of Facility: Christus Jasper

City, State: Acute

Years as a Buyer: 3

I've gone through a couple of changes of wholesaler, but the first time I was so new as a buyer that I didn't know enough to even prepare for the change!

We switched from ABC to Cardinal about a year ago. A buyer friend who had just done the same thing advised me to make sure we downloaded everything we had from Amerisource. We already had all that on our hospital owned computer and I am so glad. Even now I go back to check past purchases or NDC numbers that don't jive with Cardinal info.

Insist that your new rep schedules plenty of time with you to answer questions about the new ordering system. I went from Windows with ABC to internet with Cardinal--big differences. And I was so glad my rep was here. I was able to "play" a little and have him show me some shortcuts that save time.

Have your director back you up in having the techs/pharmacists give you enough info to reorder. With all new items numbers, just writing down "lidocaine 1%" isn't going to help you any. At the very least, insist that they give you the NDC number.

Name of Facility: PORTER

City, State: acute care

Years as a Buyer: 9+

I have been through about 5 wholesaler changes and 1 GPO change (that one was the worst.) I suggest running reports of your Fast movers/High Volume and of your top dollar items and ordering about one additional week of each. We actually had the old wholesaler keep us on for an additional week so I had the option of ordering through both. That can get a little confusing at times but it gives you more options until the new wholesaler gets all of what you need in stock.
I am pretty lucky that all of the wholesalers we have had are close to us here in the Seattle area so we get really great delivery and same day delivery if we need it. I hope this helps some. It's really not so bad.Good Luck

Name of Facility: Good Samaritan Hospital

City, State: Hospital, Acute care

Years as a Buyer: 30yrs