If you have any specific questions or if you would like some articles regarding this topic I am more than willing to share.

Richard

rponder@ejgh.org
Phone: 5044568066
Fax: 5044568069

Name of Facility: East Jefferson General Hospital

City, State: Metairie, LA

Richard, thank you for responding. Yes, I would be interested in any articles you can provide. I will briefly describe what I am trying to accomplish.
This is a learning process for me. Our agency does not have its pharmacy. We contract with a local closed door pharmacy to provide medications and delivery service to our home care patients.
We want to look at every option possible that will allow us to reduce our phamarcy costs by changing how we purchase meds. We will consider becoming a "wholesaler", but I understand that is difficult?
(If you have any articles on becoming a pharmacuetical wholesaler, that would be helpful.
The othe option is to become equal partners with a local pharmacy who already has the expertise.
I am meeting with reps from GPO's (Premier, MHA etc) and distributors such as McKesson (which is local), Cardinal etc.
The end result is to propose the best vehicle for purchasing meds at the best price possible for the classification of our agency and our mix of meds.

Thank you,

cindy

Name of Facility: Hospice Buffalo, Inc.

City, State: Cheektowaga, New York

Years as a Buyer: 20 new to pharmacy

I spent several years as a buyer for a closed-door Long Term Care (LTC) Pharmacy.
To be quite honest I don't think that purchasing the meds directly will reduce your pharmacy spend. In fact, if you do that you will need to hire a pharmacist to manage the whole program and that in itsefl will probably cost >$100k/year. Plus if you plan on buying bulk bottles and filling your own bottles or "bingo cards" your supply and equipment costs will also increase dramatically.

You are meeting with MHA. That is good. they specialize in long term care.

Question: You state that you want to reduce your pharmacy costs. What are you paying for? The LTC Pharmacy market is very competitive. The ones I am familiar with all provide most of their services at no charge as along as they are able to capture the reimbursement dollars. Maybe you could also look at getting bids from several LTC pharmacies in the area and see who can provide you with the best services.

Anyway, that is my $0.02.
Jeff B

Name of Facility: Sacred Heart Medical center

City, State: Eugene, OR

Years as a Buyer: 14

Jeff,

Thank you for your response. I am meeting with reps from MHA and Premier (GPO's). They are going to do a analysis based on our mix of meds. They will provide pricing under their contracts and working through their primary wholesaler. I can compare their analysis to what we are paying now for meds.

Thanks!

Name of Facility: Hospice Buffalo, Inc.

City, State: Cheektowaga, New York

Years as a Buyer: 20 new to pharmacy

Cynthia, I am a purchaser for a closed door LTC pharmacy in Arizona. We do fill orders for a few hospice agencies. We also deliver the medications free of charge to the patient for hospice. It sounds a little like you are looking at the option of having your own pharmacy to fill the hospice orders instead of the one you are contracted with? That would be a very long and lengthy process. If that is correct, I would suggest, in the meantime, closely review the contract you have with the pharmacy you are using. If it does not seem reasonable, go out and meet with other pharmacies and tell them what you want to pay. Then take the best offer back to your current pharmacy to give them a chance at keeping your business. I am just guessing but by time you pay for the inventory and a pharmacist and a tech to fill the scripts, you will be saving next to nothing. If you negotiate a contract that is good for you and good for the pharmacy you may not have the extra headache of being an owner or an equal partner?

Name of Facility: Saliba's

City, State: Arizona

Years as a Buyer: 6