Generic drugs online

Source: Bizjournals.com

Date: 27-Jun-2008

Author: Linda Bryant

A new way to deliver medications to nursing home and assisted living residents is moving forward, raising hopes of making prescription drug delivery faster, safer and more affordable in long-term care facilities.

The Nashville-based developer of the model, New Day Pharmacy, has reached $1.7 million of its $2.4 million goal during its second round of funding.

The company just signed a contract to provide in-house pharmacy services to its fifth nursing home, the Pine Haven Health and Rehabilitation Center in Evansville, Ind.

Three more contracts are in final stages of negotiation, says Dick Wager, president and CEO of New Day Pharmacy.

Each contract with a nursing home represents $600,000 to $1.2 million in annual revenue, Wager says.

New Day's business model is meant to shake-up medication delivery in the long-term care industry. It bypasses the traditional way of dispensing drugs, a system that hasn't changed for decades.

A former nursing home administrator, Wager says he's witnessed inefficiencies in the system that led to medical errors and lag times in getting medications to patients.

"I just knew it (the old system of delivery) could be improved," Wager says. "I've heard every reason it couldn't be done."

In the traditional delivery method, the long-term care provider orders drugs from an institutional pharmacy, which is a distribution center within a 150-mile radius of the facility.

New Day's model lets it fill prescriptions on demand with no lag time. Medications are delivered using an onsite "pharmacy center," which is a secure, unstaffed medicine dispensary.

Medications at the center are only accessible with a fingerprint ID and password from a nurse, physician or nurse practitioner.

Because they can fill prescriptions on site, medical professionals don't have to wait for drugs to be delivered from the institutional pharmacy, which can take up to 24 hours.

New Day has a centralized distribution center in Nashville that can serve customers anywhere in the country. In lieu of an onsite pharmacist, the company offers a virtual 24-hour pharmacist and also an information data bank.

New Day is part of a new breed of companies using technology to address system problems with errors and speed in health care, says Dr. Sal Giorgianni, director of experiential education at Belmont University.

"We are starting to see more sophisticated computer-driven systems that help pharmacists check and validate," he adds. "They are going to have to do what they say they are going to do, but I am encouraged by models like New Day opening up.

"I don't believe the medical community can ignore the need for technology if the technology can address the root causes of medical error and medication safety."

Meadowbrook Care Center, a 156-bed independent nursing home near Cincinnati, went online as the Beta site for New Day in May 2007.

"The hardest part of it has been training our nurses," says Katie Brown, administrator of Meadowbrook. "We haven't learned all the capabilities yet, but our people are no longer spending all their hours writing and transcribing."

Meadowbrook recently went through a required medical review and no medical errors turned up on the report.

The New Day system also has a transparency element that allows a nursing home to do cost comparisons on medications to see what the most affordable medication is.

"This is already saving us money and helping us market our nursing home," Brown says.