Becker's Hospital Review

89 Executive Briefing: Hospital Pharmacy Improvements: The Success Story of Upper Allegheny Health System W hile it's been said many times that the healthcare industry is evolving as a whole, nowhere is that more true than in the world of hospital pharmacy. "It's changed so much over the last 10 years," says Terry An- drus, president and CEO of CompleteRx, a hospital pharmacy management company. Changes occur frequently in the areas of technology, regulations, drug shortages and drug prices, making it difficult for hospital administrators and pharmacy directors to keep up. That is what initially led Upper Allegheny Health System — a two-hospital system based in Olean, N.Y., with one hospital in New York and one in Pennsylvania — to call in CompleteRx to help optimize its pharmacy functions and meet regulatory necessities. The relationship between UAHS and CompleteRx dates back to 2011, when Tim Finan, the system's president and CEO, reached out to Mr. Andrus and the CompleteRx team. Accord- ing to Mr. Andrus, UAHS was looking for operational and cost efficiencies in the system's pharmacy department. In the case of UAHS, CompleteRx helped the hospital greatly in three main areas: leadership, automation and reg- ulatory compliance, according to Mr. Andrus and Joe Vargas, a regional operations director with CompleteRx who heads up the rela- tionship with UAHS. These issues lead many hospitals and health systems to reach out for help, but that doesn't mean Com- pleteRx uses a standard- ized approach for all of its pharmacies. "Every hospital and system is different. There is no cookie-cutter approach where you can force a square peg into a round hole," Mr. Andrus says of CompleteRx's ap- proach with customers. Below is a break- down of how Com- pleteRx worked with UAHS to help it achieve operational and financial efficiencies in its hospital pharmacies. Leadership UAHS isn't alone in facing leadership issues in the hospi- tal pharmacy — Mr. Vargas and Mr. Andrus both characterize leadership as the No. 1 reason CompleteRx is called into help health systems. "It's really difficult in today's environment for a director of pharmacy to have all of the skills necessary to run a hospital pharmacy," Mr. Andrus says. According to Mr. Vargas, there had been instability in the role of pharmacy director at UAHS for a number of reasons, including the hospitals' rural location. "We struggled to fill that position with a qualified applicant, part of that is because we're in a more rural area and it's diffi- cult to draw talent into that area," he says. During the pharmacy director search at UAHS, CompleteRx provided leadership in the form of interim directors from what Mr. Andrus calls the company's "cadre of seasoned directors of pharmacy who have worked in a multitude of environments." As a more permanent solution, CompleteRx helped devel- op a pharmacist who was already part of the UAHS system who eventually became director of pharmacy there. Sponsored by: "Every hospital and system is different. There is no cookie-cutter approach where you can force a square peg into a round hole." — Terry Andrus, President and CEO of CompleteRx Hospital Pharmacy Improvements

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