Cardinal Health introduces expanded suite of services to help hospital pharmacies improve cost containment, workflow, patient safety

Company leverages decades of experience advising and managing hundreds of hospital pharmacies to introduce customized consulting, analytics, operations services.
DUBLIN, Ohio. — Cardinal Health today introduced an expanded suite of consulting, analytics and operations services to help hospital pharmacy directors improve cost containment, work flow and patient safety.

These expanded services are designed to support pharmacy directors in helping their hospitals address ongoing economic constraints, improve quality outcomes and implement solutions to improve patient safety. Pharmacy directors can customize the specific consultation, project management, data analytics, benchmarking or on-site operations support services they need, based on their organizations’ unique efficiency and quality goals.

This new, customized approach to service delivery is part of Cardinal Health’s overall commitment to helping pharmacy directors quickly identify and qualify savings opportunities and ensure their pharmacies are running at optimal levels.

“Although the debate around health care reform is still evolving, one thing is clear – hospital pharmacies need to remain focused on finding new and innovative ways to contain costs while improving efficiency and safety,” said Steve Adams, senior vice president of Cardinal Health’s Pharmacy Solutions business. “By customizing our pharmacy services to address the unique and evolving needs of each customer, Cardinal Health is well positioned to serve as a strategic partner to help hospitals improve the economics and quality of health care.”

Key offerings include:


* Consulting Services – Many hospital pharmacies need targeted expertise and resources to address specific challenges related to regulatory compliance and accreditation, patient safety, operational productivity, drug purchasing, medication dispensing automation, charge capture and outpatient operations. Cardinal Health now provides access to a team of experts who can identify and implement improvements to pharmacy challenges in these specific areas.
* Data and Analytics Services – Through proprietary benchmarking software and tools, Cardinal Health can help pharmacy directors quickly and accurately identify top medication cost drivers and trends and optimize the performance of automated medication dispensing systems. Armed with this insight, hospital pharmacy leaders are better empowered to identify and qualify savings opportunities, improve the impact of clinical programs and maximize investments in automation.
* Operations Support – Cardinal Health also now provides expertise and, if requested, on-site resources to support pharmacy directors who need ongoing assistance managing key back-office functions including purchasing, inventory operations and monitoring medication dispensing systems, so they can focus more time on clinical programs and patient care.


These expanded services were developed by Cardinal Health’s extensive team of pharmacy experts, and are based on more than 40 years of experience managing hundreds of hospital pharmacies across the United States. Cardinal Health’s team of more than 1,000 licensed hospital pharmacy experts complete more than 140 accreditation surveys and mock audits each year, remotely process more than 4.4 million medication orders annually and serve as co-authors of the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists’ (ASHP) industry-standard manual on continuance compliance with The Joint Commission standards.

Cardinal Health will also continue to offer other industry-leading hospital pharmacy services, such as Rxe-sourceSM, the nation’s largest remote medication order entry and review service; Rxe-viewTM, an integrated, web-based medication order management and clinical intervention tracking tool, and full departmental management of the pharmacy.

“Cardinal Health’s expanded suite of value-added hospital pharmacy services is the perfect complement to the full range of pharmaceutical supply chain services we offer to thousands of hospitals across the country,” said Mike Kaufmann, chief executive officer of Cardinal Health’s Pharmaceutical segment. “By putting our deep hospital pharmacy expertise to work for our customers, Cardinal Health can create long-term relationships that help hospital pharmacy directors play a leadership role in improving patient outcomes while reducing the cost of care in their own facilities, and across the U.S. health care system.”