ASHP Midyear: Cardinal Health Highlights Solutions That Help Hospitals Improve Medication Safety, Reduce Costs

DUBLIN, Ohio, — At the 47th Annual Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), taking place from Dec. 2-6 in Las Vegas, Cardinal Health will highlight solutions that help hospital pharmacies improve medication safety and reduce costs.

“The ASHP Midyear provides an excellent opportunity to connect with hospital leaders to learn more about their needs and showcase how our pharmacy experts and solutions can help them reach their clinical and financial goals,” said Jon Giacomin, president, U.S. Pharmaceutical Distribution for Cardinal Health.

At booth #451, Cardinal Health will showcase the following:

· BarCode360™ Safety Optimizer: This innovative tool, which provides a unique ordering portal for unit dose, scan-ready medications, can help synchronize medication databases that serve as the foundation for bar code medication administration (BCMA). Visitors to the Cardinal Health booth can learn more about how this tool can help hospitals increase the availability of unit-dose barcode medications at the point of care, increase nurse confidence in BCMA efforts and improve medication procurement and receiving efficiency.

· CardinalASSIST® ADM Logistics: This service integrates with automated dispensing machines (ADMs), making it easier for hospitals to receive medication shipments from Cardinal Health and load them directly into ADMs in efficient, low-unit-of-measure packages. Cardinal Health will showcase how this solution combines unique medication packaging with user-friendly reporting functionality to optimize pharmaceutical inventory levels and improve supply chain efficiency.

· Remote Order Entry Service: Hospitals that are interested in finding creative and cost-effective ways to expand pharmacy coverage can learn more about Cardinal Health’s remote pharmacy order entry service, which ensures prospective pharmacist review of patient medication orders, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This service is especially useful to hospitals that do not have 24x7 pharmacy services, those that need additional pharmacist review during peak volume hours, and to those that are preparing for meaningful use technology adoption.

· Medication Order Management System: Pharmacists and hospital leaders who are committed to improving pharmacy productivity or quality need robust metrics that measure current performance and improvement opportunities. Visitors to the Cardinal Health booth can learn how to leverage the company’s web-based medication order management system to track and report key pharmacist productivity, clinical and quality metrics. They can also learn how this system can be used in conjunction with computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems to accommodate handwritten medication orders.

· Drug Cost Opportunity Analytics: In an environment when most hospital pharmacies are being asked to expand and improve patient care while reducing costs, Cardinal Health’s Drug Cost Opportunity Analytics service can help. This web-based reporting dashboard provides analytics beyond the purchase cost of drugs to include utilization-level data. It also leverages a robust benchmarking database that allows hospital pharmacies to compare their drug spend to hospitals that are similar in size, acuity level or academic status. It enables hospitals to reduce overall drug spend by identifying the broadest and most powerful pharmacy savings opportunities.

· Outpatient Pharmacy: Cardinal Health will highlight the many ways it can help hospitals open new outpatient pharmacies or improve the performance of existing ones. Booth visitors can learn more about how outpatient pharmacies can be leveraged to increase medication compliance, optimize employee prescription benefit programs, generate savings and drive revenue.

· eRecovery®: Cardinal Health’s eRecovery® service empowers hospitals to reduce costs while improving the quality of care they provide for uninsured and under-insured patients. This service helps hospitals identify and enroll eligible patients in pharmaceutical assistance programs, which are operated by drug manufacturers and provide certain patients with access to medications at no or reduced cost. This service also helps hospitals track and report key metrics including the number of patients served through the program and the medication savings it generates.

About Cardinal Health
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH) is a $108 billion health care services company that improves the cost-effectiveness of health care. As the business behind health care, Cardinal Health helps pharmacies, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and physician offices focus on patient care while reducing costs, enhancing efficiency and improving quality. Cardinal Health is an essential link in the health care supply chain, providing pharmaceuticals and medical products to more than 60,000 locations each day. The company is also a leading manufacturer of medical and surgical products, including gloves, surgical apparel and fluid management products. In addition, the company supports the growing diagnostic industry by supplying medical products to clinical laboratories and operating the nation’s largest network of radiopharmacies that dispense products to aid in the early diagnosis and treatment of disease. Ranked #21 on the Fortune 500, Cardinal Health employs more than 30,000 people worldwide. More information about the company may be found at cardinalhealth.com and @CardinalHealth on Twitter.