Download Cost Pressures Lead Aultman Hospital to New Solutions for

CASE STUDY
Cost Pressures Lead Aultman
Hospital to New Solutions
for Medication Savings
Challenge
treatment facilities and clinics while
At a Glance
Aultman Hospital is a 808-bed
maintaining the highest levels of
Aultman Hospital
acute care and teaching hospital
safety, security and availability.
that consistently garners national
“We had to look at new and out-
recognition for achieving high
of-the-box ways for cost savings,”
Aesynt™ Enterprise Medication
standards of patient care. Aultman
said Vice President of Supply Chain,
Manager™ to optimize its medication
ranks as one of the best hospitals
Lab & Pharmacy, Chris Parrish.
supply chain by reducing costs
consecutive year, earned the
“Consumer Choice Award” from
the National Research Corporation.
The Aultman system includes the
main hospital, the critical access
Aultman Orrville Hospital and
multiple outpatient facilities,
including post-acute services at the
Aultman Woodlawn campus.
Aultman Hospital turned to
and improving productivity,
in Ohio for 2014-15 by U.S. News
& World Report, and for the 19th
Canton, Ohio
In addition, Aultman is a member
of the Independent Hospital
Network (IHN), an alliance of
five area hospitals, all attempting
to maintain local control while
surrounded by big health systems
in the Cleveland, Pittsburgh and
Columbus markets. In coming
years, Aultman plans to develop
a process that could support IHN
efficiency and inventory control.
Benefits
• Increase inventory turns while
improving availability
• Increase cash on hand through
optimized inventory levels
• Reduce expired medications
• Better manage and mitigate drug
shortages
• Find any medication within the
health system in seconds
with centralized pharmacy services.
Results
Cost pressures are driving
“Through IHN, we think we have
Aultman to reduce the expense of
the potential to impact medication
pharmacy services by $1 million
logistics on a regional basis to
• Reduced inventory by 20 percent annually. At the same time, the
keep costs down for our local
• Reduced expired medications by
pharmacy is expected to distribute
employers,” said Parrish.
and manage medications over
an ever-expanding array of
• Gained total visibility of medication
inventory
50 percent • Realized accurate and timely billing • Automated manual processes “I find myself in meetings or caught in the hallway, and
a physician or nurse will ask how much of a short supply
medication we have. I simply pull up its inventory on my
phone and show them in real time the quantity we have
on hand.”
Jim Toohey, Executive Director of Pharmacy
Solution
Hospital has already reduced 20
Aultman is using Aesynt Enterprise
percent of their pharmacy inventory
Medication Manager software
in less than six months.
which integrates a full range of
pharmacy automation technologies
to provide immediate visibility
and access to medications at all
inventory storage locations across
their system, including non-Aesynt
automation platforms. During
and after the installation, Aultman
engaged Aesynt’s Pharmacy Supply
Chain Solution Services to assist in
architecting and implementing new
processes and workflows needed to
set up and optimize their enterprise
medication management system.
Results
Gained Total Medication Visibility
Pharmacists can view medication
availability, usage, valuation and
potential shortages for the Aultman
system as a whole or for each
stocking location from any computer
or even from mobile devices.
Reduced Inventory by 20% Using
actual demand forecasting and
the lowest unit of measure to fill
medications for Aultman Orrville
Automated Manual Process By
replacing a completely manual “fill
sheet” process, pharmacy staff is
saving time and increasing accuracy
by electronically creating and
placing purchase orders in Enterprise
Medication Manager to fill for the
Aultman North Canton Medical
Group location.
pharmacy staff time can be allocated
more to clinical and patient
education opportunities in an effort
to increase patient satisfaction and
decrease readmission rates.
Support IHN Member Hospitals
50% Reduction in Expired
Medications A process to identify
and redistribute soon-to-expire
medications is on pace to reduce
those annual costs by at least
one half.
Plans now being developed would
provide centralized pharmacy
services for the five IHN member
hospitals, including:
• Distribution of unit-dose,
bar-code-ready packages of
non-controlled drug products
More Accurate and Timely Billing
• Regional drug shortage mitigation
Integration with Aultman’s financial
• Real-time tracking and
system will enable all medication
transactions to be updated and
optimization of inventories
• Visibility and redistribution to
billed automatically, ensuring an up-
minimize expired medications
to-date and accurate general ledger.
• Expand services into physician
office practices
Free Up On-site Pharmacy Staff
As additional manual processes
• Visibility to non-Aesynt
automation
are replaced and handled through
Enterprise Medication Manager,
500 Cranberry Woods Drive, Cranberry Township, PA 16066
800.594.9145 / www.aesynt.com
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