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December 7, 2012
www.FWDailyNews.com
A dose of convenience Walgreens pharmacy opens within Lutheran Hospital By Rick Farrant rfarrant@kpcnews.net
When Lutheran Hospital opened its newly renovated front lobby and entrance Nov. 12, there was a new tenant: a Walgreens pharmacy serving the needs of patients leaving for home. Having a retail pharmacy on site at a health-care facility is relatively uncommon. Justine Coffey, the director of the ambulatory-care practitioners section of the Marylandbased American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, said surveys show slightly less than 30 percent of hospitals nationwide have so-called outpatient dispensing pharmacies, and that includes both retail outlets and hospital-owned and operated pharmacies. But Lutheran and Walgreens officials say there are a host of advan-
tages to having an on-site pharmacy for departing patients, including: • Making prescription pickups more convenient for people. “If I’m a patient, I don’t want to fill my prescription when I go home,” said Lutheran Hospital Chief Operating Officer Erica Wehrmeister. “I just want to lay down.” • Increasing the chances that people will actually pick up and take their medications. Various national studies suggest that significant percentages of people either don’t fill their prescriptions or don’t adhere to their medication regimens once they do have prescriptions filled. Wehrmeister said Lutheran is exploring working with Walgreens to add an education component to their arrangement called WellTransitions that would have Walgreens pharma-
cists interacting with patients during and after their hospital stays. That, the two organizations said, would presumably enhance medication adherence. • Possibly lowering readmission rates — and avoiding new government-imposed financial penalties — because people will theoretically be healthier by following medication protocols. On Oct. 1, a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act kicked in that assesses financial penalties to hospitals that exceed established thresholds for Medicare patients treated for acute myocardial infarctions, heart failure or pneumonia who are readmitted within 30 days of discharge. Wehrmeister said another bonus linked specifically to an on-site retail pharmacy is “(Walgreens is) going to
Mansfield nearing troop collection goal Donations accepted at three locations By Nichole Hacha-Thomas pr@timespubs.com
Courtesy photo
Homestead High School senior Alison Mansfield collects items on Black Friday from shoppers at Gander Mountain to send to U.S. troops. Mansfield is nearing her goal of collecting 100,000 items before she graduates high school in June. socks, toiletries, snacks, letters of support and small toys for soldiers to give to the Afghan and Iraqi children as gestures
of goodwill. She is just 12,000 items shy of her goal of collecting See TROOPS, Page A4
3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808
Times Community Publications
Alison Mansfield is nearing the completion of her senior year of high school. In addition to the normal things seniors do – taking senior photos, applying to colleges and planning her graduation party – Mansfield also is busy collecting items to send to U.S. troops overseas through her nonprofit organization, Operation U.S. Troop Support. “It is always’s a challenge balancing everything, but it is really exciting. This is something I love to do,” Mansfield said. After seven years, Mansfield has collected and sent more than 85,000 items to deployed units. Items include wool
carry a broader spectrum of medications than we would, and they would have longer hours.” Parkview Regional Medical Center handles the matter a little differently from Lutheran. Tim Cmelik, the director of corporate pharmacy for PRMC, said the medical center has a hospitalowned and -operated pharmacy that also has a retail license independent of a retailer. The arrangement, he said, provides the same benefits as Lutheran’s Walgreens. He also believes it gives PRMC “more control in adapting to the future needs of customers. It allows us to be more flexible to better serve the patient as health-care reform unfolds.” Like Lutheran, Parkview Health is exploring pharmacy education options before patients are discharged
Photo by Rick Farrant
Lutheran Hospital COO Erica Wehrmeister stands inside the hospital’s Walgreens as pharmacy manager Tom Stoller looks on. and after they go home. In Parkview’s case, Cmelik said, that might include bedside delivery of filled prescriptions before discharge and follow-up phone calls once patients leave. Those are some of the same services offered by Walgreens’ WellTransitions initiative, a relatively new program
being rolled out across the country by the drugstore giant. Walgreens has been an industry leader in setting up retail pharmacies within hospitals and health-care systems. Joel Wright, the vice president of healthsystems operations for the See LUTHERAN, Page A5