Stormont Vail looks to intelligence solutions to improve pharmacy outcomes
Stormont Vail Regional Health is a nonprofit integrated healthcare system that has been serving northeast Kansas for over 130 years. It comprises Stormont Vail Hospital, a 586-bed acute care Magnet®-designated hospital, and Cotton O’Neil Clinic, a multi-specialty physician group.
The Challenge
The fundamental challenge facing Stormont Vail’s pharmacy leaders was a lack of visibility into medication inventory. Medication management data resided in multiple, disparate systems. Managing, gathering, compiling, and analyzing the data on spreadsheets was time consuming and expensive.
Outside consultants were added to review inpatient and ambulatory practices and costs.
These reports, however, were largely retrospective in nature and had limited value in managing critical daily information, such as:
- On-hand inventory
- Inventory by location
- High-cost drugs
- Drug shortages
- Drug recalls
The fundamental challenge facing Stormont Vail’s pharmacy leaders was a lack of visibility into medication inventory. Medication management data resided in multiple, disparate systems. Managing, gathering, compiling, and analyzing the data on spreadsheets was time consuming and expensive.
Outside consultants were added to review inpatient and ambulatory practices and costs.
These reports, however, were largely retrospective in nature and had limited value in managing critical daily information, such as:
- On-hand inventory
- Inventory by location
- High-cost drugs
- Drug shortages
- Drug recalls
The Solution
Activated Omnicell Product(s)
To solve those challenges, pharmacy leaders looked for a solution capable of providing line of sight to multiple inventories across the system while also managing the complexities of pricing, regulation, reimbursements, billing, and more.
Activated Omnicell Product(s)
To solve those challenges, pharmacy leaders looked for a solution capable of providing line of sight to multiple inventories across the system while also managing the complexities of pricing, regulation, reimbursements, billing, and more.
Six Pillars of Excellence
Soon after Dima Awad joined the organization as Chief of Pharmacy, she restructured the department to better support a culture of accountability and performance excellence based on six pillars:
- Inpatient operations services
- Ambulatory services including retail and specialty
- Clinical services including residency
- Finance and medication acquisition including 340B and vendor management
- Informatics and performance excellence
- Pharmacy practice (medication safety, quality, risk, compliance, formulary management, pharmacy and therapeutic, and education)
“Our goal is to make our patients safer and to control drug spend,” Awad explained. “From a pharmacy automation and technology standpoint, to be successful we need all of our key centers tied together on one enterprise database and represented through analytics on a management dashboard.”
Diving deeper, pharmacy leaders conducted an operational, regulatory, and clinical gap analysis across its medication management process.
On the inpatient side, they studied the service location and utilization of each automated dispensing cabinet and evaluated each for optimization opportunities. Within central pharmacy, they reviewed the effectiveness of carousels, controlled substance management automation, compounding technology, and more.
Dashboards to Accelerate Performance
To create visibility to medication inventory, and to deliver the analytic tools, dashboards, and insights to accelerate pharmacy performance, Awad and her team chose Omnicell’s Intelligence solution, Omnicell One™, which adds a team of data scientists and clinical strategists to collaboratively help the pharmacy team define goals, plan actions, and measure results.
Explained Awad, “We see Omnicell One sitting on top of pharmacy automation technology, tying it together and helping us to control drug spend. It’s one of the most urgent projects of the year.”
Awad expects the dashboards will help managers and first-line staff measure and perform against each of the six pillars. “They want to see the end result. They want to see how their initiatives are affecting the bottom line, whether it's soft value or hard value,” she said.
The dashboards also give Awad valuable tools to use with health system leadership. “That’s part of marketing the value of pharmacy services and having a seat at the executive level,” she said. “You need to show impact on improved outcomes, for the benefit of your department, the organization, and for the sake of patient care.”
The Impact
Key Outcomes Desired:
- Dashboard visibility of all drug inventory
- Delivery of analytical insights to quickly take action
- Ability to show impact to leadership and staff
Customer Benefits Sought:
- Gain full visibility to medication inventory
- Reduce drug spend
- Reassign resources to higher value-added roles
KPIs to Be Impacted:
- Improve patient safety
- Increase efficiency
- Lower costs
"We see Omnicell One sitting on top of pharmacy automation technology, tying it together, and helping us control drug spend. It’s one of the most urgent projects of the year."
Dima Awad, Administrative Director/Chief of Pharmacy Services
