This article is sponsored by American Health Partners. In this interview, Skilled Nursing News sits down with Amy Cruse – Vice President, AmPharm, to talk about the long-term care pharmacy industry and the key steps providers should take to find the right pharmacy partner in the post-acute space. She explains the different service models and quality components that distinguish the top LTC pharmacies from the rest, and she also provides an outlook on the future of the long-term care pharmacy business in 2024 and beyond.
Skilled Nursing News: Tell us a bit more about AmPharm. Who does the company serve and what is your value proposition?
Amy Cruse: At AmPharm, we’re recognized as a long-term care pharmacy, specializing in custom packaging for a variety of communities we cater to, including nursing homes, assisted living communities, psychiatric hospitals and DIDD facilities in Tennessee for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We currently operate across six states —Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia, and New York — but we’re actively expanding our reach both within these states and into new ones.
Our core value lies in forging true partnerships with the communities we serve, moving beyond the traditional vendor role. Our parent company, American Health Partners, shares this commitment to establishing mutually beneficial relationships. Our focus is on providing solutions, ensuring reliable and efficient service, and building trust with our partners. We take pride in delivering accurate and timely prescriptions to residents, maintaining cost efficiency, and offering innovative packaging solutions. For AmPharm and American Health Partners, exceptional service and strong partnerships are paramount.
What makes AmPharm unique in the long-term care pharmacy industry?
What sets AmPharm apart is our high level of service and the flexibility we offer to our partners. In the realm of long-term care, quality and accuracy are essential, and we are committed to delivering the right medications, to the right people, at the right time. We take pride in our quality initiatives and metrics, which are largely attributed to our personalized medication packaging. Additionally, our effective cost management program assists facilities in managing expenses.
Key to our exceptional service is the provision of dedicated care coordinators for each community, ensuring safe and efficient service that satisfies both staff and residents. Our standout feature is the customized medication packaging we provide, specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of each long-term care facility and its residents. This specialized packaging approach not only ensures compliance but also helps to minimize errors and reduce costs.
What should nursing home operators or assisted living operators look for when choosing a long-term care pharmacy?
Several critical factors should be considered as providers vet prospective pharmacy partners, most notably experience. AmPharm has over 25 years of expertise as a long-term care pharmacy, and throughout our journey, we’ve gained substantial knowledge about operators and their unique needs. American Health Partners, operates skilled nursing facilities, giving us unique insights into the operational perspectives of these institutions. We understand their needs well and strive to mitigate their concerns about the accuracy and timely delivery of medications, thanks to our easy-to-follow packaging methods.
Assisted living communities have numerous concerns as well, and our goal is to alleviate the burden of medication management from their shoulders, fostering a relationship of trust and reliability. In an era where specialty medications are increasingly common, having a pharmacy partner that is equipped with the latest technology to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness in service delivery is key. At AmPharm, we’re committed to providing this high level of service to our partners from the very start of each relationship.
How can a long-term care pharmacy help a nursing home or Assisted Living Facility (ALF) owner control costs?
Our three-part cost management program focuses on utilizing generic equivalents and closely monitoring drug formularies, which aid in managing medication costs effectively. We also offer extensive consulting services to physicians, assisting them in identifying cost-efficient drug therapies. Through these efforts, we maintain the highest quality of service while keeping costs manageable for nursing homes and ALF operators.
You mentioned that quality is key to a successful long-term care pharmacy. Can you elaborate?
Quality is invaluable in any long-term care pharmacy, and it’s the number one priority for ALFs and nursing home operators in the partner selection process. At AmPharm, we emphasize this through our personalized, prepackaged medications, which are specifically designed to reduce human error and increase efficiency. Every prescription we deliver is precisely inspected for accuracy, pre-sorted according to exact requirements, safety sealed, and clearly labeled for each patient and their specific medication. This approach not only builds trust among staff and residents but also significantly enhances the safety and effectiveness of the medication management program.
What should a nursing home or ALF be looking for when evaluating the service model of a long-term care pharmacy?
Again, quality is crucial, but we also recommend placing a strong emphasis on the delivery of exceptional service — AmPharm aims to exceed those expectations. This includes ensuring prompt deliveries, straightforward invoicing for our customers, and offering 24/7 on-call services. Our team is dedicated and customer-centric, constantly refining our processes and products to provide outstanding service.
Our care coordinators are central to our commitment to customer service, and each community we work with has a designated care coordinator from AmPharm, who maintains continuous contact to facilitate orders, answer queries and manage the relationship. This personalized approach guarantees a seamless experience with our partners.
When initiating new partnerships, we conduct thorough training and onboarding to align with our client’s specific service needs. Then once things are up and running, we provide detailed cart audit education, ongoing training and consulting services to ensure providers have a valuable, trusted resource at the tip of their fingers, at all times.
Our commitment to exceptional service extends beyond medication delivery; it encompasses every facet of our partnership with long-term care facilities, underlined by comprehensive support and collaboration.
What do you see as the future of the long-term care pharmacy business?
There are several industry trends providers should be watching, with technology leading the way. Long-term care pharmacies, including AmPharm, are increasingly adopting technologies to streamline medication management and improve overall efficiency for both the facilities and the pharmacies themselves.
Data analytics is another critical area, especially for improving outcomes. By leveraging data analytics, long-term care pharmacies can obtain valuable insights into medication adherence, patient outcomes, and cost-effectiveness. AmPharm is actively engaged in data analytics and is prepared for its evolution as it widely becomes standard practice.
Further, telehealth is rapidly becoming a significant aspect of skilled nursing and health care in general, and long-term care pharmacies, like ours, are preparing to integrate telepharmacy solutions to offer remote consultations and medication management, positioning ourselves to embrace telehealth initiatives as they emerge.
Lastly, integration with health systems is gaining traction as it facilitates greater collaboration and partnerships with larger health systems. This trend enables long-term care pharmacies to become integral parts of a comprehensive health network and helps providers achieve seamless care coordination. Through American Health Partners, AmPharm is already making strides in integrating with health systems, enhancing our collaborative efforts in health care delivery.
Editor’s note: This article has been edited for length and clarity.
To start the conversation about how a partnership with AmPharm can better service your pharmacy needs, visit AmPharminc.com/solutions or call 615-668-1862.
The Voices Series is a sponsored content program featuring leading executives discussing trends, topics and more shaping their industry in a question-and-answer format. For more information on Voices, please contact [email protected].