“With our patient prescription volumes steadily increasing and our employee prescription program expanding, our main requirements were to invest in automation that would help us reduce Rx processing costs, and provide a logical and affordable technology growth path,” said Robert J. Schenk Jr., RPh, CCP, clinical pharmacist specialist, Meridian Health. “We’ve experienced real cost savings by increasing our workflow efficiency and by eliminating labor-intensive tasks. The PharmASSIST system’s patient safety-related ‘checks and balances’ have also greatly reduced opportunity for error, another key contributor to our reduced processing costs.”

The Medical Center outpatient pharmacy fills an average of 300 prescriptions daily with peaks reaching 450 prescriptions a day. The pharmacy employs a PharmASSIST Symphony+ system comprised of one cabinet (50 dispensers) and four workstations used for prescription intake/Rx imaging, Rx filling, Rx verification, will call bin management, and patient pick-up. Schenk said the staff uses Symphony+’s Rx Tracking and Problem Management functionality to track complete Rx status and exception processing within the pharmacy’s prescription fulfillment process, including tracking the delivery of Rxs to other Meridian Health facilities. The PharmASSIST technology is seamlessly integrated with their Rx30 pharmacy management system and Voice-Tech IVR for refill processing.

According to Schenk, Meridian Health will continue to invest in their employee prescription program by improving access to prescription benefits and increasing processing capacity with their scalable PharmASSIST technology. “We’ve made great strides with our technology investment, and we’re carefully analyzing our expansion options to handle the expected growth,” said Schenk.

“As major employers, hospitals and health systems are discovering that their outpatient pharmacies can be instrumental in curtailing the growing cost of providing drug benefits to their own employees,” said John Wilson, division vice president, institutional sales, Innovation. “Meridian Health recognized that achieving success in this area required a coordinated effort between plan benefits and increased capacity of the outpatient pharmacy. We’re proud to serve Meridian Health’s needs in this manner.”

About Meridian Health
Meridian Health is a family of not-for-profit health care organizations comprising Jersey Shore University Medical Center and K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital in Neptune, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, and Meridian Partner Companies that include home health services, skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers, ambulatory care, ambulance services, and occupational health centers located throughout Monmouth and Ocean counties. For more information, visit www.meridianhealth.com.

About Innovation Associates
Innovation Associates, Inc., a leader in the world of automated prescription dispensing, offers the PharmASSIST family of products to address the prescription growth, quality assurance, pharmacy workflow, and cost control challenges of all size pharmacies. With over three decades of broad-based, business experience, Innovation Associates is dedicated to delivering the highest-quality pharmacy automation products to the pharmacy industry. For more information on Innovation Associates, Inc., visit www.innovat.com.

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