CONTACT: James Reno
Reno Communications
781.944.1406
jrenomktg@comcast.net

New River Family Health Center Enhances Patient Safety
and Customer Service with PharmASSIST Symphony+ System
West Virginia-based Family Health Center Reaching New Heights with Pharmacy Automation Technology

JOHNSON CITY, NY - March 4, 2004 - Innovation Associates announces that the New River Family Health Center of Scarbro, West Virginia has successfully implemented a PharmASSIST Symphony+ System to automate their prescription dispensing process and enhance their pharmacy workflow. New River Family Health becomes the first community health center to employ Innovation’s Symphony+ System, which combines automated prescription dispensing and workflow management software. After performing an extensive search of automated dispensing systems, the health center selected Innovation’s PharmASSIST technology to address its main goals of maximizing patient safety, improving customer service, and decreasing patient wait times.

“We had grown well beyond our current capabilities and we projected that our prescription volumes would continue to rise,” says Scott Brown, pharmacy director at New River Family Health. “We needed pharmacy automation technology that could carry us through this growth period and beyond. Our PharmASSIST system has had a huge impact on upgrading the quality of our dispensing process and on improving all aspects of our customer service.”

With prescription volumes that average 370 Rxs per day, New River Family Health employs a PharmASSIST Symphony+ System comprised of 2 PharmASSIST cabinets, 100 dispensers, and 5 workstations (Order Entry/Rx Imaging, Auto-Fill, Manual-Fill, Will Call, and Electronic Signature Capture/Patient Pickup) arranged in a circular workflow. The system is integrated with the health center’s CRX pharmacy management system, enabling PharmASSIST technology to receive all prescription orders for both automatic and manual filling as soon as they are entered into CRX.

“Since we’ve had this system our filling accuracy is as close to 100% as you can get and our patient wait times have dropped from as much as 3 hours to an average of 20-25 minutes,” says Brown. “I also can’t say enough about Innovation’s customer service. I’m more than pleased with their sense of urgency and their commitment to get things right during our system implementation.”

“The impact PharmASSIST has had on New River Family Health’s quality and service initiatives shows other community health centers that they too can emulate these types of best practices to enhance their pharmacy processes,” says Mary Reno, CEO at Innovation. “We will continue to educate this underserved market and to help these centers realize their goals for providing quality healthcare for all their patients.”

New River Health Association (NRHA) is a non-profit, community-owned health care organization started by Fayette County citizens in 1978 to provide family health care services for the surrounding community. The NRHA’s board of directors and advisory committees consist of community members who use the association’s services. The NRHA serves thousands of families across the West Virginia counties of Fayette, Boone, Nicholas, and Raleigh.

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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