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Staats Pharmacy Steamlines Workflow and Enhances Quality with PharmASSIST Symphony+ System
Spencer, West Virginia-based Independent Lauds PharmASSIST's Workflow Management and "Checks & Balances"

JOHNSON CITY, NY - September 9, 2004 - Innovation Associates announces that Staats Pharmacy of Spencer, West Virginia, has successfully implemented their PharmASSIST® Symphony+ System to streamline their pharmacy workflow and automate their prescription dispensing process. Staats Pharmacy evaluated all leading pharmacy automation systems and selected PharmASSIST based on its comprehensive workflow management, Rx tracking, and quality control capabilities. The independent’s goals in deploying the automation were to increase workflow efficiency, enhance dispensing quality, and free up their pharmacists to spend more time performing disease state management.

"We've always been prideful of our customer service, and with our increasing prescription volumes, I knew we needed to implement technology to help us maintain our high level of service,"says John Corkrean, RPh and president/owner of Staats Pharmacy. "Our PharmASSIST system has maximized the efficiency of our entire workflow, automated our manual refill processing procedure, and provided the many checks and balances necessary to ensure the accuracy of all our dispensing,"adds Corkrean.

Staats Pharmacy fills on average 250 prescriptions per day and has peak days of approximately 400-500 prescriptions. The independent's PharmASSIST Symphony+ System is comprised of 1 PharmASSIST cabinet, 50 dispensers, and 5 workstations for Order Entry/Rx Imaging, Auto-Fill/Manual-Fill, Rx Verification, Will Call Bin Management, and Electronic Signature Capture/Patient Pickup. The PharmASSIST system is integrated with their Renlar pharmacy management system, ensuring real-time prescription order flow for all Rx fulfillment tasks.

"Prior to using PharmASSIST our people used to float around more. Now our staff is dedicated to working at a station and performing specific tasks within our workflow, which provides consistency and accountability throughout the process. Combine this with the system’s Rx tracking features and we always know a prescription's status and location at any point in time,"comments Corkrean. "Overall, the system's blend of bar code scanning, imaging, tracking, and automated counting gives you so much confidence that it's hard to make a mistake,"sums up Corkrean.

Staats Pharmacy has served the Spencer, West Virginia community since 1940. Mr. Corkrean began working at the pharmacy in 1978 and became president/owner in 1989. Staats Pharmacy offers numerous services ranging from its Diabetes Care Center to cholesterol and osteoporosis screening to home medical sales and rental. Students from the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy and the West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnership program receive clinical and practical instruction during their clinical rotations at the pharmacy. For more information on Staats Pharmacy, visit www.staatspharmacy.com.

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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