The admission process for Skilled Nursing Facilities is multifaceted and can be challenging. Timeframes for reviewing and accepting new admissions are becoming tighter, making timely pre-admission medication cost estimates vitally important. Pre-admission cost estimates help admissions coordinators gain a complete understanding of the costs of the medication regimen for a prospective resident. Through a comprehensive cost estimate, providers can ascertain areas where a medication regimen could be optimized to remain clinically effective while benefiting from cost reduction. While medication pricing is available through many long term care pharmacies, very few offer the level of sophistication that Grane Rx offers. The Grane Rx MedExpense Evaluation Tool benefits admissions coordinators in three key ways:
In the modern world, technology is everywhere, impacting everything from what we eat to how we communicate. In the long term care setting, technology plays a significant role in helping provide residents with safe, quality care.
Given the large number of prescription medications elderly residents typically take, the role of pharmacy technology is especially important in medication management. Read on for a look at three key ways pharmacy technology positively impacts long term care.
When dispensing large quantities of medications to multiple residents, there is potential for disorganization. The use of automated medication dispensing cabinets largely mitigates that potential.
With automated medication dispensing cabinets, medications are stored, dispensed and tracked at the point of care. This access allows for the timely administration of medications and increases the time nurses can devote to resident care.
Grane Rx takes that technology a step further with SimpleAccess Cabinets. These cabinets provide a number of benefits within the long term care setting, including additional safety measures, automated and streamlined documentation, and improved nursing access to medications. The most unique aspect of SimpleAccess cabinets is the Anywhere RN Solution, a web-based application that allows nurses to complete tasks related to medication management while away from the cabinet.
The SimpleAccess cabinets also provide enhanced safety measures. Real-time resident profiling, organized dispensing bins and automated temperature controls are all implemented as part of the SimpleAccess technology.
The way medications are dispensed is another key safety measure. Grane Rx utilizes SimplePacks, resident-specific, multi-dose packaging that helps to largely reduce medication errors. This packaging technology uses automation to package medications according to when they will be taken—morning, noon, evening, at bedtime and on an as-needed basis.
While the SimplePacks themselves help reduce the risk of preventable medication errors by simplifying the process of taking medication for residents, Grane Rx provides another level of safety with InspectRx technology. This automated imaging technology checks to ensure that each pill in every SimplePack matches the resident it is being dispensed to. The technology checks for 12 pill indices, including color, shape, size and manufacturer.
[Tweet “Technology is everywhere. Learn about how #pharmacytechnology impacts #longtermcare.”]
Effective communication between all providers in a long term care setting is imperative. In order to enhance communication between Grane Rx pharmacy providers and other providers within your Skilled Nursing Facility or PACE center, we utilize SimpleView technology.
SimpleView is a secure communication portal designed to specifically meet the needs of each center. The tool, which is an online portal, offers providers 24/7 access to analytical tools, resident data and reports.
In one key aspect of the portal, admission coordinators can search for medication cost estimates specifically tied to the individual center’s contract pricing and pharmacy inventory.
Pharmacy technology’s role in long term care cannot be understated. Grane Rx is ahead of the curve, introducing technologies that positively impact several facets of provider access and resident safety. Grane Rx also interacts with your technology, integrating with your center’s electronic health record system. ]]>
Are you still managing hundreds of bingo cards for medication administration? Here are three good reasons to switch to multi-dose packaging:
Electronic health records have great promise for providing meaningful data. To make sense of all that data, you need to know what to track. There are just a few critical points to watch:
This information helps you understand your costs—and make smart choices about where to reduce spending while still maintaining excellent patient outcomes.
Technology isn’t just about data. Grane Rx consistently delivers innovative, integrated technology solutions to our customers to help balance cost and care which helps you use data to your advantage through methods like pre-admission medication cost estimates.
Grane Rx’s simple user interface allows admission coordinators to search medication cost estimates tied specifically to the community’s contract pricing and pharmacy inventory quickly and easily. It’s a simple, but more sophisticated, solution than many pharmacy services companies offer.
Pharmacy consults traditionally respond reactively to address issues a participant is having with medication. Early or proactive pharmacy consults look at a participant’s medications before there is a problem. That’s where Grane Rx’s Medications Insights program powered by YouScript™ comes in. We use a patented technology to help mitigate polypharmacy issues and identify and make medication changes before there is a need to invest in high cost lab tests. Our software enables prescribers to quickly identify more medication interactions and offer alternative medications both within the same medication class and for the same medication. Read more about the benefits of early pharmacy consults related to polypharmacy in the elderly.
Pharmacogenetic testing goes even deeper to assess the effectiveness of particular drugs for particular patients. Consider that 75 percent of all patients have some genetic variations in their medication metabolism enzymes, which may affect how they metabolize, process and react to treatments. Pharmacogenetic testing is beginning to explain the variances that have been seen between patient reaction to particular doses of particular medications.
This tool provides information to improve medication management by enabling providers to select the most appropriate medication at the most appropriate dose for a patient based on how their body will metabolize a medication. This has the potential to reduce the number of medications given to reduce side effects of other medications. That reduction can bring real cost savings as well as positive clinical outcomes.
A great pharmacy partner is always looking for ways to save you money, whether it’s creating a formulary for your organization or exchanging inefficient practices for more streamlined effective ones. Your pharmacy solution may be working, but checking out new pharmacy services may bring cost savings you can’t afford to pass up.
Nursing Home Pharmacy Services Improve Med Adherence Medication adherence means taking the right dose of the right medication at the right time—always. Patients are at risk of problems if they: