April 16, 2013
Most of us are familiar with the statistics: one in five Medicare patients is readmitted within 30 days, at a cost of $26 billion annually. But the personal experiences behind readmissions tell a much more compelling - and prescriptive - story about the problem.
April 11, 2013
The best med aides I've ever seen have an almost spooky knack for getting nursing home residents to take their medicine. It's an art form, really. A mystical mix of command, humor and good, old-fashioned charm.
February 06, 2013
With the backbone of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system in place, many providers have interfaces on their radar in order to extend the value of their investment, create a richer picture of overall resident health, eliminate inefficient double data entry, and see deeper compliance benefits.
February 01, 2013
Time is a valuable and limited resource in long-term care. Caregivers often scramble to meet the varying needs of their residents and struggle to balance those duties against equally time-consuming regulatory requirements.
With more vendors targeting the hospice market, two drug giants appear ready to face off. Walgreens left the institutional-pharmacy business in 2010, of which hospice pharmacy is a part, in a deal with Omnicare. Walgreens traded the unit for Omnicare's home-infusion business. Since then, Omnicare has been the market leader for hospice drugs. So why the strategy change for Walgreens?
January 09, 2013
Have you ever read Dr. Seuss's "Pill Drill" from "You're Only Old Once"? Wow, it's obvious he must have experienced our fragmented health system, where older adults see multiple specialists who never speak with each other and overwhelm a patient with medications they can't keep up with.
January 07, 2013
No matter your role in healthcare, medication safety is a challenge that has caused you concern. In my job as co-owner of SureCare Rx, an independently owned and operated pharmacy partner to long-term care communities in the northwestern United States, this concern is a central focus. Recently, we took bold steps to overcome common obstacles and reduce medication errors almost completely, capitalizing on cutting-edge technology to lead the way.
December 20, 2012
Readmissions are a major problem in U.S. healthcare. LTC facilities are no longer lone providers in the health of a patient, but rather are a partner in the continuum of care from the initial admission of the patient to a hospital till the patient returns to their home environment or is transferred to hospice care.
November 28, 2012
It's often the case that delivering on a simple promise involves managing a lot of complexity. To that end, we continually revisit and re-evaluate our programs and processes, looking to improve the processes that help drive clinical and operational performance.
October 22, 2012
What if compounding pharmacies were given even a quarter of the scrutiny of long-term care inspections? If that were done, I don't believe there would be a fungus among us!
The parent company of Golden Living officially launched AlixaRx with predictions it could become a $250 million per year business within 18 months.
Executives tied to one of the nation's largest nursing home chains say a new institutional pharmacy model they unveiled this week could soon become the market's No. 3 player. The parent group of Golden Living officially launched AlixaRx this week with predictions it could become a $250 million per year business within 18 months.
August 29, 2012
The headlines were big. Really big. And they involved a long-term care corporate giant settling yet another lawsuit. But they didn't tell the story I really wanted to know about. And that you probably want to know about, too.
Omnicare Inc. turned a profit in the second quarter, according to a statement from the nursing home pharmacy giant. Omnicare earned $18.7 million, or 17 cents per share, for the three months ended June 30. That compares with a loss of $1.5 million, or 1 cent per share, a year earlier. Interim Chief Executive John Workman, the company's president and chief financial officer, said the latest results reflect positive trends its generic-drugs segment and continued growth at its specialty-care business.
Omnicell has completed the acquisition of MTS Medication Technologies Inc., a leader in medication adherence packaging systems. Omnicell can better integrate medication management across that broader spectrum of care, according to a company statement. MTS's medication management equipment, software and consumables are used by institutional pharmacy providers to supply long-term care and non-acute care facilities with single-dose, 30-day blister card medication packages to help nurses adhere to prescribed orders.
January 18, 2012
If there's anything the Golden Globes awards show taught us again Sunday night it is this: When big people talk, they make inordinately loud noise, no matter how high the volume on their microphones may be. Expect some loud noise soon in the long-term care arena over Omnicare's hostile takeover bid of rival PharMerica.
The American Society of Consultant Pharmacists' 2011 annual meeting and exhibition will take place Wednesday through next Friday at the Phoenix Convention Center. Kicking off the event will be a keynote presentation by Bill Thomas, M.D., founder of the Eden Alternative® and the Green House Project®. On Friday, renowned researcher Howard Friedman, Ph.D., will present "Findings from the Longevity Project: Discoveries for Health and Long Life from an Eight-Decade Study." Numerous educational sessions, exhibits and networking opportunities also will take place, as top senior care medication professionals gather to learn from one another.
August 23, 2011
So this is what it comes to when No. 1 attempts to buy No. 2. This could be some pretty lively theater by the time the final curtain drops.
February 23, 2011
Some 59% of community pharmacies provide critical long-term care services to patients and 100% of them face unprecedented challenges as 2011 gets into full swing.
October 07, 2010
The Drug Enforcement Agency has eased off of restrictions that have prevented nurses in long-term care from communicating prescription orders for controlled pain medications to pharmacies.
Leading pharmacy professionals will meet next Thursday and Friday in Dallas to discuss short-cycle dispensing and its potential impact on long-term care. Federal officials must create regulations for shorter dispensing cycles under the major healthcare reform bill signed into law earlier this year.
Nursing home pharmacy provider Omnicare Inc. on Tuesday said that it will pay $21 million to Michigan and Massachusetts to settle a whistleblower lawsuit.
November 05, 2009
Long-term care pharmacy giant Omnicare has agreed to pay a $98 million settlement in connection with allegations it engaged in an illegal kickback scheme with drug maker Ivax, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
The memories of Alzheimer's patients are forgotten but not gone, to twist a popular phrase. Now, one potential new treatment might help to recover some of those lost memories. An experimental drug has the potential to recover memory and improve cognitive function if taken early in Alzheimer's development-especially when coupled with other treatments, researchers say.
July 07, 2009
Dual-eligible seniors are caught in a Capitol Hill cross fire over a pledge from the pharmaceutical industry to reduce costs by $80 billion, according to reports from Washington.
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lily & Co. knew its product Zyprexa was ineffective for treating dementia when it pressured physicians to prescribe it to seniors from 1999 and 2003, according to a report citing recently unsealed company documents.
The Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit is too confusing for seniors, often leading beneficiaries to choose unnecessarily expensive plans, according to a new study. What's more, seniors may not even realize they're overpaying.
Tens of millions of dollars were likely inappropriately paid to skilled nursing facilities through the Medicare Part D prescription drug program in 2006, according to a recently released report from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General.
Two therapies commonly prescribed to seniors carry some significant risks, according to reports presented in Chicago during this week's Digestive Disease Week.
Physicians are overriding a vast majority of safety alerts about potentially bad drug interactions, a new three-state study finds. Doctors, probably more annoyed than enlightened, instead are relying on their own judgment rather than that of commercial services, researchers said in last week's edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
