Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Laura Mark, Vice President of Pharmacy at Allegheny Health Network

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Laura Mark, Vice President of Pharmacy at Allegheny Health Network · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - Pharmacy has long been viewed as a cost
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• 0:59
  - Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
• 1:02
  - I'm Ella Jeffries, reporter with Becker's. Today, I'm
• 1:05
  - joined by Laura Mark, vice president of pharmacy,
• 1:08
  - Alenity Health Network.
• 1:10
  - In this episode, we'll discuss how health systems
• 1:12
  - can improve medication
• 1:13
  - inventory visibility across hospitals and care settings,
• 1:17
  - navigate ongoing drug shortages and supply chain challenges,
• 1:20
  - and build an enterprise wide inventory strategy that
• 1:23
  - improves operational efficiency while supporting patient care. Laura,
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  - thank you so much for joining me today.
• 1:28
  - To start, could you please introduce yourself and
• 1:30
  - share a bit about your role and your
• 1:31
  - responsibilities
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  - as vice president of pharmacy?
• 1:35
  - Thank you, Ella, and thank you to Becker's
• 1:37
  - for inviting me to, talk about this topic.
• 1:41
  - My name is Laura Mark. I am the
• 1:42
  - vice president of pharmacy at Allegheny Health Network,
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  - which oversees,
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  - 12 hospitals health system,
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  - overseeing all things pharmacy. So from inpatient operations
• 1:55
  - to infusion centers to retail specialty,
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  - ambulatory care,
• 2:00
  - and our, central distribution center and service center
• 2:04
  - and central field location too as well. So
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  - anything pharmacy,
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  - really, we have an oversight for,
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  - within our,
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  - within our system.
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  - Awesome. Thank you so much for that context.
• 2:18
  - Now I understand that you recently led an
• 2:20
  - initiative
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  - to improve
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  - enterprise wide medication
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  - inventory visibility
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  - across your hospitals and infusion centers. I'm wondering
• 2:28
  - if you can walk us through, you know,
• 2:29
  - what prompted that effort
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  - and, you know, what the biggest challenges your
• 2:34
  - teams were facing before you got started with
• 2:36
  - that were.
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  - Alright. Well, thank you.
• 2:39
  - Well, leading and looking at what our leaders
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  - do and our staff do on an everyday,
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  - basis,
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  - there is so much complexity
• 2:47
  - in pharmacy operations that they have to do
• 2:49
  - from a regulatory perspective also
• 2:52
  - and then maintaining service levels.
• 2:54
  - Seemed that,
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  - what we were really looking at, what could
• 2:57
  - we do to help streamline operations?
• 3:00
  - And one of the areas that we looked
• 3:02
  - at was on inventory management.
• 3:05
  - And that
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  - piece seemed to be so task heavy burden
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  - to our staff
• 3:11
  - in managing
• 3:12
  - a sort of a manual process,
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  - of inventory management.
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  - And especially during, difficult times of staffing strain,
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  - interruptions,
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  - and changing supply chain conditions,
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  - It was just really an unsustainable,
• 3:27
  - way of managing inventory,
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  - by doing everything we were doing manually and
• 3:31
  - at individual sites.
• 3:33
  - We really did take a network, a standardized
• 3:36
  - approach in looking at this and how we
• 3:38
  - can prove the consistency
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  - while supporting the pharmacy team, including our staff,
• 3:43
  - frontline staff, our buyers,
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  - and our leaders too as well.
• 3:49
  - That's great. Thank you so much for sharing.
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  - And I'm also curious, you know, what did
• 3:55
  - enterprise wide inventory visibility actually look like in
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  - practice? You know, how did you connect connect
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  - inventory data across hospitals, infusion centers, and other
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  - care settings?
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  - For us, inventory,
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  - enterprise visibility for inventory
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  - really meant having one coordinated view of all
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  - inventory across all hospitals and infusion centers
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  - instead of just relying on individual sites to
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  - manage independent,
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  - their inventory independently.
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  - The visibility
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  - really helped us to understand,
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  - where medications were available and identify trends more
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  - quickly and make proactive,
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  - decisions
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  - rather than reacting to inventory issues, after they
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  - occurred. And it really did support our frontline
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  - staff too as well, that transparency
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  - and that,
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  - piece. We really needed to, help our our
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  - staff,
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  - with understanding what was happening with inventory.
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  - So we really did when we were looking
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  - at this,
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  - approach and taking enterprise
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  - lens at this,
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  - we were really looking at standardization
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  - and connecting
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  - all of our technologies and inventory intelligence.
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  - We landed on Omnicell's inventory optimization service, and
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  - we really felt that that was really a
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  - great approach.
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  - Lot of places,
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  - do things with walls and building out central
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  - service centers. And at the time, we did
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  - not build out our central service center. We
• 5:22
  - didn't have walls.
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  - So we really wanted it the technology,
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  - what could we do without walls
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  - And leveraging the, the sales inventory optimization service,
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  - their iOS,
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  - piece really did help us, and that was
• 5:36
  - a solution that
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  - fit best best for what we want to
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  - accomplish.
• 5:42
  - The connectivity
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  - and the infrastructure really helped us to standardize
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  - stocking,
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  - replenishment,
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  - inventory management practices across all sites. This really
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  - made it easier to operate as one coordinated
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  - health system instead of looking at individual hospitals.
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  - We also use this for IV standardization
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  - process too as well. So we use iOS
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  - to view usage of compounded items, helping us
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  - to optimize
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  - performance of our IV technology assisted workflow, IVX,
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  - that is also OmniSell,
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  - across our hospitals and our infusion centers.
• 6:15
  - Great. Thank you so much for sharing.
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  - And, you know, aside from the the technology
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  - that you were just walking me through, I'm
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  - curious what, you know, cultural changes were just
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  - as important as that technology aspect itself,
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  - you know, to really get the team on
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  - board with, with these changes.
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  - That's a great question.
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  - One of our biggest lessons that we learned,
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  - quickly and and thankfully,
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  - is that technology doesn't create standardization
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  - on its own.
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  - Leadership alignment was really something that we focused
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  - on in a shared governance process that was
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  - consistent processes were just as important as the
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  - technology itself.
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  - So
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  - before we even implemented technology, we focused on
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  - our governance structure
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  - and that process improvement
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  - as well to understand
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  - because just because we had technology didn't mean
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  - that we were going to have a,
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  - standardized
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  - approach. We learned also that sustainable enterprise outcomes
• 7:16
  - required more than just technology.
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  - We needed to share governance and clear standards.
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  - And so we really focused, prior to even
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  - implementing technology,
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  - was on those clear standards in that governance
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  - structure.
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  - We did this with,
• 7:29
  - to leverage that too as well. And one
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  - of the things that once we had the
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  - technology,
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  - we've really enforced, like, NDC level purchasing standardization
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  - through that enterprise governance,
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  - through a change management,
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  - that was managed centrally
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  - and then executed consistently across all sites.
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  - We were fortunate that when we really looked
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  - at to our,
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  - once we had our governance structure, we really
• 7:55
  - looked for business partners. And, thankfully, we really
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  - do see, Omnicell as a strategic partner. They
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  - became an extension of our pharmacy team rather
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  - than just a technology vendor.
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  - So it's really important to really, think about
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  - breaking down silos,
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  - pairing automation with intentional design and processes
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  - across the network.
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  - Definitely. I'm sure. I can't imagine how important
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  - that is to for success.
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  - And and speaking of success,
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  - as you implemented this strategy,
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  - how did you go about measuring that? What
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  - outcomes did you, you know, ultimately see both
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  - from a financial standpoint and in terms of,
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  - you know, pharmacy operations and patient care for
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  - the health system?
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  - So success just isn't measured in savings. We
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  - looked at whether our teams had better visibility,
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  - whether medications were available when clinicians needed them,
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  - and whether we could respond more effectively to
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  - shortages.
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  - Prior to, we were managing,
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  - drug shortages all on,
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  - Excels, and we were all everybody was tasked
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  - with trying to find out their inventory levels
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  - prior to a weekly meeting.
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  - We don't have to do that anymore.
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  - We have a weekly meeting, and we really
• 9:08
  - do leverage Omnicell's iOS system
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  - to help with, coordination of drug shortages. And
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  - to the point where we know
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  - what we're managing,
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  - we know the days on hand and where
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  - that inventory is,
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  - located,
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  - it has really helped streamline some of our
• 9:23
  - buyers too as well and the work that
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  - they do. So they don't have to make
• 9:27
  - wasted phone calls to check and ask everybody,
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  - do they have something on hand? They have
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  - that easy visibility,
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  - and they can easily go to each buyer
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  - or, we have a group chat that's great,
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  - that they go back and forth with on
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  - drug shortages.
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  - So a lot
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  - of, decrease of wasted time on on their
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  - end,
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  - that they've been very happy with too as
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  - well.
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  - From a savings perspective,
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  - we've done a total savings to date of
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  - $4,200,000,
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  - which really has strewn stemmed from NDC optimization,
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  - from inventory reduction,
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  - and then also from dead stock reduction. So
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  - very excited about those things that,
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  - again,
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  - from a partnership with Omnicell,
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  - we meet on a regular basis, and, we
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  - have that visibility
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  - that our buyers can take action on on
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  - a regular basis, but then they're also, joined
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  - in, with Omnicell
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  - on our regular monthly meetings too as well
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  - to measure
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  - that. It's very important for us to to
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  - be able to get back to our staff
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  - and recognize and show them the value of
• 10:34
  - the work that they're doing. So be being
• 10:37
  - able to have these statistics and the finances
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  - back to them,
• 10:41
  - as what they're doing and their work and
• 10:42
  - the impact that they're making on savings has
• 10:44
  - been very important to us.
• 10:47
  - In addition, from a stockout perspective, we've been
• 10:50
  - able to show our staff that our stockout
• 10:52
  - rate went down to point 46%,
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  - which has been great. They've been very appreciated
• 10:56
  - of that. And, again, that goes back to,
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  - you know, what are we doing
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  - from a
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  - technology perspective, but then how are we bringing
• 11:04
  - that information back to our frontline staff to
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  - showing their value
• 11:08
  - as to the work that they're doing?
• 11:10
  - We've been able to, issue to restock ratio
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  - of 9.58,
• 11:15
  - so we're very excited about that number too
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  - as well. And, again, we've transitioned from spreadsheets
• 11:20
  - based tracking to structured system on wide days
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  - on hand visibility,
• 11:25
  - from the staff level.
• 11:28
  - With that, with the stockout ratios and decrease
• 11:31
  - in stockout ratios, we've had faster medication access
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  - for nursing and patient care teams as a
• 11:35
  - result.
• 11:37
  - And, again, while those financial outcomes are very
• 11:39
  - important,
• 11:40
  - we really want the reflection of building a
• 11:43
  - more consistent process across the enterprise.
• 11:48
  - Definitely. That's so important. Thank you so much
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  - for sharing the context on that.
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  - And, you know, for health systems that
• 11:56
  - recognize they might need better inventory visibility, but
• 11:59
  - maybe aren't sure where to begin, what's that
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  - first step that you would recommend,
• 12:04
  - they pursue that, you know, you encounter during
• 12:07
  - your own journey or a lesson learned?
• 12:09
  - I
• 12:10
  - would really encourage organizations to start with the
• 12:13
  - people and process before technology.
• 12:15
  - And that's sort of a everybody starts with
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  - technology,
• 12:19
  - but really aligning the shared goals and breaking
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  - down silos across sites,
• 12:24
  - thinking about how you want your pharmacy teams
• 12:26
  - to operate as one enterprise
• 12:28
  - really is just as important as the technology.
• 12:32
  - And it's really gonna set you up from
• 12:33
  - a success perspective when you have that technology
• 12:36
  - available.
• 12:38
  - Technology can help accelerate the work, but it's
• 12:41
  - really best when it's supporting a well designed
• 12:43
  - process and governance model.
• 12:48
  - Definitely. That's great advice. Thank you.
• 12:51
  - And looking ahead, how do you see pharmacy
• 12:54
  - inventory management evolving over the next, say, three
• 12:57
  - to five years? Do you think that technologies
• 13:00
  - like AI or predictive analytics,
• 13:02
  - are going to just continue becoming a larger,
• 13:04
  - more integral part of the conversation, or do
• 13:06
  - you see the the field going in a
• 13:08
  - different direction?
• 13:14
  - I I think by leveraging the technology,
• 13:17
  - and moving forward in the future,
• 13:19
  - it's really where pharmacy leaders have much more
• 13:21
  - greater visibility,
• 13:23
  - and can make decisions proactively instead of just
• 13:25
  - reactively.
• 13:27
  - And it's not only just our pharmacy leaders,
• 13:29
  - but it's also our frontline staff too as
• 13:31
  - well. So very excited about that,
• 13:35
  - Again, getting back to the frontline staff.
• 13:38
  - For us, this means also continuing to standardize
• 13:40
  - workflows.
• 13:41
  - We use data more effectively and really look
• 13:44
  - for opportunities to improve medication management across the
• 13:47
  - entire health system.
• 13:51
  - Gotcha.
• 13:52
  - Well, Laura, this has been such a great
• 13:54
  - conversation. Thank you so much for sharing your
• 13:56
  - perspective and insights with the Becker's team. That's
• 13:59
  - all for today's episode of the Becker's Healthcare
• 14:01
  - podcast. A big thank you again to Laura
• 14:03
  - Mark for joining us. Thanks for listening, everybody,
• 14:05
  - and we'll see you next time.