Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Expanding Infusion Services and Driving Value in Pharmacy at Cone Health

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Expanding Infusion Services and Driving Value in Pharmacy at Cone Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
• 0:04
  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago April.
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  This series event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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  W. Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  in Chicago.
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  Welcome to the Becker's pharmacy leadership podcast. I'm
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  Ella Jeffries, pharmacy reporter with Becker's Healthcare. Today,
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  I'm joined by Nick Gosta, director of pharmacy
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  oncology and infusion at Cone Health. In this
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  episode, we'll be talking about key pharmacy initiatives
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  from the past year, the priorities and headwinds
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  leaders are navigating as they plan for 2026,
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  and where opportunities for organizational growth are emerging.
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  Nick, thank you so much for joining me
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  today. To start us off, can you please
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  introduce yourself and share a bit about your
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  role in Cone Health Pharmacy Organization?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks very much for having me
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  first and foremost.
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  As you mentioned, my name is Nick Gazzed,
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  director of pharmacy
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  for oncology and infusion services at Cone Health
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  in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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  Cone Health is a large IDN in Central
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  North Carolina,
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  five acute care facilities, but,
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  an ever growing ambulatory enterprise. So, pretty comprehensive
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  pharmacy and general health care services for the
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  citizens of North Carolina.
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  We've, recently aligned,
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  been about a year in our journey with,
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  integration with Risen Health, which is,
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  the value based care, you know, organization initiative,
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  supported by Kaiser and Geisinger
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  and Cone Health. So
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  really exciting year for for their growth and
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  looking looking forward for for health care at
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  at in North Carolina at Cone Health.
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  My role, I,
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  oversee oncology and infusion services. So we have
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  six cancer centers
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  in both urban and rural areas in our
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  service area.
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  We have on-site clinical and infusion services at
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  all six
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  and also have oversight of our
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  non oncology ambulatory infusion strategy. So we have
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  four non oncology infusion sites and growing,
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  and also,
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  continuing to grow and invest in a centralized
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  authorization
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  and a medication access team
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  to help with throughput for our infusions
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  and,
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  our, outpatient pharmacy prescriptions.
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  Great. Thank you so much for sharing that
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  context.
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  Now looking back over the past year, what
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  was the most important initiative that you led?
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  What did you focus on, and what results
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  did you see?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. We had a lot of growth
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  and
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  success,
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  continuing to provide great services for patients across
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  oncology infusion in our our patient access team.
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  I think what I'd focus on,
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  it'll it'll be a focus at the Becker's
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  conference is the continued advancement
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  of the infusion strategy for our organization, particularly
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  in a non oncology space.
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  It's an area that we've been providing services,
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  for a long time for patients, but really
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  in the beginning of 2025,
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  we identified the need to kinda get an
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  interdisciplinary
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  group of stakeholders together
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  to really talk strategically and align our non
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  oncology infusion services across the organization
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  and,
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  look at things like standardization,
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  patient access,
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  customer service from both the provider and patient
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  perspective.
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  And, really proud of the work we've done,
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  in the past year to help shepherd that
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  strategy along. It's very much a team effort,
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  with our nursing colleagues, so their acute care
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  colleagues,
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  with rev cycle and finance,
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  really all, aligning
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  and,
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  leaning into shared goal to to increase,
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  and improve services for patients. And so we've
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  had a lot of success in increasing capacity,
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  improving customer service,
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  decreasing turnaround times,
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  really leveraging our technology to have standardized processes,
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  fully centralizing
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  authorization,
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  and met access services.
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  And that's really, allowed us to see some
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  success with,
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  40%
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  growth in infusion volumes, denials less than 2%,
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  and,
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  generally high patient and employee satisfaction through those.
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  So really excited,
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  about
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  continuing to grow on those services.
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  Infusion services are just incredibly
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  important strategic,
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  opportunities
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  for for health systems across the country.
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  Definitely. That's a great example. Thank you for
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  sharing.
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  Now as you went and were,
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  expanding those services, what lessons did you take
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  away from that experience, whether it was from
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  the successes or the challenges of that expansion?
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  Just with a lot of things that I've
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  learned, you know, across
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  health care in general is that,
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  infusion services, just like pharmacy services, like a
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  lot of other things,
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  touch all aspects
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  of, the health care enterprise. So it's really
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  important to get all the stakeholders at the
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  table. You know, you can't do it without
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  nursing. You can't do it without transitions of
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  care and acute care. You can't do it
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  without physician champions. So
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  really, being able to get everyone to the
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  table to to have those conversations
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  and really put structure and
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  get buy in on what support and organizational
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  structure looks like to help see those initiatives
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  through.
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  For sure. Thank you for sharing.
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  Now looking ahead, what are the big priorities
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  and headwinds you're focused on as you plan
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  for 2026?
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  I think 2026 is gonna be a big,
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  year growth for us,
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  really focusing on access and customer service.
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  Now that we've kind of established,
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  using Infusion Services as an example,
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  as we've established strong infrastructure and foundation
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  for a lot of the services I oversee.
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  Really, like like I said, really focusing on
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  what that next step is. How far do
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  patients have to travel for for care? How
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  much effort it takes for providers to get
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  patients the care that they need?
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  How do we remain competitive
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  in in a growing area.
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  You know, I think those are all gonna
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  be really, really important things. Maybe a more
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  specific example
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  of what's,
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  some things we're looking at and it aligns
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  with some of the organization's
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  goals. How do we drive value?
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  And so infusion services, for instance, are great
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  opportunity for us to continue to lean into
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  is alternative sites of care for infusion.
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  And I always bring it back to the
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  value value equation. You know, it's really simple.
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  Values increase in quality and service and decrease
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  in cost.
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  So how do we do that in oncology?
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  How do we do that in infusion?
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  And so looking at things like home infusion,
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  home infusion suites, different care models that,
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  are both clinic or where are gonna be
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  the most clinically and financially advantageous for our
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  patients and for the organization, I think is
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  gonna be important.
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  Some other areas I focus on, particularly in
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  oncology space, novel therapy and enhanced clinical services.
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  We've historically been in a,
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  community based cancer center,
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  but we're seeing these complex novel therapies by
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  specific CAR t,
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  becoming
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  more easily done in the outpatient space,
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  moving up in clinical guidelines.
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  So really investing in in the clinical and
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  operational
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  expertise that we need to help
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  keep care local for our patients.
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  And and then lastly, and I'll be remiss
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  not bringing it up. It's kinda buzzy, but
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  leveraging technology and AI and processes where applicable.
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  We've we partnered with vendors to bring prior
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  auth,
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  AI to prior auths and medication medication assistance
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  are continuing to expand on that and looking
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  to be efficient and be the best steward
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  for our resources to care for our patients.
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  Wow. Those sound like some great priorities that
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  are definitely gonna make a really positive impact
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  on patient care.
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  Now in terms of headwinds, you know, what
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  challenges are you foreseeing, and how are those
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  shaping your strategy right now?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I think, you know,
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  in the coming year, you know, we're we're
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  gonna continue to
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  navigate through financial headwinds and regulatory uncertainty.
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  So,
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  we're doing what we can to,
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  implement business sustainable programs to help insulate from
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  this uncertainty,
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  really building business acumen across our clinical teams
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  as well to really understand the importance of
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  that. One thing that we're going to be
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  doing and focusing on is just a renewed
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  and enhanced focus on pharmacy rev cycle,
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  NDC and biosimilar optimization,
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  focus on net cost recovery,
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  really leaning into formulary decisions, not just on
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  the acute care, but in the ambulatory space
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  as well,
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  to really help us reinvest,
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  that into our patient care services.
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  Now along with those priorities do come some
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  tough decisions. What's the hardest thing that you're
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  gonna have to tackle in the coming year
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  as a pharmacy leader?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. I think, again, I think it's
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  gonna be navigating those financial headwinds and and
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  regulatory uncertainty. I think it's certainly
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  been
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  a challenge and and it's common theme over
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  the last couple years that
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  we,
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  are in a constantly changing environment.
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  There's a lot of opportunity
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  for innovation
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  and
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  reform and how we provide health care. And
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  so,
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  we're in a unique spot in in IDNs
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  to,
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  lean into that, but also figure out how
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  we can still continue to provide,
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  support to our patients and high level care
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  to our patients. And so,
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  those are, I think that's gonna be really
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  hard. And again, a lot of the things
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  that we're doing, I said in the last
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  question, is just continuing to try to build
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  processes,
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  that can navigate those headwinds really, really,
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  develop financial acumen amongst our teams is gonna
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  be really important as we,
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  continue to lead in an environment of uncertainty.
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  Definitely.
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  And within those challenges and headwinds, how are
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  you preparing your team to embrace them or
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  tackle them in the new year?
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  Yeah. That's a great question. I think, again,
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  something that I always do with our teams
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  is,
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  it's not you know, in the past, maybe
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  it's felt taboo. We want, you know, we
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  want our clinical and operational teams to be
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  thinking about what's best for the patient in
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  front of us. But but, again, just building
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  that financial acumen, being transparent around,
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  you know,
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  the things that we're doing and how sustainable
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  they are moving forward.
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  And just also just leaning into change.
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  Change management is really is going to be
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  incredibly important and it has been.
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  And,
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  we, you know, with the COVID nineteen pandemic,
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  we kind of got a crash course and
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  comfortability with how what it is to change,
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  you know, in a quick manner and really
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  leveraging those skills and things we developed
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  to help manage through,
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  a rapid environment change that we have in
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  health care right now.
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  Gotcha. Thank you for sharing that.
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  Now even with those challenges, there are still
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  areas for growth. Where do you see the
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  best opportunities for organizational growth moving forward?
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  Absolutely. You know, for me, when you think
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  about
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  the organization as a whole, it it's really
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  about focusing on value based care. Again, going
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  back to that value equation,
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  what can we do to increase quality and
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  increase service and decrease costs? And so all
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  of our priorities and opportunities should really be
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  focused on,
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  trying to drive one of those levers,
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  taking them down to the pharmacy department and
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  pharmacy enterprise.
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  Pharmacy is really well positioned to intersect
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  quality
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  and and cost across the whole enterprise,
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  of health care,
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  whether that's transitions to care,
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  infusion, especially in community pharmacy,
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  pharmacies presence in population health and primary care,
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  procurement and rev cycle.
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  And so,
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  I think we continue to have an opportunity
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  to elevate pharmacies
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  presence
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  and, expertise
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  across the continuum
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  to, continue to drive organizational growth,
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  and and, again, reinvest those into, our patient
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  care efforts.
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  Definitely. It's an exciting time. And what would
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  you say excites you most about those opportunities?
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  Yeah. That's a great question. Yeah. I think
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  it's,
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  you know,
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  I I really, I really love to see
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  programs grow and being able to reinvest what
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  we're doing to help to help patient care,
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  just to,
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  you know,
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  see what we can do and navigate through
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  some of that some of that change and
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  just,
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  you know, really keep keep ourselves grounded in
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  our in our staff meetings, in our,
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  in our patient care huddles around those patient
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  stories and how we're making an impact on
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  our patients.
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  A lot of the examples I provided earlier
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  around growing infusion services, new complex therapies,
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  it's just really rewarding to see
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  the,
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  impact
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  that the patients they had, that they don't
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  have to travel an hour and a half
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  for their care anymore, that we're able to
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  provide,
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  say the art care and provide that new
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  access points to patients here closer to home.
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  So it's really rewarding to see, the other
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  side of that. Sometimes in the day to
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  day in the minutiae, we don't always celebrate
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  that as much as we should, but, always
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  like to keep it grounded in that and
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  really excited to see the the impact on
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  the community that can have.
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  Definitely. I couldn't agree more. You definitely need
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  to celebrate those wins.
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  Well, Nick, this has been a great conversation.
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  Thank you so much for sharing your perspective
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  and insights with us. That's all for today's
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  episode of the Becker's pharmacy leadership podcast. A
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  big thank you again to Nick Gosda for
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  joining us to discuss pharmacy priorities, challenges, and
• 14:04
  opportunities at Comel. Thanks for listening, and we'll
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  see you next time.