Case Study: HEALTHPOINT CHOOSES LIBERTY SOFTWARE TO EMPOWER THE PHARMACY TEAM

BACKGROUND

With strong roots in the King County community in Washington State, HealthPoint, a level 3 patient-centered medical home, cares for more than 100,000 people at 20 primary care facilities. There are 11 pharmacies across the health system: nine traditional site pharmacies, one central fill pharmacy, and one specialty pharmacy.

This case study examines one of HealthPoint’s high-profile upgrades — a new pharmacy management solution by profiling Director of Pharmacy Services, Katya Kanevski. She shares 

the analysis and decision-making process that led to selecting Liberty Software to build their personalized pharmacy platform.

INTENDED OUTCOME

Robust dispensing software is about accuracy, efficiency, productivity, compliance, safety, and adaptability to meet ever-changing business and compliance needs. Kanevski wanted a low-touch system to support the delivery of high-touch pharmacy-based services for patients.

“Pharmacists’ time is valuable and stretched thin. We need to free up their time with a system that allows for dispensing efficiency and technological solutions,” said Kanevski. “We can do more for our patients by spending less time on manual tasks.”

Healthpoint needed a system that could clearly identify certain patient population groups, such as urgent care patients or school-based clinics, to meet unique needs for filling and distribution accurately.   

“Many requirements exist to meet the needs of a diverse pharmacy business,” said Kanevski. “Our goal is always to provide an enhanced level of dispensing safety, accuracy, and tools to adhere to 340B regulations.”

Kanevski’s aim centered on perfecting the pharmacy customers’ experience through operational excellence. Leading the team of 75 pharmacy staff involved providing the tools needed for directly engaging in delivery of high-quality patient consultations and clinical services like immunizations and CGM placements/training.

CHANGES AND CHALLENGES

“We were not as efficient as we needed to be. And we had a limited system,” said Kanevski. “We needed to position ourselves competitively against the rapidly changing pharmacy landscape.”

The pain points for the pharmacy team included too much manual intervention that made processes cumbersome. Central fill had too many moving parts.  

The pharmacy department needed to tighten operations and gain dispensing efficiencies by reallocating pharmacists’ time to pharmacy-based services.

“We were looking for a vendor that could grow with us in every way: support our growing locations as well as changing pharmacy and patient needs,” said Kanevski.

THE DECISION TO PARTNER WITH LIBERTY SOFTWARE

The pharmacy team conducted a SWOT, which produced the following primary requirements that guided the choice for a new system (see side-bar).

The pharmacy leadership team assessed numerous vendors and narrowed the field to three front runners. Then other departments and the rest of the pharmacy team conducted a final review where they selected the Liberty Software Pharmacy Platform as the system that best addressed their requirements.

The team’s decision has been validated time and again because Liberty has excelled on delivering on the following areas:

- A Smooth Transition

“Liberty is a phenomenal partner,” said Kanevski. “We received a tremendous amount of support led by a strong implementation manager that oversees everything.”

Liberty brought in two support members for each clinic pharmacy, one for the specialty pharmacy, and five for central fill. The support team stayed on-site for three days after go-live to ensure a smooth transition.

“This was expected to be a very challenging experience. However, looking back, it was an easy installation,” said Kanevski. “When you see workflows come together and staff acknowledging the ease, you know it was a successful transition.”

- Workflow Efficiencies

“Our 11 pharmacies talk to each other like never before,” said Kanevski. “We can do central fill and handle the complex workflow.”

The platform’s ease stems from the specially designed embedded workflow technology that includes data entry, RPH check, count, and verify. The system also accommodates remote working, which is valuable for HealthPoint’s pharmacy operations.

“The pandemic showed us that not everyone has to or can do work from a certain place. The platform allows for remote work, which is critical with the current labor shortage,” said Kanevski.- 

- 340B

Liberty offers many solutions for HealthPoint. One that stands out is the many features to support the 340B pharmacy program. The platform allows the team to work more confidently due to the system’s tools to support compliance requirements.

“The essence of why Liberty is great for our 340B program is its ability to track documentation required for program compliance by HRSA,” said Kanevski.

Liberty allows for a robust way to enter and track notes if documentation is missing. It also features an easy way to mark prescribers and patients as eligible for the 340B program so medications will not get filled outside the program boundaries.

- Patient Communications

“When reviewing Liberty, their outbound messaging capabilities were far superior. Liberty’s other unique features made automation flexible and superior to anything we reviewed,” said Kanevski.

Liberty has built-in translations for labels for Spanish and Vietnamese and can integrate 18 more languages based on patient population needs.

- Patient Refill Options

A key feature of the platform, MedSync, synchronizes filling medications simultaneously. Patients can be signed up to auto refill their chronic medications every month, which aids in adherence and streamlines workflow even more for predictive refills.

Liberty’s software includes an online app that patients can use to order refills. It also includes  an online scheduling tool allowing patients to schedule appointments for clinical services.  These features are added benefits that came built in with the system, which saved HealthPoint the expense of hiring additional third party vendors.

- Support

“Liberty’s technical support is unbeatable. When a staff member or any one of the system administrators need help, Liberty is there for us, providing great support by phone, chat, or email,” said Kanevski.

RESULTS

The Liberty Software Pharmacy Platform integrated a central dispensing function, shipping, and outbound engagement, resulting in increased in-house and remote productivity.

“A pharmacy management system should enable staff to provide better service. Liberty did this for us,” said Kanevski. “We went from an inefficient system that required numerous clicks and workarounds to a modern system that improves productivity through customized workflows.”

The differentiation that stood out was that Liberty assigned a success manager for the first six weeks after installation to troubleshoot and answer questions. And after six weeks, they provide a permanent account manager to provide upgrades and support.

“If a feature didn’t exist, Liberty’s agility allowed them to build it for us,” said Kanevski. “They don’t sit on a request. It is a problem-solving organization.”

The bottom line, HealthPoint can quantify the efficiencies, and operations are smooth and tied together more than ever before amongst all pharmacy facilities.

CONCLUSION

“Liberty delivered on what Liberty promised,” said Kanevski. “The platform does so much more than what we had.”

The technology redefined their operations to increase accountability and assure regulatory compliance. Liberty Software helped HealthPoint increase patient safety, enhance customer service, and improve workflow efficiencies.