POWERS LAKE, Wis. — Thrifty White Pharmacy has been able to hone its pharmacy workflow and develop innovative medication programs for patients with the help of an automated image verification and collation system from TCGRx.
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Thrifty White is helping to improve patient medication adherence with TCGRx’s InspectRx/Collector system. |
The pharmacy automation solution provider said Monday that Thrifty White, which has 90 drug stores in the upper Midwest region, deployed the TCGRx InspectRx medication pouch inspector at its central long-term care pharmacy in May. The drug chain then upgraded to the TCGRx Collector closed-loop medication pouch dispensing and sorting system in late August, forming a comprehensive quality control process, according to TCGRx.
"InspectRx has helped streamline our pharmacy workflow. The process of verifying the contents of pouch packages, separating and rolling the pouches by pass-time or patient can be extremely labor-intensive," Justin Heiser, vice president of pharmacy operations at Thrifty White, said in a statement.
"The Collector, along with InspectRx, cuts that time in half, freeing up our teams to focus on the right things such as medication therapy management, resulting in improved health outcomes for our patients," Heiser explained. "Adding the Collector has allowed us to grow our business by offering shorter medication cycles, cutting down on waste without adding additional labor."
The Collector works with InspectRx as an imaging system to offer a faster, less expensive, and more accurate verification and collation process, TCGRx said. The Collector separates pouches by patient, drug or med cabinet and then rolls and tapes 60 patient pouches per minute and drops the pouches into a tote for delivery. The Collector reduces labor costs, allowing pharmacy staff to handle other value-added functions and services, according to the company.
TCGRx noted that InspectRx and Collector have allowed Thrifty White to devise pharmacy programs that can spur patient medication adherence, namely the drug chain’s HealthyPackRx compliance packaging.
HealthyPackRx organizes a patient’s prescription drugs by day, date and time to be taken to improve convenience while reducing the chance for confusion and medication errors. All medications for a patient are filled on the same day of each month, making it easier for him/her to stick to the prescribed medication regimen. TCGRx said Thrifty White can quickly produce, verify and organize the packs using the InspectRx/Collector closed-loop medication pouch dispensing system.
