INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: AmerisourceBergen Technology Group
MMT 2009 Volume: 13 Issue: 7 (October)
Group Vice President
AmerisourceBergen Technology Group
Q: Can you tell me a bit about what your company does?
A: Generally speaking, AmerisourceBergen Drug Company has a broad array of services that address pharmacy supply chain and drug distribution, pharmacy automation and professional services. Our professional services are built around providing consulting capabilities on everything from brick-and-mortar construction to staffing to lean six sigma or improved pharmacy operations processes.
Q: “Just in time” is a phrase you use a lot on your Website. Any technologies you would note or emphasize that help provide pharmaceutical products in a just-in-time way?
A: On the drug distribution side, we’ve built a tremendous competency in literally getting products from manufacturer to our customer, which at the end of the day is the patient. When we talk about just-in-time inventory solutions, we’re speaking to the supply chain and driving efficiency around the provision of products. For the Department of Defense, we provide the OptiFill product line, which can support in excess of 60,000 prescriptions a day through fulfillment.
It’s both a hardware and software solution. On the fulfillment or hardware side, it literally fills the prescription vial. So orders come through the pharmacy operating system into the OptiFill product and in a fully automated fashion fills the order.
Q: That might be located in a facility in a medical complex somewhere, but then patients actually get their drugs in another building or at their bedsides?
A: Generally it would be outside the medical center. For example, at Wright Patterson, where we have an installation, what they’ve done is taken the prescription volume that traditionally would have gone into the outpatient pharmacy there, which is located inside the medical center, and redirected upwards of 70 percent of that volume into our OptiFill refill center, [near] the PX, so [patients] can pick up their prescriptions without having to go to the medical center. That reduces traffic through the medical center that really wasn’t needed and reduces wait times and lines. Our Prescription Processing System software helps direct the workflow.
Q: Are there special needs you see with DoD or VA customers that are different from those in the civilian world, or are they basically the same?
A: As it relates to the technology, the DoD is a little bit of a different environment for a couple of reasons. Number one, they generally need a couple of different models. You may have a higher volume centralized refill center operation, but you also still need to have the outpatient solution as well. The centralized refill center can never completely replace the outpatient setting.
Q: Because they’re such huge operations?
A: Well, you always have the acute needs and you have the new prescriptions that need to be filled in an outpatient setting. Right now we’re finishing up an installation that will go live in November at Portsmouth Naval [Medical Center], and not only is our product going to support the central refill center that services the medical center itself, but it’s also going to support nine remote clinics. So instead of the volume being filled at one of these nine clinics, it’ll be redirected into the central refill site and be able to leverage the economies of scale of being able to do that.
Q: Regarding the consulting services you provide, are there particular trends in the kinds of thing you provide consultation on?
A: From a general health care perspective, a lot of customers, especially on the hospital side, are trying to come up with innovative and expanded ways to service the broader community outside just the four walls of the hospital or the acute care setting. There are parallels between the DoD and VA to what we’re doing in the community space but they’re not necessarily unique to one environment over another. Sometimes customers think they’re buying a box and all you need to do is plug it in and you’ll get the results you’re looking for, but we look at the technology as purely an enabler to solve a job. [It’s] how you operationalize and build your processes around the technology.
Q: Any thing else you’d note?
A: When you talk about the DoD, certainly security is something that’s paramount with respect to any technology solution, and we’ve worked very closely with the Navy, Army and Air Force in putting our products through [the DoD information assurance certification and accreditation process], and making sure that data is secure, [including] access to databases. The various branches have protocols in place that technology solutions, especially on the health care side, have to meet. ♦