Many pharmacists have recognized that helping long term care facility patients adhere to their medication is an important and rewarding job. Some have made a career out of it. Paul Winger, owner of LTC Rx, knows that his patients no longer struggle with taking their medication with the help of the RapidPakRx™.
How does the RapidPakRx help?
The RapidPakRx is a strip packaging automation system that helps patients with a large number of prescriptions properly comply with their medication regimen. With each dose individually packaged, patients just tear open the pouch and take their medications. The pouch contains the correct time and day that each dose is supposed to be taken, along with each and every NDC for that med pass, which removes the hassle of worrying about the proper time to take medications and patients avoid potentially forgetting a dose.
“Our business philosophy is that we tailor our pharmacy services to meet your needs,” says Winger. “Our typical patient profile is a patient who's in a facility that's administered their meds by somebody who's licensed, like a CNA or a nurse. ” Now, with the help of the RapidPakRx, providing these patients their medications is more accurate and simple than ever, Winger says.
Cutting Down Pharmacist Verification Time
Making sure that the correct medication reaches the right patient is a crucial responsibility of the pharmacy. “One of the main advantages of the RapidPakRx is that it has cut our checking time,” explains Winger. “It takes about an hour [to check], whereas it used to take us about three hours to check manually with our previous machine.” The RapidPakRx uses a 3-step integrated machine vision system to help pharmacistd more accurately and efficiently verify each strip. As a pharmacy that serves several long term care facilities, LTC Rx is able to fill each order with a minimal errors, which enables the pharmacy to increase the number of patients it serves.
Additionally, with the help of the RapidPakRx, the process of filling each strip is less complicated than before. The RapidPakRx utilizes universal cartridges, which allow technicians to easily fill the system with the necessary medication to meet the unique needs of every patient. “With our previous machine, if we changed NDCs, we had to purchase a canister, which cost about $200 a piece,” says Winger.
Simplifying Adherence in LTC Facilities
Long term care facilities work with patients who need help in a variety of daily activities. Administering patient medications is one of the most important activities that LTC facilities deliver to customers on a day-to-day basis. This is where the RapidPakRx really shines. The pouches produced by the system are on high-contrast paper, which is easy to read and easy to open. Our pouches are even certified by the American Arthritis Foundation. In addition, the RapidPakRx -- due to dynamic, variable pouching -- can accommodate more pills per med pass.
“What our customers have been telling us about the RapidPakRx, is that it is much nicer when they go to pass meds. They don’t have to open as many packets, it’s generally one med pass,” says Winger.
Improving Efficiency = Increasing Profitability
“Our pharmacy workflow has been impacted by the fact that our pharmacists are not spending as much time checking,” says Winger. “Our pharmacists are now able to spend more time on more important matters.” Manually reviewing each strip package can be a daunting task, which decreases the productivity in a pharmacy. By simplifying the checking process, the RapidPakRx has allowed LTC Rx to utilize pharmacist time in the most efficient manner. Instead of spending hours reviewing the accuracy of the strip pouches, their time can be allocated to projects that help grow and improve the pharmacy.
“We don’t have as many errors, so we are not re-running the machine as often,” says Winger. Minimizing errors helps save money because it means that technicians do not have to run the process again, saving valuable time. Additionally, by correctly packaging each prescription the RapidPakRx helps avoid extra material costs caused by wasted, inaccurate strips.
“Using the RapidPakRx, we're able to do our day-to-day tasks much faster than we were before,” says Amanda, a pharmacy technician at LTC Rx. “We're able to work approximately three to four days ahead depending on our schedule and what we have going on. We couldn't do that with our previous solution.” The RapidPakRx can complete up to 50 patient jobs in a single 8-hour shift, with one technician, increasing the level of prescriptions a pharmacy can fill.
“I love the RapidPakRx. Using the system makes my job easier. I am able to deal with issues much quicker than I was before,” says Amanda.
If you are interested in learning more about the RapidPakRx and how it can help your pharmacy improve efficiency, please call (877) 978-2364 to speak to one of our representatives or visit our website for more information.
