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Source: Kansas City Star

Date: 13-Mar-2007

Author: Julius A. Karash

Visitors to the pharmacy at Truman Medical Center-Hospital Hill will now be greeted by the Walgreens logo.

The drugstore chain has taken over operation of the hospital's outpatient pharmacy under a lease agreement with Truman.

John Bluford, Truman's president and chief executive officer, said Walgreens installed upgraded technology that enables the pharmacy to fill prescriptions faster.

"Patients don't have to wait as long," Bluford said. "It also helps in the recruitment of pharmacists."

The pharmacy fills between 800 and 900 prescriptions on a busy day, Bluford said.

Truman continues to operate pharmacy services for inpatients — those who spend more than 24 hours in the hospital. But inpatients can use the on-site Walgreens pharmacy for prescriptions they need when they check out of the hospital.

"Patients will be able to drop off their prescriptions here and pick up their drugs here or at another Walgreens in a more convenient location," Truman spokeswoman Vicki Smith said.

The Walgreens at Truman also can fill prescriptions for people who are not Truman patients, Smith said. The pharmacy is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Rick Wade, a spokesman for the American Hospital Association in Washington, said such arrangements are becoming more common. "It allows hospitals to focus on their internal pharmacy operation," he said.

Walgreens, which is based in Deerfield, Ill., said on its Web site that it hires, trains and manages the staffs of the hospital pharmacies it operates. It said this benefits hospitals by "eliminating HR hassles related to pharmacist shortages and training issues."

Walgreens spokeswoman Tiffani Bruce said the deal with Truman represented the first such agreement for Walgreens in the Kansas City area.

Quality grant

The Kansas City Quality Improvement Consortium has received a $600,000 grant for a program to improve the health care provided to patients with chronic illnesses.

The money is coming from a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program known as "Aligning Forces for Quality, The Regional Market Project."

The goal of the three-year program is to help health-care providers, employers, insurers and consumers work together to improve the care provided to patients with conditions such as asthma, diabetes, depression and heart disease.

"This will help to increase the collaboration in health care between patients and physicians," said Cathy Davis, executive director of the consortium.