State
Office of Pharmacy Services
Agency History
State government today faces intense pressure to reduce service-delivery
costs. Nowhere has this pressure been more unyielding than in the
area of healthcare. Increasing costs in the provision of health
care have been a major challenge for state government in meeting
budgetary goals.
Historically, pharmacy services have been a significant part of
this increasing cost. Year after year, medication costs increased
at a rate greater than inflation. The demand for clinical pharmacy
services was on the rise while the quality of health care services
provided by state institutions, was increasingly being questioned.
In 1992, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts had in its charge approximately
4,000 inpatients housed at 22 facilities in three different agencies.
Concerned about quality and cost issues, a study was commissioned
to assess pharmacy services in the departments of Mental Health,
Mental Retardation and Public Health.
The study concluded that it was feasible to consolidate and standardize
pharmaceutical services and to integrate pharmacy services across
the three agencies — the Office For Pharmacy Services was
begun.
The success of the program was evident in September, 1998, when
the Office For Pharmacy Services broadened its responsibilities
to include the provision of pharmacy services to 22 Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, Department of Correction facilities, bringing
the total number of beds serviced to over 15,000.
Program Overview
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office For Pharmacy Services
provides comprehensive pharmacy services to public sector healthcare
organizations in a cost-effective, clinically responsible manner.
The Office practices “state-of-the-art” pharmacy delivery;
establishes up to date clinical pharmacy practice; assures full
regulatory compliance; implements and maintains the latest pharmacy
computer software; and provides for all aspects of budgeting and
purchasing including reporting, forecasting, and accounts payable.
The State Office For Pharmacy Services is dedicated to meeting the
healthcare needs of agencies within the Commonwealth with a comprehensive
and unique pharmacy program.
Our program begins with:
- Assessment of an agency’s current pharmacy services:
- evaluation of adherence to state and federal regulations;
preparedness for JCAHO and HCFA surveys;
- evaluation of the formulary process;
- determination of effectiveness of budgeting, purchasing,
and contracting;
- assessment of client needs.
Our program offers:
- Extension of our existing state pharmacy services contracts
- Effective system for selecting prime vendor
- Programs for inventory control, purchasing, and budgeting designed
to reduce inventory, decrease purchasing costs, improve the accuracy
of forecasting and provide better reporting
Our program will:
- Provide precise monitoring of high cost medications
- Provide accurate and useful operational and clinical reports
- Provide drug treatment guidelines for use with new, high cost
medications
- Provide comparative data with similar institutions to allow
administrative benchmarking
- Provide standardized policies and procedures which can be customized
as needed
- Provide Medication Usage Evaluations on a regular basis
- Provide medication usage consults for patients with particularly
difficult medication problems
- Provide educational services for pharmacy and agency staff
- Monitor and document medication usage
- Monitor and address medication dispensing errors
- Monitor adverse drug reactions and provide a statewide comparison
- Assist in the establishment of a model adverse drug reaction
reporting program
- Provide up to date drug-drug and drug-food interaction monitoring
- Provide written drug information for patients in both English
and Spanish
- Provide guidance in all matters of drug therapy from the State
Pharmacy and Therapeutics Advisory Committee
- Provide professional drug information services
We currently provide complete pharmacy services to the
following:
| The Massachusetts of Department of Mental
Health
- Worcester State Hospital
- Westboro State Hospital
- Taunton State Hospital
- Lindemann Mental Health Center (Boston)
- Quincy Mental Health Center
- Corrigan Mental Health Center (Fall River)
- Cape Cod and the Islands Mental Health Center (Pocassett)
The Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation
- Fernald Developmental Center (Waltham)
- Hogan Regional Center (Danvers)
- Monson Developmental Center
- Templeton Developmental Center
- Wrentham Developmental Center
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health
- Lemuel Shattuck Hospital (Boston)
- Western Massachusetts Hospital (Westfield)
- Tewksbury Hospital
- Massachusetts Hospital School (Canton)
Houses of Correction
- Franklin County House of Correction
- Hampden County House of Correction
- Plymouth Coutny House of Correction
|
The Massachusetts Department of Correction
- Bay State Correctional Center (Norfolk)
- Boot Camp (Bridgewater)
- Boston Pre-Release
- Bridgewater State Hospital
- Massachusetts Alcohol & Substance Abuse (Bridgewater)
- Massachusetts Treatment Center (Bridgewater)
- MCI Cedar Junction (Walpole)
- MCI Concord
- MCI Framingham
- MCI Norfolk
- MCI Gardner
- MCI Plymouth
- MCI Shirley
- Northeastern Correctional Center (Concord)
- Old Colony Correctional Center (Bridgewater)
- Pondville Correctional Center
- Southeastern Correctional Center (Bridgewater)
- South Middlesex Correctional Center (Framingham)
- Sousa-Baranowski Correctional Center (Shirley)
Soldier's Home
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Conclusion
The Office For Pharmacy Services provides the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
an integrated system benefiting several separate, and distinct agencies.
By standardizing policies and procedures, medication distribution
systems and personnel systems, we have been able to raise the quality
of pharmacy services and realize significant economic benefits.
We have provided savings through consolidation at the initiation
of the contract and again when we moved from two central filling
sites to a single site. The savings have been realized in reduced
staffing while simultaneously developing greatly improved clinical
services. This is the first time a public initiative of this magnitude,
involving privatization, standardization, and consolidation across
multiple agencies, while retaining state direction and control has
been successfully undertaken.
The Office of Pharmacy Services is committed to the highest possible
quality of service at the lowest reasonable cost. We constantly
promote rational drug therapies which include strategies to reduce
medication costs through reduction of medication overuse and through
the use of less expensive but equally effective treatments.
Contact Us
To contact the Office For Pharmacy Services call or write to the
Director:
Louis Dell’Olio, Director
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Office of Pharmacy Services
365 East Street
Tewksbury, Massachusetts 01876
(978) 858-2100
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