Chain Drug Review, July 9, 2018

Delivering Better Health to All As a patient care provider Health Mart is unsurpassed IRVING Texas The model for Health Marts success continues to be the companys focus on the prescription health needs of patients and fighting for those patients by offering superior care Health Mart pharmacies are an important part of the communities they serve says Chris Dimos who as president of retail solutions for McKesson Corp oversees the Health Mart pharmacy network and these pharmacies he adds put their patients first Our model builds on what independent pharmacies do best Dimos says which is building patient relationships to impact care Many Health Mart pharmacists Dimos points out are embracing new approaches to their practices and are teaming up with providers to improve patient outcomes Yet what remains central in this rapidly shifting landscape is Health Marts peer to peer approach and pharmacy performance support such as MedSync implementation And this approach is paying off Pharmacies have the education tools and implementation support at each step starting with understanding and monitoring of performance to deliver top results in Star Rating measures Dimos says synchronizing patient prescriptions and ultimately using the MedSync pickup to offer patient centered services And its the focus on the patient Dimos emphasizes that is really the heart of the Health Mart mission We believe that the relationship pharmacists have with their patients in the independent segment is one of the biggest assets that they bring to the table he says adding the Health Mart philosophy that health care is local and personal Theyre in the community Theyre part of the community so that connection that they have and that they are trusted by their patients they will be able to influence the outcomes of patients because of that relationship because of that proximity because of that community that they have in and around their patients Dimos says The second part of the Health Mart strategy is not getting into every network at every cost Dimos explains but rather getting into the correct networks for the appropriate stores Then once we get into those networks its how do we get our disproportionate share For people who have choices with a smaller number of pharmacies or for broad networks how do we get them to choose Health Mart The third pillar of the strategy Dimos says focuses on coming through for the customer after securing his or her business How do I work at maximizing your experience there and diversifying my revenue and earnings streams How can I provide not only the products for you but how do I give additional services How do I bring Our model builds on what independent pharmacies do best you a plethora of opportunities inclusive of front end inclusive of counseling and inclusive of unique opportunities This strategy Dimos believes also brings opportunities and continues to innovate to make Health Marts already strong businesses even stronger by providing them with more tools to run their businesses more efficiently and to bring in additional revenue In other words better care better outcomes runs parallel with better financial outcomes Independent Health Mart pharmacies also benefit tremendously from the resources they receive being supported by McKesson As Dimos points out it would be hard for most individual stores to be able to afford the resources to do some of the things Health Mart does Chuck Wilson Chris Dimos without McKessons backing We leverage the scale of McKesson in order to bring solutions that are economically feasible Dimos says For example Dimos cites Health Mart University where pharmacists can get training and information or the tools for pharmacists wanting to open a new store If you had to go recreate this one off every time you wanted to do it it wouldnt work Dimos says But it can if you have the power of Health Mart behind you and the resources of Health Mart behind you and the experience of Health Mart behind you We understand community pharmacy We understand what it takes to run a business and were able to bring that experience and share it Whats important to understand about the Health Mart strategy according to Chuck Wilson Health Marts vice president of pharmacy operations is that its not a flavor ofthe month approach but rather one focused on the long haul Were really looking at the long term and what our stores need to compete Wilson says We have to have access to the networks Today theres a huge focus on quality and on performance Wilson says Health Mart has been working on several things to help further drive quality and performance the first remaining focused on medication synchronization While MedSync drives profits the main reason for this focus Wilson says is that in order to participate in a network youve got to be able to show performance In order to get performance pharmacists need to have direct access to the patient MedSync gives them the capacity within their store to spend more time with their patients and ultimately make them more compliant Its better for health but also better for financial situations within the store Closely related to MedSync is adherence and Wilson says Health Mart puts a lot of energy into driving adherence by utilizing such programs as Results Optimizer a new tool from Health Mart that helps stores handle their financials more efficiently Wilson also highlights the MyHealthMart platform which gives customers access to vital information and provides them the tools to be able to execute the metrics they need in order to run their operations more efficiently Wilson also points out the importance of vaccines which are central to Health Marts strategy Weve really been working for the last couple of years to improve access not only for our customers to vaccines but also for their patients so that they have them readily available so they become a destination point for those as well Wilson also touched on training another crucial peg in Health Marts model Health Mart Wilson explains has migrated its Health Mart University training platform over to a more up to date tool that provides not only additional content thats more relevant to the industry situation today but in a format thats much more contemporary in the tools it provides These arent just modules Wilson says These are hitting all aspects of multimedia so our customers remain engaged and they actually walk away with some knowledge that they can put to use immediately One resource in particular that Wilson feels is essential to Health Mart pharmacists is Pharmacists Letter which is an industry publication reference for clinical execution that also provides pharmacists with easy access to continuing education sources Thats one of the things our customers have told us consistently that theyre looking for That highlights some of the critical areas were looking at and I think it really comes down to information access and tools to improve those overall metrics through focus on adherence and clinical delivery Wilson says Health Mart through resources such as Health Mart University Dimos points out has stayed contemporary which helps pharmacists to become better at running their businesses Were helping them be better clinicians and were helping them be better at their business Dimos says Wilson says Health Marts suite of tools is also helping its pharmacists move into the digital age and reach patients through adapting the latest technology not relying solely on traditional methods The Health Mart app and MyHealthMart are examples of this more upto date outreach As Wilson states My HealthMart was launched to be an access point for Health Mart a central convenient digital location providing access to all of Health Marts tools and programs The thing that really became important to our customers was also having access to the information necessary to run their business Wilson says This pulled in many different resources many of which were important to McKesson but we also were able to pull in critical information relative to performance To stay ahead of the everevolving digital curve Dimos says the next technological evolution was to provide Health Mart customers the ability to not just have all of this information and access on their desktops but on their phones So being able to take that information and present it in a mobile format allowed them to be in touch with their business 24 7 Dimos says Bottom line all of these Health Mart tools and services pharmacist customers can tap into get results and evidence of that can be found in the Five Star Quality Rating System established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the purpose of educating consumers on quality of health care and making quality data more transparent According to Wilson Health Mart has been able to drive a significant shift in the number of stores meeting and exceeding the top 20 performance goals since making EQuIPP Star Rating data available to stores Relationships that pharmacists build with patients are one of Health Marts biggest assets 10 Chain Drug Review July 9 2018