When the coronavirus hit the Oregon area, Samaritan Health Services needed a solution to get prescriptions in the hands of their patients without endangering their lives as well as maintaining the safety of Samaritan employees.
“We started by mailing prescriptions to patients but we didn’t have the capacity to do a large amount of deliveries,” said Kevin Russell, Outpatient Pharmacy Operations Manager at Samaritan Health Services. “We closed our lobbies and started offering curbside pick-up at many of our locations but the lines were getting long.”
With the immediate need for help, StatimRX was able to expand delivery to provide services for hospitals and healthcare systems using existing delivery networks quickly.
“They came along right when we needed a solution,” said Russell.
IMPLEMENTATION
“StatimRX knows the HIPAA environment and they made me feel very comfortable about the solution,” he said. “They already had pre-established delivery networks in the area so I didn’t feel like we were working with a lot of unknown factors.”
Delivery services from all six Samaritan Pharmacy locations began in late March and even offered touchless delivery for patients to limit exposure. Since the start of the delivery program, StatimRX has completed nearly 400 deliveries for Samaritan patients.
“It was a real success story when you look at the whole package,” said Russell. “We were able to provide seamless delivery of medication to our patients, allowing them to stay safe and stay home.”
In addition to providing an immediate solution for getting meds to patients, the delivery platform helped create efficiencies on location as well for pharmacies.
“Having the delivery service really helped us cut down on our curbside pick up which meant that we could keep the curbside open for truly urgent needs,” said Russell. “This made it much easier for our staff to help patients with immediate needs faster.”
SATISFIED CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES
“Customers definitely appreciated the fact that they could get delivery at home so they wouldn’t have to go out into the city, particularly our senior customers,” said Russell.
In addition to helping customers feel safer, the delivery program helped with employee morale. Employees felt better knowing that they would be able to limit their exposure to the public. Employees who worked in other part of the healthcare system could also choose to have their own prescriptions delivered instead of having to wait for it after work.
“There was a lot of anxiety among our staff about face to face interactions during this crisis and this delivery solution lessened the need for that contact and helped them to feel much more secure and safe,” said Russell.
“Kevin created a multi-faceted approach to ensure continuity of care for our patients and our employees,” said Penny Reher, Chief Pharmacy Officer at SHS. “Every step of the way, he took into consideration how to keep our employees safe as well as how we continue to provide services for our patients so they didn’t have an interruption to their drug therapy. We were really happy to have StatimRX come in as one of our partners and it was a bases loaded home run!”
About Samaritan Health Services
Formed over the course of five years beginning in 1997, Samaritan is a not-for-profit regional health system that brings together community hospitals, physician clinics and health insurance plans to serve more than 265,000 residents of Oregon’s Benton, Lincoln and Linn counties. Samaritan is governed by a board, which includes community members, physicians and hospital leaders.
As one of the region’s major employers, Samaritan actively participates in efforts to strengthen and grow the local economy, as well as to improve quality of life through high-achieving schools, a strong network of social services, and a commitment to preserving and protecting the environment.
Founded by a team of healthcare executives with 40+ years of experience in building healthcare solutions and services, StatimRX is a provider-friendly healthcare platform designed around needs in the post acute industry.
StatimRX’s offerings include a robust healthcare delivery platform with the ability to offer timely and cost effective logistics services nationwide in addition to an on demand pharmacy with a network of 70k retail pharmacies.