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Webinar

Insights from Cone Health: Oncology Pharmacy Challenges and Why Technology Solutions are Needed

Speakers

andre-harvin
Andre Harvin
Director of Oncology Pharmacy, Cone Health

Summary

One of the largest cost centers for infusion centers, as well as one of the highest revenue drivers, pharmacy is a critical contributor to financial solvency, particularly for oncology or infusion medications. Supporting efficient utilization of pharmacy resources is also key to maintaining balanced infusion schedules each day and avoiding the operational bottlenecks that entail longer turnaround and patient dissatisfaction. To ensure that pharmacy, along with the many other complex resources involved in delivering infusion care, runs smoothly, advanced analytics are a valuable tool.   

Cone Health is an integrated delivery network in central North Carolina, comprising five acute care hospitals and seven cancer centers, with four outpatient pharmacies. In its partnership with LeanTaaS, Cone Health has focused on deploying AI-powered solutions like iQueue for Infusion Centers to promote operational efficiency throughout the network. 

In this presentation, Cone Health’s Director of Pharmacy discusses the unique operational challenges faced by oncology pharmacies and why technology solutions like iQueue are needed to optimize the pharmacy workflow. Viewing the patient and chemotherapy journey from the pharmacy perspective and the causes of bottlenecks within the pharmacy reveals opportunities to improve infusion patient flow with data and predictive and prescriptive analytics, foreseeing the need for particular drugs and techs ahead of time and adapting resources accordingly.  

Viewers of this webinar will be able to: 

  • Describe in detail the role of pharmacy in the infusion center, especially how pharmacy contributes to the center’s financial health 
  • Understand how the logistics of pharmacy are connected to the safe delivery of infusion care to higher numbers of patients in less time
  • Identify opportunities to deploy predictive and prescriptive analytics to seamlessly integrate pharmacy resources into daily infusion operations

Results

Using lean methodology to improve hospital oncology productivity
Creating an acuity score for each individual drug to optimize scheduling
Unifying pharmacy, lab, and nursing to minimize patient waiting time
I want my data to guide me to the decisions. I want my data to tell me immediately if you have this many patients that need this many drugs, you’re either going to need more technicians here or you’re going to need to cap it. So we’re really excited about where we can go with this partnership with LeanTaaS.
Andre Harvin, PhamD, MS, BCPS
Director of Oncology Pharmacy Cone Health

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