Henry Ford Health's New Central Pharmacy Services Center Expected To Cut Costs By $ 30 Million Over 5 Years

As health care becomes ever more bureaucratic, health care providers are saving money by consolidating and concentrating operations:

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/pharmacy/henry-ford-health-plans-to-save-30m-with-centralized-pharmacy.html

Henry Ford Health plans to save $30M with centralized pharmacy
By Paige Twenter - March 19, 2024

Detroit-based Henry Ford Health said its centralized pharmacy services center, which opened in September, is designed to save the system $30 million over five years.

The 45,000-square-foot central pharmacy is the first of its kind in the U.S., according to information shared with Becker's. It handles all medication orders and distribution, and the fully automated facility can process more than 1,000 requests each day.

Before September, employees at each of Henry Ford's locations were manually counting stocked medicines, the release said. This drug inventory process meant the health system lacked full supply visibility, lacked standardization and coordination, and could not anticipate how much medication each care site would need.

Now, pharmacy teams no longer have to place orders for more than 90% of drug transfers, and Henry Ford knows where each drug lot is stored — which eases responses to recalls.

"Centralizing and automating manual pharmacy operations frees up our team members to spend more time on patient-facing services," the release said.

Other features include technology that orders the correct quantity of drugs at the best price and minimizes the number of expired medicines. It also has special conveyance for chemotherapies and hazardous drugs.

Louisville, Ky.-based Baptist Health System is constructing its own central pharmacy, which is 90,000 square feet and set to open in June.