Lourdes Collaborates in National Partnership With Walgreens

(PRWEB) June 02, 2014

Lourdes Health System has launched an innovative partnership with Walgreens to improve the care of its patients after they are discharged from the hospital. The partnership is part of a larger collaboration between the nation’s largest drugstore chain and CHE Trinity Health, Lourdes’ parent organization.

“Medication non-compliance is a major reason for readmission to the hospital, especially for patients with chronic conditions such as heart failure and diabetes,” said Lourdes Health System President and CEO Alexander J. Hatala. “Working with patients before they leave the hospital and after they are discharged will help ensure patients obtain, understand and take the medicines that are an important part of their health.”

Lourdes has three initiatives with Walgreens. Some components of the partnership have already commenced while others are in the planning stages. These are:

• Bedside medication delivery: Already implemented at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center and Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County, a Walgreens pharmacy technician visits each patient to see if he or she would like to get their discharge medications from Walgreens on their day of discharge from the hospital. Patients opt to get their medications one time if they want and then continue using their own pharmacy. The medicines are delivered from a nearby Walgreens pharmacy within one or two hours of discharge. A Walgreens pharmacist is available by phone to answer any questions.
• Walgreens Transitions Program (WTP): Currently in the process of being implemented at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center and Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County, patients can enroll in WTP when they are admitted. The patient receives his or her medication through Walgreens bedside delivery or a Walgreens retail pharmacy. Within 48 hours of discharge, a pharmacist will contact the patient to review medications and answer any questions or concerns. A Walgreens pharmacist will contact the patient two more times within the next 30 days to see how the patient is doing. After 30 days, the patient can switch to his or her usual pharmacy if desired.
• Walgreens Onsite Pharmacy: By fall 2014, Walgreens will renovate an area just off the first floor lobby at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center for a retail pharmacy. The pharmacy will be convenient for patients and family members to pick up prescribed medication before heading home. The pharmacy also will be open to Lourdes employees and visitors.

“For some patients, there is no pharmacy near their home,” said Hatala. “Being able to fill their initial prescription at the hospital will not only save time, but through education also encourage them to take it as directed. This program helps us to transition patients home with the medications they need from day one.”

Lourdes’ partnership with Walgreens is part of a clinical care collaboration agreement between the nation’s largest drugstore chain its parent company, CHE Trinity Health. The organizations have agreed to pursue innovative models of care in select markets—such as those served by Lourdes Health System. The collaborative model aims to improve people's health while increasing consumers’ access and lowering overall healthcare costs.

“This collaboration is based on our organizations’ mutual commitment to serve people at every intersection of their health and wellness needs,” said Scott Nordlund, Executive Vice President of Growth, Strategy and Innovation, CHE Trinity Health. “Transformative ideas for improving care are central to our mission at CHE Trinity Health, so we are pleased to join with Walgreens to introduce new and better strategies for health and wellness throughout our communities.”

“Coordinated care programs are vitally important to help ensure patients have access to the quality, convenient, affordable care they need before, during and after a hospital admission,” said Alan E. London, Walgreens vice president of strategic clinical partners. “Working with an integrated health system such as CHE Trinity Health offers an ideal opportunity to further leverage Walgreens health care assets to coordinate patient care across multiple regions of the country. We look forward to working together to help patients in these communities get, stay and live well.”

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About Lourdes Health System
The Lourdes Health System is one of southern New Jersey’s leading healthcare providers, with hospitals located in Camden and Willingboro and outpatient centers throughout Southern New Jersey. Lourdes Health System is sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, N.Y., and is a member of CHE Trinity Health.

About CHE Trinity Health
CHE Trinity Health is one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic health care delivery systems in the nation. It serves people and communities in 20 states from coast to coast with 86 hospitals, 109 continuing care facilities and home health and hospice programs that provide nearly 2.8 million visits annually. The organization was formed in May 2013, when Trinity Health and Catholic Health East closed their consolidation to strengthen their shared mission, increase excellence in care and advance transformative efforts with their unified voice. With annual operating revenues of about $13.3 billion and assets of about $19.3 billion, the new organization returns almost $1 billion to its communities annually in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs. CHE Trinity Health employs more than 87,000 people, including 3,200 employed physicians. Committed to those who are poor and underserved in its communities, CHE Trinity Health is known for its focus on the country's aging population. As a single, unified ministry, the organization is the innovator of Senior Emergency Departments, the largest not-for- profit provider of home health care services — ranked by number of visits — in the nation, as well as the nation’s leading provider of PACE (Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly) based on the number of available programs. For more information, visit either http://www.trinity-health.org, http://www.che.org or http://www.newhealthministry.org.    

About Walgreens
As the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2013 sales of $72 billion, Walgreens (http://www.walgreens.com) vision is to be the first choice in health and daily living for everyone in America, and beyond. Each day, Walgreens provides more than 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The company operates 8,209 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 750 locations throughout the country.

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