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LAS VEGAS, July 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- During Cardinal Health's annual Retail Business Conference (RBC), one of the nation's largest gatherings of independent pharmacists, three innovative community pharmacies were named as winners of Cardinal Health's prestigious, annual Independent Pharmacy Best Practices.

Winners were selected for implementing exceptional programs that demonstrate how independent pharmacies can improve patient outcomes, drive business results in their community, and be better "positioned to win" today, and in the future.  

"Through our work serving more than 8,000 independent pharmacies, nationwide, we've had the opportunity to identify best-in-class innovation and superior results that serve as a benchmark for other pharmacies," said Steve Lawrence, senior vice president of Retail Independent Sales for Cardinal Health. "We congratulate this year's three inspiring best practice winners, and are humbled by their commitment to excellence in community pharmacy. They demonstrate what it takes to be positioned to win in today's changing health care landscape."

The 2015 Independent Pharmacy Best Practices winners will each receive $3,500 from Cardinal Health to be donated to the pharmacy school or pharmacy association of their choice. Their stories and several other best-practice ideas to help community pharmacies be better positioned to win are available in the Good Medicine magazine distributed at RBC.

This year's winners showcase best practices in three categories crucial to the success of hometown pharmacies: Wellness Advantage, Retail Advantage and Business Advantage.

Category: Wellness Advantage
This category recognizes solutions related to medication adherence, clinical programs, or other solutions that equip a pharmacy to lead the community in wellness.

Winner: Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Whiting, New Jersey

Al Patel, the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy owner in Whiting, created a program called Discharge Rx Care to help transition patients from the nursing home to their own home. Patel's program also sought to help lower nursing home and hospital readmission rates. Discharge Rx Care works with the nursing home to prepare the medications for a patient prior to discharge. The pharmacy provides special adherence packs for morning, noon, evening and bedtime doses. A pharmacist from Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy visits the patient's home and personally delivers the medications on the day of discharge. They review all medications with the patient, and their caregivers, in the comfort of the patient's home. If needed, they show patients instructional videos, via iPads, to help them understand how to use devices such as insulin pens, nebulizers and inhalers. The pharmacist also completes a full medication reconciliation, and removes any expired medications or medications that could cause harmful interactions, from the patient's medicine cabinets. The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy follows up with the patient weekly to answer questions or note any side effects of the medications.

Positioned to win: Previously, when medication information was provided in the nursing home or in the pharmacy, the patient was often overwhelmed, tired or anxious to get home. When patients hear the information in the comfort of their home, they better understand and retain the information that's shared with them. The weekly follow-up calls encourage compliance, and serve as a reminder for refills.

Category: Retail Advantage
This category recognizes front-end solutions that help maximize profitability, while enhancing the customer experience.

Winner: Katterman's Pharmacy in Seattle, Washington

Beverly Schaefer and Steve Cone, pharmacists and owners of Katterman's Pharmacy, worked at Katterman's as pharmacy students and following graduation, and eventually purchased the store from Beverly Katterman in 1996. With a long-standing history in the community and at the pharmacy, they strive to reinvent their business every three years. The pharmacy's newest reinvention is focused on serving travelers who are searching for a quick, convenient way to receive necessary travel vaccinations. Not only do they administer a full array of travel-related immunizations, Katterman's offers an extensive line of travel items to further support this niche clientele. Because many travelers don't actively plan for the vaccinations they need until one or two weeks prior to their trip, and it can take four to six weeks to get an appointment with other healthcare immunization locations, the pharmacy is able to capture a larger number of these last-minute vaccinations.

Positioned to win: A travel vaccination customer at Katterman's Pharmacy spends an average of $300 for goods and services, and vaccines are usually administered for two or more travelers at a time. This equates to $600-$1,200 in revenue for each travel vaccination appointment. Some customers travel from more than an hour away to receive travel vaccinations. Much of the new customer traffic comes from word-of-mouth marketing or from website search results from people trying to identify where they can receive yellow fever vaccines.

Category: Business Advantage
This category recognizes proactive solutions to help retail pharmacies protect their core business driver - the prescription.

Winner: El Dorado TrueCare Pharmacy in El Dorado, Kansas

When Mike Bellesine, pharmacist and owner of El Dorado TrueCare Pharmacy, realized his pharmacy's drive-up window service was causing patients more pain than convenience, he knew he had to find a viable solution or risk losing business. On busy days, his pharmacy fills more than 900 prescriptions, and often had a line of cars out to the street. His unusual answer, a restaurant-style pager system, took customers by surprise, but in the end has proven to be a driver for new business. The pharmacy provides patients who use the drive-up window with a numbered pager that reaches anywhere in the parking lot. These patients are given the same priority as any other patients waiting inside the store. When a patient's prescription(s) are ready, the pager is activated to notify the patient to come back to the drive-up window. 

Positioned to win: Patients are now switching to El Dorado TrueCare Pharmacy just to take advantage of the fastest and most efficient drive-up window in town. The number of register transactions at the drive-up window has increased dramatically from an average of 50 per day to more than 120 per day.

About the Cardinal Health Retail Business Conference (RBC)
The Cardinal Health Retail Business Conference (RBC), held July 22-25 in Las Vegas, provides independent pharmacists and pharmacy franchise owners with the opportunity to network with and learn from thousands of their peers from across the nation, while gaining new insights to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their businesses. The annual event provides independent pharmacy owners, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other pharmacy industry professionals across the United States with access to pharmaceutical manufacturers, buying opportunities, continuing education sessions and programs to help pharmacists reduce costs and improve patient care and efficiency. For more information, visit www.CardinalHealth.com/RBC or use #RBCWin on Twitter.

About Cardinal Health
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH) is a $91 billion health care services company that improves the cost-effectiveness of health care. Cardinal Health helps pharmacies, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories and physician offices focus on patient care while reducing costs, enhancing efficiency and improving quality. Cardinal Health is an essential link in the health care supply chain, providing pharmaceuticals and medical products and services to more than 100,000 locations each day and is also the industry-leading direct-to-home medical supplies distributor. The company is a leading manufacturer of medical and surgical products, including gloves, surgical apparel and fluid management products. In addition, the company operates the nation's largest network of radiopharmacies that dispense products to aid in the early diagnosis and treatment of disease. Ranked #26 on the Fortune 500, Cardinal Health employs 34,000 people worldwide. More information about the company may be found at www.cardinalhealth.com and @CardinalHealth on Twitter.

SOURCE Cardinal Health