Long-term care (LTC) pharmacies serve the residents of nursing homes, assisted-living communities, extended-care communities, and retirement communities. LTC pharmacies operate differently than most traditional pharmacies. Usually, these pharmacies are “closed-door,” meaning that no patients walk-in to fill prescriptions. LTC pharmacy procedures go above and beyond many retail pharmacy processes, with core services including prescription processing, dispensing and delivery, medication management, return, reuse, and disposal of medications.
Along with the typical Monday through Friday fulfillments of everyday prescription needs, our staff is on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to accommodate any urgent requests. Mac’s LTC Pharmacy Solutions delivers scheduled medications to each home, every evening, and has drivers available to make deliveries throughout the day to ensure the patients receive the medicines needed.
Making A Difference
At Mac’s LTC Pharmacy Solutions, our mission is to provide trusted solutions that improve the lives of residents and staff within senior living communities. Beyond filling prescriptions, we work closely with physicians to optimize treatments and ensure the best outcomes for our patients. As our primary contacts are doctors, nurses, and physician assistants; we can know every medication each patient is taking. In a traditional pharmacy, it may be difficult to know if a patient is taking other prescribed medications or OTC drugs that may interact with the medicines being filled. The team at Mac’s LTC reviews each patient profile, insurance information, and medication list to help determine which medication is best for each resident.
CHOOSING AN LTC PHARMACY PARTNER
While most pharmacies choose to focus on a specific packaging type, we work with each community to determine which model is the best solution for their organization. We offer Medicine-On-Time, blister packs, strip packaging, and Dispill Packaging. Our pharmacy utilizes a barcode system and the latest robotic technology that links each order to our patients and snaps pictures at each step of the workflow process to ensure accuracy.
Workflows
- Mac’s LTC Pharmacy Solutions fulfills prescriptions as efficiently as possible through streamlined workflows. Here’s a look into our workflow process:
- A new prescription order comes in electronically through DocuTrack
- A technician inserts the prescription and patient information into our pharmacy computer system
- A pharmacist reviews the medicine and patient information
- The information is sent to the long-term care communities eMAR and to fulfillment
- The medication is packaged via robotics or by a member of the pharmacy team
- The packaged prescription is reviewed for accuracy by a pharmacist
- The delivery manifest is reviewed, and the prescription is prepared for delivery
- The prescription is transported to the proper long-term care community via courier or shipping options
- The delivered prescription is reviewed and accepted by an on-site nurse
- The nursing staff distributes the prescription to the resident during dosage times
Long-term care pharmacies provide a unique way to care for the growing, elderly population. At Mac’s LTC Pharmacy Solutions we are dedicated to providing better, safer, more attentive care for each of our communities and their residents. If you are interested in speaking with Mac’s LTC about your community’s needs, please contact us today!
Written By: Kristi Hawn, Pharmacist
