4/11/08

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (2008) – Nashville-based New Day Pharmacy has established a new paradigm for the institutional pharmaceuticals industry by launching a revolutionary process for the packaging and delivery of prescription medications to long-term care facilities and their patients.

    The company, which opened in 2007, has broken an industry trend by establishing a distribution network that features a virtual 24-hour pharmacy, a revolutionary packaging system, long-distance delivery of medications, and on-site medication dispensing units. The new process saves valuable nursing time, reduces medication errors, improves patient safety, and decreases costs.

    “For the past two years, we have been working to establish a new paradigm in an industry that has barely changed in 25 years,” said Dick Wager, president and CEO of New Day Pharmacy. “We believe that long-term care facilities and their patients deserve to have the same 24-hour pharmacy support that hospitals provide.  We have given long-term care nurses the ability to safely dispense medications around the clock with the active involvement of our pharmacists in Nashville.”  

    Highlights of the company’s new services are:

    *  A centralized distribution operation in Nashville that can serve customers anywhere in the continental U.S. The company’s central pharmacy is equipped with state-of-the-art automation, advanced communications and identification software, powerful workflow software, and world-class distribution methods. 

    *  A paperless communication process for the transmission of physician medication orders, which ensures accuracy and efficiency. 

    *  A virtual 24-hour pharmacist called PharmCom. Available at each long-term care nursing station, this proprietary technology is an “unprecedented” resource that improves the quality and safety of patient care,
increases the accuracy of communications, and adds efficiency for nurses, physicians and pharmacists, while providing new tools to manage pharmacy costs.  The virtual pharmacy can be accessed 24 hours a day through a touch-screen computer, saving each nurse up to two manpower hours per shift.

    *   A revolutionary packaging process that labels wrapped medication packets with the patient’s name, the med pass time, the drug’s name and description, and a corresponding bar code. PouchPaks, which are delivered to patients in lighter, newly designed smart carts, are easy to open. Medications are packaged in the order they will be given to patients, greatly speeding up the process. They replace the disposable cups that nursing homes have used for the past 20 years. 

    *  Fully automated on-site dispensing units called Pharmacy Centers that allow nurses to fill new or emergency medications within minutes after receiving a physician’s order.  Pharmacists in Nashville make clinical reviews and process prescriptions through the push of a button, reducing possible errors. The Pharmacy Centers, which can only be accessed with passwords and fingerprints, are under the constant control of New Day pharmacists.

    “The response from nurses, patients and their families has been phenomenal,” Wager added. “New Day’s service model was created to solve the shortfalls of today’s institutional pharmacies and to achieve a breakthrough in service.  We believe long-term care patients and the professionals serving them deserve the same benefits as hospitals by essentially having their own ‘in-house pharmacy’.  We’ve worked very hard to solve a number of serious problems in the institutional pharmaceutical industry.”

    Wager noted that the company’s approach improves productivity and makes the long-term care nursing profession more attractive during a national nursing shortage.

    Other institutional pharmacies take up to 24 hours to deliver newly prescribed medications to nursing home patients. This can lead to illegal “borrowing” and potential threats to patient safety. According to a Government Accounting Office study, as many as 150,000 people have been “seriously injured or killed” each year due to medication errors in nursing homes.
 
    A study by the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists reveals that medication-related waste costs taxpayers up to $4 billion a year. 

    New Day Pharmacy currently serves long-term care facilities in Ohio. The company soon will begin serving new customers in Indiana and Tennessee. Members of the company’s management and advisory team are Wager, Vice-President/Chief Operating Officer Dan Rafferty, Chief Technology Officer Greg Margotta, Controller and Treasurer Suzanne Abrahamson, Corporate Director of Field Services Jo Kennedy, and Ohio Director of Field Services Judy Hall.

    “Our goal was to be able to serve long-term care facilities anywhere in the country,” Wager said. “We have broken through yet another industry barrier by expanding the service radius from 150 to more than 500 miles.”

    For more information about New Day Pharmacy or its products and services, call (615) 515-4710, send an e-mail to dick.wager@newdaypharmacy.net, or visit http://www.newdaypharmacy.net.