Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Specialty Pharmacy has been selected as a finalist for a 2019 Patient Choice Award.
The awards are presented by MMIT, a pharmacy and medical benefits advisory company, and health care publishing and information company AIS Health. The winner in each of several Patient Choice Award categories will be announced in the fall.
The Specialty Pharmacy category was created to recognize specialty pharmacies — which are dedicated to patients with chronic or rare conditions, or who require hard-to-obtain, complex medications — and their commitment to patient care, service excellence and innovation in leading the industry into the future.
VUMC’s is the first health system-based specialty pharmacy selected as a finalist, an honor that reflects the pharmacy’s focus on patient satisfaction, collaboration and continuous process improvement, said Tara Kelley, PharmD, MMHC, director of Specialty Pharmacy Services.
“Patients requiring specialty drug therapies are among the most complex and vulnerable pharmacy patients. Our ability to impact their experience and relieve additional stress and burden by providing coordinated, streamlined pharmacy care is incredibly fulfilling.
“Being nominated as a finalist for an award recognizing our focus in creating a valuable patient experience is among the highest honors we could receive, Kelley said.
VUMC’s Specialty Pharmacy offers numerous services to patients, including:
- Coordinated personal care. Along with their expert knowledge of conditions and drug options, specialty pharmacists work within care teams and understand individual patient care plans;
- Complete therapy management programs for a number of medical conditions, including asthma, cancer, Crohn’s disease, hemophilia, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH);
- Initial counseling and education to discuss new specialty prescriptions with patients before they begin taking them; and
- Periodic assessments and interventions to help patients monitor the effectiveness and safety of medications and adjust as needed.
For more information about Vanderbilt Specialty Pharmacy go to https://www.vanderbilthealth.com/vanderbiltpharmacy/47762.
