Less Time Tracking, More Time Caring: A Pharmacist's SureCount Experience

A conversation with Red Cross pharmacist and Mediprocity customer, Brooke Mayes, PharmD, about how SureCount enables the pharmacy to be proactive, be protected, and to provide better care.

Mason Rothert, Mediprocity CEO

"Thank you for taking the time to connect. I was hoping you could share your experience utilizing SureCount regarding resident narcotic par levels, and how your pharmacy is experiencing the benefit of using SureCount in your day-to-day workflow?"

Brooke Mayes PharmD, Red Cross Pharmacy

"We service the Delmar Gardens of Lenexa (KS) and Overland Park (KS) locations, and they're very robust facilities with a lot of moving parts. And so we, from a pharmacy standpoint, always want the correct meds, for the correct resident, at the correct time."

"We were having a disconnect in getting specifically the PRN controlled substances reordered because a lot of times those have to be reordered by a nurse or there's solicitation laws and all of that stuff. So we kept having them run out. And a lot of times when you have a resident in pain, it's an emergency. We were constantly trying to chase down refills and chase down scripts and get people into e-kits. And it was really a hindrance to care."

"When Mediprocity was brought to our attention with the SureCount system, now we at the pharmacy have the ability to go in and see what's on hand. So if we get a new script for a resident that was hydrocodone one tablet daily and has now been bumped up to twice a day, we can look and see, okay, they've got 22 tablets left. They've got enough to get through the weekend. We don't have to contact providers urgently to get a resident taken care of."

"Or on the flip side, oh, shoot, they've got 8 tablets left. We're going into a holiday. They're going to run out at, you know, 8 a.m. Sunday morning, and that's going to be a problem. Let's be proactive and get a new card out to them. With SureCount, everybody's taken care of. And that's allowed us to be proactive, to get ahead of those emergency situations. The facility can feel comfortable in the fact that they're going to have what they need to get their residents taken care of. It also helps with taking the stress out of it from a nursing standpoint."

"Because you can be in the middle of a med pass and you can be like, oh shoot, I've got to get Mr. Smith's hydrocodone ordered. I'm on my last three. And then all of a sudden you have a new admission or an emergency or whatever happens in the span of those few minutes because everybody's busy. And that card doesn't get reordered until you're out. SureCount allows a really streamlined communication for not only us being able to meet their needs, but us being able to double check that we're not sending out duplicate cards, and there aren't extra meds sitting in the cart that then have to be destroyed. That way, we're destroying 10 tabs and not 30 tabs. It's allowed us to be much more streamlined in all of the processes so things get out faster and nobody's without something that they need."

Mason Rothert, Mediprocity CEO

"Boy, that couldn't have explained SureCount any better! I have got to tell you, Brooke, that's amazing. Next question, what would you say if I told you that you were going back to tracking on paper?"

Brooke Mayes PharmD, Red Cross Pharmacy

"I really don't want to go back to paper."

Mason Rothert, Mediprocity CEO

"That's what I like to hear, because so many buildings, they sometimes don't see the benefit or power of SureCount. So many pharmacies, they don't see the benefit. They're just like, paper works fine, we don't need this. So it's nice to hear that you guys are seeing the way that it can have that two-way communication benefit. If the par level of Tramadol, for example, hits 8 tablets on the resident card, it can send a notification, the nurse could click a button to warn pharmacy. Do you use that functionality?"

Brooke Mayes PharmD, Red Cross Pharmacy

"Yes, and that's really nice. We are currently having just a little bit of resident and nurse turnover at one of our facilities, so some of them are missing hitting that button. We've reminded the administrators, hey, please remind nursing staff that they have to hit this button or they are probably going to run out of this medication. And so that's nice that we can kind of figure out where like the disconnect is happening."

"We never have this facility run out of this number of controlled substances. And I was thinking, this is just a refill, there is quantity left on the script. And so I was able to send a message: hey, do we know what happened with these? Did the message come through and my staff missed it? We saw there wasn't a refill requested and I said, great, that's a quick education piece. No problem."

"And with paper, you can't do that. You can't follow the data trail to figure out what education piece there needs to be. And I'm a process person. So if I can figure out where in the process there's the problem, it's much easier to fix it."

Mason Rothert, Mediprocity CEO

"Awesome. For this next question, you guys helped us develop the functionality to put destructions into a quarantine hold and left on the med cart, which allows the pharmacy to see how many destructions need to be completed before you visit a facility. So, there's no surprises when you get to the facility. I was wondering if you can kind of walk through that logic and the law as well and how that's working for you guys."

Brooke Mayes PharmD, Red Cross Pharmacy

"Yeah, so Kansas is unique in the sense that it has to have a pharmacist credential in with the destroy logs. Other states just require 2 nurses or a nurse and a witness. And obviously, geographically, sometimes it's challenging to get a pharmacist in the building."

"Our consultant pharmacist will schedule med destruction with the administration at the facilities when she'll be in the area. This minimizes the number of times she has to go down there, and helps her plan and budget her time so that it's used most efficiently."

Mason Rothert, Mediprocity CEO

"That's great to hear. Is there anything else you want to talk about with SureCount that maybe I didn't ask? Anything off the top of your head?"

Brooke Mayes PharmD, Red Cross Pharmacy

"I really like the fact that we can hop in and see everything in real time. The real time log is really nice because it helps us track use, estimate urgency, and contact providers appropriately. The fact that it updates as soon as a dose is taken is a real asset, because it allows a lot of transparency between pharmacy and facility as to what's going on."

Mason Rothert, Mediprocity CEO

"That's awesome. Do you have any comments for your fellow pharmacists out there in the long-term care world about getting off paper and graduating to the cloud with SureCount?"

Brooke Mayes PharmD, Red Cross Pharmacy

"I think everything is going digital. Especially from a liability and ease-of-use perspective. If you can track everything in real time digitally that can't be altered like on a piece of paper, then it can be remotely verified."

"If administration is at home or on vacation and can hop on while you all see the same information, that improves patient care. It allows everybody to make group decisions with the same baseline information. I don't know why you wouldn't want that."