CareOne and Walgreens Collaborate to Improve Patient Safety
CareOne, the Senior Care Company, has teamed with Walgreens to introduce a program that will provide day-of-discharge medications to patients before they leave CareOne centers and return home.
Traditionally, patients must obtain their own medications after they are discharged from an acute care hospital or rehabilitation center. In addition to the burden placed upon patients and their family members, this responsibility increases the chances of misunderstandings and failure to comply with medication regimens.
Under the new CareOne/Walgreens initiative, Walgreens will deliver discharge medications directly to patients electing this service before they leave CareOne centers. This will enable CareOne clinicians to educate patients and their caregivers before they return to the community. The pilot program began in July at CareOne at East Brunswick and works with the Walgreens on-site pharmacy located at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J.
“This new program will allow us to spend time with patients to help them understand what medications they are supposed to take, and why,” commented Mary Ann Barbato, RN, CareOne at East Brunswick’s administrator. “Our program with Walgreens helps our patients get their medications before they go home. That means no delay or interruption in patient care.”
“We think this is a great program to improve medication adherence and patient teaching at a critical time in a patient’s recovery,” said John Colaizzi, district pharmacy supervisor at Walgreens. “Walgreens is excited to collaborate with CareOne on this innovative program. We are confident it will lead to better outcomes for patients in our shared community.”
“Health care providers are increasingly being challenged to find creative ways to improve outcomes for patients,” said Tim Hodges, chief strategy officer for CareOne. “Relationships with forward-thinking organizations like Walgreens demonstrate our deep commitment to changing the way health care is delivered.”
About CareOne
CareOne is a family-owned Senior Care Company with more than 45 years of health care experience. CareOne operates 29 centers throughout New Jersey including CareOne at Hamilton, CareOne at Valley, CareOne at Livingston and CareOne at Pine Rest. CareOne is the leading choice for post-hospital care and rehabilitation services in New Jersey.
About Walgreens
As the nation’s largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2011 sales of $72 billion, Walgreens vision is to become America’s first choice for health and daily living. Each day, Walgreens provides nearly 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The company operates 7,907 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.