Pharmacy financial performance is often assessed year-over-year, which is a good place to start. Much can be learned by tracking and judging total existing drug costs, patient volumes, acuity of patients served, HCAHPS scores and personnel expenses. But a more complete picture is possible by measuring your pharmacy operations against other hospitals of similar size and service offerings that reside in your region and networks.That’s why CompleteRx crunches the numbers using a combination of publicly available and proprietary data, looking across about 30 data points. Our reports compare the following information of up to five hospitals:
• Acute patient days
• Average daily census
• Adjusted patient days (APD)
• Pharmacy cost per APD
• Case mix index (CMI)
• Cost per APD adjusted for CMI
By looking at these statistics, hospital leaders can make better informed decisions related to current operations, budgets, staffing, clinical initiatives and regulatory compliance.
“As drug costs continue to rise and reimbursements continue to decrease, it’s more important than ever for hospital leaders to make data analytics part of your decision making regimen,” said Terry Andrus, CompleteRx President and CEO. “If you only look inward or only look at costs, you only see part of the picture. You’ve got to compare your operations to other hospital pharmacies of similar size and similar patient acuity to get a real idea of how well you’re performing.”
While the pharmacy may seem like a small part of a hospital, it is actually one of its largest cost centers that directly impacts patient safety, satisfaction and outcomes; thus one of the most important departments to optimize and streamline.
Unsure where to start in assessing your pharmacy’s performance? Find out how to get started with our white paper Strategic Planning: The Pharmacy’s Secret Weapon for Success by Rick Burnett, CompleteRx’s COO.
