Mount Sinai Medical Center
The Challenge
Prior to 2023, Mount Sinai relied exclusively on contract pharmacies to provide specialty medications to its oncology patients. This worked well initially, but the 340B discount restrictions pharmaceutical manufacturers placed on contract pharmacies beginning in 2020 soon interfered with patient access and the success of Mount Sinai's 340B program.
"We always believed we could better serve our patients with an entity-owned specialty pharmacy," said Olawale Akinwande, PharmD, Associate Director of Ambulatory, Retail & Specialty Pharmacy for Mount Sinai Medical Center. "The manufacturer lockouts on contract pharmacies and the associated impact they were having on our 340B program gave us added motivation to explore bringing some of our specialty pharmacy business in house."
Launching a new specialty pharmacy is a significant undertaking and Mount Sinai needed to decide how it was going to tackle the project. It considered building everything from the ground up internally but decided that partnering with an experienced specialty pharmacy vendor was the best way to achieve its goals and targeted timelines.
The Solution
Mount Sinai evaluated several potential partners, but ultimately selected Omnicell Specialty Pharmacy Services. According to Akinwande, the flexibility of Omnicell was the biggest factor in the decision.
"We had existing experience in retail pharmacy and wanted to leverage this as we grew the business line to include specialty," he said. "Most vendors only offered a cookie-cutter turnkey solution, but Omnicell was willing to support us in a turnkey or consultative capacity – even offering a mix of both. This flexibility allowed us to build upon our existing strengths while giving us the dedicated specialty pharmacy expertise we needed in some key areas."
Particularly appealing to Mount Sinai was the expedited access Omnicell could provide to several Limited Distribution Drugs (LDDs), many of which weren't available through Mount Sinai's existing contract pharmacies. These medications are often difficult for a new specialty pharmacy to gain access to on its own, but Omnicell was able to provide them via its existing manufacturer relationships. Omnicell's Trade Relations team serves as a trusted partner to over 50 pharmaceutical manufacturers, effectively securing Limited Distribution and Specialty Pharmacy access to 95% of targeted products.
Omnicell also equipped Mount Sinai with specialty pharmacy-specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and accreditation support, helping Mount Sinai to secure Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC) accreditation within 11 months. Finally, Omnicell provided Mount Sinai with two pharmacists and two technicians with specialty pharmacy expertise to support the provider's existing pharmacy staff.
The Impact
The support provided by Omnicell helped accelerate Mount Sinai's speed to market. In fact, the provider was able to start dispensing medications from its specialty pharmacy within seven months of signing its contract with Omnicell. Now open for just over a year, Mount Sinai is currently filling nearly 600 oncology prescriptions per month from its specialty pharmacy and these numbers continue to grow.
Beyond the business metrics, Akinwande has been more impressed by the impact the specialty pharmacy has had on patient care. "Having our own specialty pharmacy has helped with initial patient consultation, follow up, and communication, which in turn, has improved patient understanding and adherence," he said. "We're now more actively involved in patient care and have a stake in the outcome."
Visit Omnicell.com/Specialty-Pharmacy to learn more today.