Uniweb Canada Catalogue now online

download catalogTuesday, October 4, 2016

“The number of products and solutions available from Uniweb is quite astounding”, says Wayne Caverly, President, Caverly Pharmacy Solutions, “but many people only see Uniweb as shelving for Rx walls and bays”.

But that ends today, with a new online catalogue showcasing the breadth of Uniweb’s offerings.

Access it here: http://uniwebcanada.com/

About Uniweb

Founded in 1970, Uniweb addresses pharmacy’s growing need for more space and versatility in fixturing. The innovative steel panel design it created and developed has revolutionized the pharmacy design industry.

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Individualized Packaging: Patient and Pharmacist Benefits

synmedIn its "Finding the Right Pharmacy" survey report, Consumer Reports suggests that one reason for consumers to switch pharmacies is to seek out individualized services, such as offering pills in convenient blister packs. The packaging of any retail product can affect how the product is used by consumers, but prescription packaging can also impact health and safety. Reducing administration error is the oft-stated goal, and unit dose packaging is generally employed in institutional settings. But the personalization that comes with single-dose medication packaging may turn out to be the most compelling for patients.

In addition to error reduction, there is evidence that singly packaged medications can improve adherence, especially with elderly patients. But adherence is not the only innovation driver for packaging manufacturers.

Other features that drive pharmacy investments include:

  • Machine Efficiency: doses per minute
  • Usability: patient and pharmacist/pharmacy tech usability
  • Cost: cost per dose, including consumables, usually gained by procuring in bulk and repackaging in-house
  • Integration: packaging integration with CPOE [Computerized Physician Order Entry], workflow, inventory management and billing software
  • Safety and Compliance: patient safety and compliance with FDA and FTC regulations
  • Tracking and Identification: increased use of RFID [radio frequency identification] and QR [quick response] codes
  • Multi and Unit Dose Flexibility: some devices can perform both unit and multi-dose packaging.

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Telepharmacy Reaching More Patients

simplified logisticsSimplified logistics and lower cost have motivated interest in telehealth for years. Today firms such as Doctor on Demand, American Well, MDLive and Health Tap offer telehealth services. While two providers have ceased operations over the past year (Better and Healthspot), the expansion of telehealth services nationwide steadily continues.

Telepharmacy has seen parallel growth. This was the case in rural Idaho-when the only pharmacist in the town of Arco retired. Answer? A telepharmacy solution developed by the Idaho State University Foundation and deployed during 2015.

Adventist Health operates TelepharmacyWest for rural hospital settings, and eighty-one pharmacies are involved in the North Dakota Telepharmacy Project (NDTP), which reaches an estimated 80,000 rural citizens - now including those in Arco.

Services provided by telepharmacy can be restricted to certain types of care, but in systems such as the NDTP, all services- drug utilization review, prescription verification, patient counseling- are technically feasible on most platforms via a live video and voice connection with a pharmacist.

The North Dakota project is expected to grow. Recently the Iowa PressCitizen reported that state legislators have introduced a bill that would make approval of telepharmacies routine, going beyond limited pilot tests.

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