INNOVATIVE PRACTICE FORM

Name: Phil Knight
Phone#: 272-4670
Fax#: 272-4201
Address: VA Medical Center Montgomery, AL

Briefly describe innovation

In the VA Medical center, Mr. Knight has been a part of two different innovations. The first innovation is in the style of management. In a system referred to as "total quality improvement", employees are organized into error prevention teams. These teams are employee motivated and help ensure that dispensing errors are kept to a minimum. In addition, the pharmacy prints refill reminders for its patients as well as sending them a periodical pharmacy newsletter.
The second innovation of the VA Medical Center is the large scale outpatient dispensing system called "Label Ready Dispensing." In this system, many of the pharmacy's drugs are packaged so that the pharmacist needs only to apply the label. The pharmacy uses a system of conveyor belts and robotics to allow the rapid movement of large quantities of drugs. The necessity of this can be understood by the fact the the VA Medical Centers in Birmingham and Montgomery fill approximately 1.1 million prescriptions a year. The system provides three times the efficiency of normal operations and helps to decrease the number of errors made by the pharmacy.

Method of reimbursement

Payor: The VA Medical Center is funded by the U.S. Government through the Department of Defense to provide health care for American veterans.

Reimbursement rate: N/A

Is documentation required? Yes. The the pharmacy documents any interventions it makes dealing with patient care.

Specialized training required? Yes. The training required for the implementation of this program dealt with continuing education as well as reading material about the innovations.

Software/instrumentation required. Yes. The pharmacy is highly dependent on technology. The medications are dispensed using robotics and a system of conveyor belts. Also, the VA Medical center uses a system of decentralized personal computers. In addition to the dispensing role, software is used for patient education.