Rob Kulis of Cardinal Health, a solution provider at the marcus evans National Healthcare CXO Summit Fall 2013, on leveraging the hospital pharmacy. Interview with: Rob Kulis, SVP/GM Innovative Delivery Solutions, Cardinal Health

1. Interview with: Rob Kulis, SVP/GM
Innovative Delivery Solutions,
Cardinal Health
“In today’s healthcare landscape where
hospitals have to deliver patient care
with unprecedented focus on cost
efficiency, healthcare leaders should not
leave any stones unturned when looking
to improve their organization’s ability to
survive and thrive,” advises Rob Kulis,
SVP/GM Innovative Delivery Solutions,
Cardinal Health. One area that
healthcare CEOs overlook is the
pharmacy, he comments. “Very often
health systems look at the pharmacy
merely as a cost center, versus looking
at it as the strategic resource it can be,”
he points out.
Cardinal Health is a solution provider at
the marcus evans National
Healthcare CXO Summit Fall 2013, in
Los Angeles, California, October
20-22.
How is the healthcare business
landscape changing?
The healthcare business has got to focus
on delivering high quality care, but that
is no longer sufficient for staying in
business. Healthcare leaders must pay
attention to market trends, regulatory
r e s t r i c t i o n s a n d c o n s i d e r a l l
opportunities for becoming more cost
efficient and effective in achieving
quality outcomes.
The pharmacy is an area with great
potential. Most hospitals can leverage
their pharmacy and clinical team more
efficiently than they are currently,
elevating the pharmacy to a strategic
asset that can help them in what we call
the four Fs: Finding meaningful growth,
Fulfilling the care mission, Fixing
inefficiencies and Following the patient.
There is no other asset of a care
provider’s portfolio that touches patients
more across the continuum of care than
the team prescribing and delivering
pharmaceuticals.
When health systems recognize the
power of the pharmaceutical distribution
paradigm, they are able to influence
more effectively the metrics that are
meaningful to their success: quality,
patient satisfaction scores, readmission
rates, length of stay and so on.
How would such a pharmacy differ?
Traditionally, the pharmacy has been
looked at as a utility, something that
exists in the hospital basement or corner
storefront to distribute supplies out to
the nursing units or consumers,
respectively. How drugs are prescribed,
and how we encourage and monitor
patients’ adherence has been left
primarily to physicians and the nursing
teams.
Healthcare systems that leverage the
capabilities within the pharmacy
recognize that the clinical pharmacist
is a key member of the patient care
team with the ability to participate in
clinical decision-making, and to influence
prescription patterns and care pathways.
This is about following patients across
the care continuum, and managing drug
regimens and prescriptions to improve
outcomes that influence the overall cost
and quality of care.
What does Cardinal Health bring to
the table?
Cardinal Health Innovative Delivery
Solutions believes that healthcare
providers are in the business of
“population health management.” As
providers seek ways to address cost,
improve quality outcomes and maintain
access to care, they are going to have to
enhance their ability to deliver care in
the most appropriate care setting – and
that includes the home. As Baby
Boomers age, we are averaging 10,000
Americans every day turning age 65.
Moreover, recognizing that approx-
imately five percent of our population in
the US drives about 50 percent of
healthcare costs, we believe that
focusing there is a great place to start.
Managing patient populations starts with
getting a handle on the optimization of
pharmacy and the engagement of
pharmacists as influential members of
the clinical care team.
Cardinal Health brings a framework for
evaluating and improving pharmacy
performance, and for elevating the role
of pharmacists across the continuum of
care. We have identified the strategic
drivers of healthcare provider success
and aligned them to specific, immediate
actionable solutions that improve
performance in the four F areas. First, it
is important to assess where the hospital
stands relative to peers and industry
best standards, then to identify gaps and
opportunities for elevating the
pharmacy’s performance across the
entire enterprise.
For example, there are millions of
patients without healthcare coverage
who are unable to pay hospitals for the
medication services they receive. Health
systems provide millions of dollars of
uncompensated care every year.
However, many may not have
sufficiently staffed resources to take
a d v a n t a g e o f p h a r m a c e u t i c a l
manufacturer patient assistance
programs that can help them provide
those medications for patients who
qualify for free or at significantly
reduced prices. Hospitals also sometimes
need assistance in determining which
manufacturer programs they qualify for
and what documentation they need. This
is about cost optimization and taking
advantage of programs to address the
c o s t s t r u c t u r e o f p h a r m a c y
management.
As another example, through the use of
our remote pharmacy services, we can
help provide economical 24/7 coverage
of the pharmacy, and we can provide the
essential bandwidth the pharmacy team
needs to step out onto the floor where
patient care is provided. By being out on
the floor with the rest of the clinical
team, they can engage in conversations,
influence prescription regimens, and
help lay the foundation with patients to
enhance understanding and improve
compliance. The ability to influence
prescription decisions from name brand
to generics alone could save the health
system millions of dollars a year!
Any final thoughts?
Bring no pre-conceived notions or
limitations. The opportunities for
improving performance are virtually
everywhere. The pharmacy is the perfect
example of an area that hospitals do not
focus on, but it can influence patient
care significantly. Hospitals harnessing
that strategic asset are seeing
improvements in performance and cost
reductions.
Transforming the Hospital Pharmacy into a Strategic Asset

2. About Cardinal Health
Cardinal Health, Inc. is a Fortune 500 health care services company based in Dublin, Ohio. The firm specializes in distribution of
pharmaceuticals and medical products, serving more than 60,000 locations. The firm also manufactures medical and surgical
products, including gloves, surgical apparel and fluid management products. In addition, it operates the nation’s largest network of
radiopharmacies.
www.cardinal.com
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