Iowa Smiles

Rockford, Iowa, is a small town. A very small town. So small that its only pharmacy closed its doors a few years ago, requiring the sick and elderly, or their caretakers to drive to a distant city to get their prescriptions filled. ADDS provided a better solution for North Iowa Mercy Health Center clinic patients.

North Iowa Mercy Health Center, located in Sheffield, IA, operates a small satellite clinic about 40 miles away in Rockford, IA. Craig Osland, the health center’s director of pharmacy, wanted to provide pharmacy services to Rockford’s patients, but couldn’t cost-justify a brick-and-mortar pharmacy operation. However, he could cost-justify a Telepharmacy Solutions ADDS point-of-care system. The ADDS virtual point-of-care pharmacy is controlled by Osland’s staff in Sheffield and is a huge hit with medical center staff and patients in Rockford.

"What surprised us was that the system enabled us to cut the average price of the drugs we dispensed, while concurrently increasing the per script gross profit, on both a dollar and percentage basis, in each major drug category," Osland says. "The reason is an optimized formulary and greater cooperation between our pharmacists and doctors."

"Via the Telepharmacy Solutions system we’re capturing prescription revenues that we missed in the past. Of course, patient care is our main concern, and the Telepharmacy Solutions system was a God-send, because we no longer have to send our clinic patients on an 80-mile round trip to Sheffield and back. This system also improved patient compliance and safety. The system benefits everybody."