Institutional

On a daily basis, Buffalo Pharmacies works with a variety of health care providers to provide necessary medications and equipment to their patients. Long-term care providers, group homes, adult care facilities, physicians’ offices, IV and infusion system providers all benefit from establishing a relationship with Buffalo Pharmacies.

As a provider of “Senior Care, Long-Term Care and Specialty Pharmacy Services,” Buffalo Pharmacies is committed to creating a team approach in providing service to our institutional clients.

We stress a team approach to help you identify and resolve drug therapy issues. This team typically consists of your independent consultant pharmacist, your medical director, your nursing director, and our pharmacists. In addition, we regularly share best practices between the facilities we service and maintain effective communication, creativity and consistent performance in servicing the facilities.

Pharmaceutical Care Services
When it comes to helping your facility manage your pharmaceuticals, Buffalo Pharmacies is here to help. When you partner with us, we will:

• Maintain a complete resident profile and screen all orders for duplication, potential drug interactions, and appropriate drug, dose, route, frequency and therapy duration.
• Add warning or precaution labels to assist your staff with safe medication administration.
• Assist with drug dosing based on drug level monitoring.
• Assist your facility staff in complying with BEERS/HCFA medication guidelines.
• Substitute generic medication as allowed by New York State regulations.
• Develop and maintain a drug formulary with the participation of your consultant pharmacist, medical director, and director of nursing.
• Identify problem orders and formulary issues.

Institutional Services Brochure

Medication Delivery System
We strive to make sure that your relationship with Buffalo Pharmacies is efficient and meets your needs. Here are some of the services we will provide your facility with for the length of your agreement with us.

• Hours and Support: Our convenient hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 9:00 am  - 6:00 pm, and Saturday, 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm. We also provide an on-call pharmacist at all times and have full-time information systems staff to support your needs.
   
• Orders: You may phone or fax your orders. For resident safety, we prefer that you fax your orders. For your convenience, we will provide your facility with a fax machine for the length of your agreement with us. All you’re responsible for is the cleaning, maintenance and supplies for the machine.
   
• Medication delivery: We will provide two daily deliveries, Monday through Friday; Saturday deliveries occur after 6:00 pm. Emergency or after hours deliveries may be arranged as needed.
   
• Medication administration records: Depending on your needs, we will provide your facility with monthly medication records for each resident.
   
• Packaging: We ensure that all of our packaging meets New York State requirements. To enhance resident safety, we recommend blister card packaging.
   
• Medication carts: Buffalo Pharmacies may provide your facility with medication carts at no charge for the length of your agreement with us.
   
• Refills: To save your staff time, we recommend a 28-day cycle fill for all oral solid medications that are dosed as standing orders (qd, bid, etc.). We will deliver the cycle fill medications and place them into unit dose carts. Your facility staff is responsible for reordering other medications such as prn medications, topicals, eye drops, patches, etc.
   
• Controlled substances: Our pharmacists will dispense prescriptions for controlled substances according to New York State and Federal law. We will work with your staff to develop a system for the timely filling or partial filling of controlled substance prescriptions that meets legal record keeping requirements. In some cases, a limited supply of controlled substances may be stocked at your facility for emergency use if your medical director acquires a DEA certificate at the facility’s address.
   
• Intravenous medications: Based on your facility’s specific needs, we will provide intravenous medications, infusion supplies and IV pumps. We can also provide pharmacist monitoring services at no additional charge.
   
• Emergency kits: We will provide you with customized emergency kits based on consultation with your consultant pharmacist, medical director, and director of nursing.
   
• Emergency power: To ensure uninterrupted service to our residents and facilities in the event of power outage, we have invested in a back-up generator.

Quality Assurance
Buffalo Pharmacies is committed to quality assurance and ongoing process improvements, both of which are critical for providing excellent resident care. Working closely with your staff, we will develop a service plan that meets your needs. Regular review of the plan will help to improve service and resident pharmaceutical care. We recommend routine meetings to:

• Ensure compliance with the service plan
• Modify the service plan when necessary
• Monitor and enhance pharmaceutical care
• Monitor the drug delivery system
• Evaluate pharmacist and nurse performance
• Manage the drug formulary
• Monitor financial performance
• Share best practices

In addition, we will provide your facility with customized reports to enhance appropriate and/or cost-effective therapy. Our information systems team will develop these reports to best meet your needs.

In our ongoing commitment to our facilities and residents, we make medication safety a top priority. Buffalo Pharmacies has developed safeguards to minimize the risk of medication errors:

• Drug product code: Each medication label includes the code of the tablet or capsule dispensed, providing the facility nurse an extra check.
   
• Tall man letters: To help differentiate between similar drug names, we print look-alike drug names in tall man letters, ex. SEROquel, SERZone, SEREntil.
   
• Liquid/metric, partial tablet dose checking: Our pharmacists examine daily reports of all orders that include a metric dose delivered in liquid form or a partial tablet to ensure that the dose calculation is correct.

Financial Issues
Buffalo Pharmacies recognizes facility needs for cost containment and financial evaluation. We can help you with this important aspect of your business with the following:

• Medication pricing and billing: We offer competitively priced medications, discount incentives for prompt payment, and a special pricing program for some medications. When a resident has private insurance, we will bill covered medications to the insurance carrier at the rate the carrier allows. We will bill co-pays to the facility or the responsible party. We work closely with your staff to ensure billing accuracy, including Medicaid outlier drugs.
   
• Medication returns: You may return medication for credit and re-issue as allowed by NYS code.
   
• Medication cost monitoring: To help you best monitor your financial performance, we will provide reports, such as:
  • Top 50 medications dispensed including formulary status
  • Medication cost per resident per day
  • Blind comparison of your facility’s medication costs compared to other facilities
     
• Cost containment: Since medication cost review may be a critical part of your facility’s admission screening process, we will assist your staff by pricing medications before you make an admission decision. Our pharmacist may recommend lower cost formulary alternatives when available. We can also provide a price list for your admission personnel.

Developing a Relationship with Buffalo Pharmacies, Inc.
If your facility is need of a proven, team approach to your pharmacological needs, contact Buffalo Pharmacies today. We are committed to the success of your facility and the health care of your residents.

B.P.I. (Buffalo Pharmacies Institutional) 
Phone: 716-204-9060 Fax: 716-204-9061
20 Lawrence Bell Drive
Williamsville, NY 14221

 

Hours: Monday - Friday: 9:00AM - 6:00PM
            Saturday: 9:00AM - 4:00PM
            (Closed Sunday)