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FOCUSING ON RELIABLE PHARMACEUTICAL SERVICE
The Reliable Pharmaceutical Service is a privately held company incorporated in 1975 in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. It provides pharmacy services to health-care delivery organizations that are too small to have their own in-house pharmacy. Reliable grew rapidly in its first decade, and by the late 1980s its clients included two dozen nursing homes, three residential rehabilitation facilities, two small psychiatric hospitals, and four small specialty medical hospitals. In 1990,
Reliable expanded its Albuquerque service area to include Santa Fe and started two new service areas in Las Cruces and Gallup.
Reliable accepts pharmacy orders for patients in client facilities and delivers the orders in locked cases every 12 hours. In the
Albuquerque and Santa Fe service area, Reliable employs approximately 12 delivery personnel, 20 pharmacist’s assistants (PAs), 6 licensed pharmacists, and 10 office and clerical staff.
Another 15 employees work in the Las Cruces and Gallup service areas. The management team includes another six people, mainly company owners.
Personnel at each health-care facility submit patient prescription orders by telephone. Many prescriptions are standing orders, which are filled during every delivery cycle until specifically canceled. Orders are logged into a computer as they are received. At the start of each
12-hour shift, the computer generates case manifests for each floor or wing of each client facility. A case manifest identifies each patient and the drugs he or she has been prescribed, including when and how often the drugs should be administered. The shift supervisor assigns the case manifests to pharmacists, who in turn assign tasks to PAs. Pharmacists supervise and coordinate the PAs’ work.
All drugs for a single patient are collected in one plastic drawer of a locking case. Each case is marked with the institution’s name, floor number, and wing number (if
The Reliable Pharmaceutical Service is a privately held company incorporated in 1975 in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. It provides pharmacy services to health-care delivery organizations that are too small to have their own in-house pharmacy. Reliable grew rapidly in its first decade, and by the late 1980s its clients included two dozen nursing homes, three residential rehabilitation facilities, two small psychiatric hospitals, and four small specialty medical hospitals. In 1990,
Reliable expanded its Albuquerque service area to include Santa Fe and started two new service areas in Las Cruces and Gallup.
Reliable accepts pharmacy orders for patients in client facilities and delivers the orders in locked cases every 12 hours. In the
Albuquerque and Santa Fe service area, Reliable employs approximately 12 delivery personnel, 20 pharmacist’s assistants (PAs), 6 licensed pharmacists, and 10 office and clerical staff.
Another 15 employees work in the Las Cruces and Gallup service areas. The management team includes another six people, mainly company owners.
Personnel at each health-care facility submit patient prescription orders by telephone. Many prescriptions are standing orders, which are filled during every delivery cycle until specifically canceled. Orders are logged into a computer as they are received. At the start of each
12-hour shift, the computer generates case manifests for each floor or wing of each client facility. A case manifest identifies each patient and the drugs he or she has been prescribed, including when and how often the drugs should be administered. The shift supervisor assigns the case manifests to pharmacists, who in turn assign tasks to PAs. Pharmacists supervise and coordinate the PAs’ work.
All drugs for a single patient are collected in one plastic drawer of a locking case. Each case is marked with the institution’s name, floor number, and wing number (if