Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System has opened its fifth retail pharmacy, with four more planned across the system within the next year, Binita Patel, PharmD, vice president of pharmacy services, told Becker’s.
The latest addition is a second location at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, which opened in late May after eight years as a concept, and cost about $2 million to build out, according to Jason Glover, CEO of Memorial Hermann-TMC Adult Services.
“Medications play such a critical role in the health of individuals,” Mr. Glover said. “We’re a city of 10,000 — it takes about 10,000 people to run our Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center, and we have about 45,000 patients that we see every single year. How do we make that convenient when our patients need medications, our employees need medications?”
The system’s first TMC pharmacy launched three years ago to support a meds-to-beds program, but its location off the main patient path limited growth, Dr. Patel said. As volume climbed, the system moved into a larger, more visible space.
The new pharmacy also marks Memorial Hermann’s first retail location built with automation, which the system added to keep pace with the demands of a 1,500-bed campus.
“It gains us some efficiency, which we needed, especially because our campus is so large,” Dr. Patel said.
Measuring success, avoiding delays
Patient and provider satisfaction are the top metrics the team tracks, along with prescription volume, according to Dr. Patel. A central goal is making sure medication logistics never delay a patient’s discharge.
Mr. Glover said the pharmacy also plays into the system’s readmission strategy by giving patients a chance to get educated on their medications and leave with prescriptions in hand, rather than searching for an open pharmacy after they get home.
That matters in a market such as Houston, where Dr. Patel said several neighborhoods have become pharmacy deserts as big-box chains have pulled out.
“We are very aggressive for our patients to make sure that they are able to walk out, even if they are carved out, to provide them the medication regardless of cost,” she said. Access, she added, is guided by what she calls the three A’s: affordability, access and adherence.
What’s next
Beyond retail, Memorial Hermann is expanding its specialty pharmacy business — which Dr. Patel said now accounts for the majority of its pharmaceutical volume, in line with a national trend of specialty drugs dominating the market — including a mail-order option and early exploration of drone delivery.
For health systems considering their own retail pharmacy investment, Mr. Glover said the goal should be meeting patients where they are, however that is achieved.
“You don’t have to compete with the retail boxes,” Dr. Patel said. “We are our own entity. We have to do things differently. You can walk, run or crawl; any start is a great start for our patients.”
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