Case Study
Implementing Trulla Pharmacy Procurement Software
Yale New Haven Health
Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) is a leading healthcare system, consisting of Bridgeport, Greenwich, Lawrence + Memorial, Yale New Haven and Westerly hospitals, and Northeast Medical Group, a physician foundation of primary care and medical specialists. They provide comprehensive, integrated, family-focused care in more than 100 medical specialties with more than 7,500 university and community physicians and advanced practitioners. Their services cover a broad geographic area, serving communities across Connecticut and beyond.
2,681
Number of Hospitals
Serving:
157,000 Inpatient Cases Annually
7 Million Outpatient Encounters
$6.6B
Net Revenue
Background
YNHHS observed several challenges related to pharmacy procurement, prompting the need to explore external solutions. Chief among these challenges were the constant fluctuations in medication pricing, posing significant difficulties in maintaining accurate records, particularly with the introduction of new generics. YNHHS recognized the importance of developing a streamlined process to review generic manufacturer prices and ensure the utilization of the most cost-effective products.
Moreover, YNHHS faced challenges in contract surveillance, with recurring instances of contracts falling off or not being loaded correctly across all wholesaler accounts. This lack of efficiency in identifying such occurrences resulted in considerable time and effort spent updating accounts and processing credit rebills
Meeting SpendMend
YNHHS initially engaged SpendMend to evaluate its central distribution center software after a CSC site visit. During the initial engagement, YNHHS reviewed Trulla Analytics and requested a deeper demo to include the broader YNHHS pharmacy team.
Over several meetings, YNHHS was impressed by the user-friendly interface; Trulla Analytics made it easy to identify actionable opportunities, and to help YNHHS make more informed pharmacy purchasing decisions. YNHHS appreciated Trulla’s reporting capability to help ensure compliance with implemented changes and compare data across various account types, including 340B, WAC, and GPO accounts. Additionally, YNHHS noted the availability of numerous features within Trulla, such as the penny buy-opportunity, as well as tools for better managing biosimilars and drug shortages.
“At Yale New Haven Health, our procurement team utilizes Trulla to identify and implement savings opportunities. Since we have employed the tool, we have seen significant savings every year. After realizing considerable value on the inpatient side, we worked with Trulla to standardize our NDCs on our retail side, and have seen even more savings there.”
-Molly Leber, Associate Director, Drug Use Policy,
Procurement and Strategic Sourcing
Getting Started
Following the contracting process, YNHHS met with their dedicated SpendMend account manager to devise an implementation plan that outlined phases, timelines, and data requirements for integrating the Trulla software package into YNHHS’ operations.
SpendMend and YNHHS IT worked closely to exchange necessary information for implementation while also working with its wholesaler to secure the necessary EDI data feed. SpendMend further supported YNHHS by assisting in the subdivision of accounts to optimize the software’s impact and functionality across different sectors, such as retail,
acute care, and home infusion.
To ensure a smooth transition, SpendMend conducted several training sessions and distributed training materials to YNHHS staff. Regular bi-weekly meetings between SpendMend and YNHHS were held to address any additional issues and provide updates on the development of additional functionalities.
Even after the initial implementation phase, Trulla and YNHHS continue to hold monthly meetings to ensure ongoing support and optimization of Trulla’s capabilities in meeting YNHHS’ evolving needs.
Results
The implementation of Trulla at YNHHS has yielded significant benefits across various aspects of the procurement processes.
Financial Benefits:
With Trulla, YNHHS can now proactively identify and convert to more cost-effective NDCs, leveraging the tool’s analytics to optimize their procurement strategies. YNHHS has saved significant dollars due to their NDC standardization work.
Enhanced Compliance and Efficiency:
Trulla has enabled YNHHS to easily identify purchasing compliance with selected NDCs across different sites of care.
Improved Contract Surveillance:
The implementation of Trulla has also streamlined the contract surveillance process, ensuring correct price loads and maximizing credit rebills.
Savings through Optimization:
Furthermore, YNHHS has leveraged Trulla’s insights to achieve savings through optimizing unit-dose packaging.
Efficient Drug Shortage Management:
YNHHS can easily run reports on products purchased by manufacturer, enabling them to proactively address shortages and prioritize mitigation strategies.
New Capabilities Enabled by Trulla:
YNHHS can monitor delivery network compliance to conversions, ensuring consistency and compliance across their pharmacy supply chain operations.
What’s Next?
Following the success of the Trulla software solution at YNHHS, the organization is now looking ahead to further optimization of their procurement practices and utilizing new tools and capabilities that Trulla continues to roll out.