Omnicare (new thread)

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There was an older thread on this, but I thought i would start a new one to get new perspectives.

There for a while it seemed like we had great weekend/ evening service. Last month or so the changes that some warned have gone into action.

No re orders or new orders are filled after 4pm on the weekends. If you want them or really need them you have to order them STAT. Stat should be 3 hrs....this is a joke.

I call, speak to the pharmacist ask for a STAT, fax the order. What more do I have to do?

We are getting sicker people and more admits on the weekends. I end up calling 1-1.5 hrs after the initial order to see if it was processed etc and 90% of the times they weren't. BTW, our pharmacy is 45 minutes away.

The delivery drivers tell me there is only one person for the entire route when a few months ago there would be 2-3 (we would still have long waits then too)

Sooooo frustrated by this all. We are a huge corp LTC so we are stuck with Omnicare.

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You are lucky. My facility is 4 hours away from our Omnicare pharmacy. We receive 2 deliveries Mon.-Sat. one around 8-9 in the evening, the other 3-5am. "Stat" orders---forget it, we are told to ask for a "drop ship" from local pharmacy (through Omnicare). This can take 12 hours---if they O.K. it. So I can honestly say I wish we were only 45 minutes away.

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I haven't heard of these changes down here in South FL... Although I've always found it a little frustrating to have to use an off-site pharmacy, I don't have too many complaints about Omnicare. We get deliveries TID, even on weekends, and the pharm drivers are pleasant and overall pretty organized. Most of our admissions are on the 3-11 shift, and about 90% of the time, all of their meds will come in that same night on 11-7 (usually 3am) which isn't too bad. If they need some stat pain meds we can always pull from the e-kit.

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That is how we used to have service.

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I am ambivalent about Omnicare. I hate that I can't get the meds I need from them, but in my area, they seem as frustrated as I am. Usually, the delay in receiving medications is due to reimbursement issues or a MD who can't be bothered to call in an order.

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Specializes in LTC.

Omnicare in my area is terrible. We don't have drugs we need in contingency. Our refill time is terrible, sometimes it takes two days for refill. STAT orders have to be picked up by one of their couriers from a pharmacy in town and brought to our facility. It can take up to four hours For a stat drug to come if we get it at all.

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I'm just curious to know what kind of STAT drugs some facilities are having to wait for?

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Specializes in LTC.

This was two years ago, it was Vitamin K injectable. Not in our contingency, for whatever reason. Thank goodness it is now.

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Stat drugs...anything we need, not in our E box and really must be given within a few hrs...pain meds, abtx..

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I'm just glad my LTC facility has it's own pharmcy in house.

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Hmm... Michelle were they uncommon medications? Not having an in-house pharmacy is frustrating (you're lucky, Brandon!) but we have plenty of antibiotics and pain meds in our E-kit. No new admissions (or otherwise) have ever missed a med or pain PRN as long as I've been there simply because of a late delivery... we've always been able to grab from the E-kit...

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Our e kit really needs updated. Bad. With newer abtx and sicker patients...yeah, needs done. I think our local branch is just over worked and streched to thin. There are a ton of LTCs in our area. That and they cut hours, staff and services.

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