{"id":5663,"date":"2006-10-26T18:27:10","date_gmt":"2006-10-26T18:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/?p=5663"},"modified":"2006-10-26T18:27:10","modified_gmt":"2006-10-26T18:27:10","slug":"uri-college-of-pharmacy-dept-of-corrections-team-up-to-save-nearly-5-million-in-drug-costs-at-state-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/2006\/10\/26\/uri-college-of-pharmacy-dept-of-corrections-team-up-to-save-nearly-5-million-in-drug-costs-at-state-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"URI College of Pharmacy, Dept. of Corrections team up to save nearly $5 million in drug costs at state prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 26, 2006 \u2013 The University of Rhode Island\u2019s College of Pharmacy plays a pivotal role in reducing the state Department of Corrections pharmacy costs, saving nearly $5 million during the last four years.
\nThe College\u2019s Health Care Utilization Management Center works with the department\u2019s medical staff to manage the medications for the prison system whose daily population averages 3,700, while its intake center processes 17,000 individuals per year. The department\u2019s projected medication budget from 2003 through 2006 totaled $13.7 million, but its actual costs, thanks to efforts of the medical team led by URI\u2019s management, were $8.8 million for the same period.
\nURI\u2019s pharmacy college was awarded a three-year, $454,000 contract to oversee the department\u2019s pharmacy program in 2002 following a competitive bidding process. In the spring of 2006, corrections awarded URI a four-year, $875,000 contract to continue its oversight. URI experts also oversee the state\u2019s contract with Contract Pharmacy Services of Hatboro, Pa., which provides the actual medications.
\n\u201cThe savings for our department is obviously the number one benefit of the program,\u201d said Joseph Marocco, associate director of health care services for the Department of Corrections. \u201cFor URI, it exposes pharmacy faculty and students to patients with multiple diagnoses, and it provides us with experts who observe what we are prescribing, the cost factors, and the quantities. The University is our pharmacy manager, and it provides us with everything we need–graphs, charts, information on drug interactions, utilization reports and data.\u201d
\nE. Paul Larrat<\/a>, associate pharmacy dean and Rita Marcoux<\/a>, assistant professor of pharmacy and director of the College\u2019s Health Care Utilization Management Center, oversee the program.
\nTwo URI pharmacy alumni, Larry Myerson and Chloe Mako, are part of the management team. Myerson visits the correctional facilities a couple of times each week to discuss dispensing and operational issues at each of the seven facilities and Mako serves as consultant to the medical staff.
\n\u201cWe assist the Department of Corrections\u2019 medical staff in ensuring that the program is receiving quality services at the best price,\u201d Larrat said. \u201cThe program benefits URI students, taxpayers and inmates.
\n\u201cWe spend a great deal of our time working with the doctors and nurse practitioners to manage patients with the most cost effective medication treatment,\u201d Larrat said. \u201cIt can be as simple as switching from a brand name medication to a generic drug.\u201d
\nThat\u2019s important because of the prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, the virus that causes AIDS, hepatitis C and mental illness at correctional facilities. \u201cAll three require expensive, complicated treatments,\u201d Larrat said.
\nStudents review data and participate in studies that improve patient care and medication management. Students who volunteer to go to the facilities participate in medical meetings and behavioral health meetings.
\n\u201cThe Health Care Utilization Management Center is part of a hard working team of medical professionals working to ensure quality of care is delivered to patients serviced by the Department of Corrections,\u201d Assistant Professor Marcoux said. \u201cWhenever the management center\u2019s staff visits a facility, the inmates are always respectful and the corrections officers are always willing to help in any way\u201d
\nCorrections Associate Director of Health Care Services Marocco said the entire project benefits URI and the corrections operations. \u201cWe now call these kinds of arrangements with other outside groups the \u2018URI model\u2019 because of its success.\u201d
\nMedia Contact: Dave Lavallee<\/a>, 401-874-5862<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 26, 2006 \u2013 The University of Rhode Island\u2019s College of Pharmacy plays a pivotal role in reducing the state Department of Corrections pharmacy costs, saving nearly $5 million during the last four years. The College\u2019s Health Care Utilization Management Center works with the department\u2019s medical staff to manage the medications for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":639,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35,53,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-news-php","category-news-services"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/639"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}