Paul Sipes

The implementation of a data warehouse, a relational database for query and analysis, can help a specialty pharmacy utilize its data to the fullest.

There has been much discussion, and some confusion, about data warehouses. What is a data warehouse? What can it do for a specialty pharmacy? What does it cost? Let’s break it down.

Technically speaking, a data warehouse is a relational database that is designed for query and analysis rather than for transaction processing. It usually contains historical data derived from transaction data, but it can also include data from multiple sources.

From a business perspective, a data warehouse can really help a pharmacy use data to its fullest potential—from providing operations performance visibility to forecasting and fulfilling reporting needs.

What Can a Data Warehouse Do for a Specialty Pharmacy?

It can generate revenue opportunities by enabling fee-for-service and fee-for-data alliances with pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy benefit managers that require reporting

. If a specialty pharmacy can deliver on the specific patient support programs that pharma is interested in—and report back on that activity&mdash;there are many potential revenue opportunities available.

It can greatly reduce the cost of reporting

. With the ability to both build logic for each data point one time and to reuse the logic for each consecutive report built, there are significant savings available. Some good examples of this are calculations for medication possession ratio, proportion of days covered, turnaround time, and custom prescription status fields.

It delivers enhanced business intelligence and visibility

. With all of the data stored and staged in 1 location with easy-to-use query building tools, the user can tee-up reports that offer insight into sales, market segmentation, inventory management, financial management, and operations performance.

. The report-building query tools, which can be set up, saved for reuse, or even automated by noninformation technology staff, make the process of generating useful reports much faster. This also leads to better informed and quicker business decisions.

It centralizes and cleanses data to increase data quality and consistency

. Rules are set up to ensure all of the data that flows into the data warehouse are standardized, which make the data trends and analysis culled from the reports accurate and trustworthy.

It lends itself to future forecasting and trending

. A data warehouse stores large amounts of historical data so that different time periods and trends can be analyzed in order to make future predictions. Such data cannot typically be stored in a transactional database or used to generate reports from a transactional system.

Many businesses wait until their systems, data, and reporting needs are very complex before realizing the need for a data warehouse. If the data warehouse is built while the systems and data are still manageable, the data warehouse can grow with the rest of the business at a much lower cost.

Regardless of the complexity of the data of a business, there are options to scale the rollout of a data warehouse to fit a range of budgets and timeframes:

 solutions can start at a cost of $70,000 and include features such as extraction-transformation-load (ETL), automated report scheduling, and an ad hoc reporting interface (see Table 1, Figure 1).

 solutions include, in addition to all level 1 features, enhanced ETL monitoring and reporting and the inclusion of additional data sources. The cost for these additional features ranges from $25,000 to $50,000. Conversion of existing reports costs from $4000 to $12,000 each, depending on their complexity (see Table 2, Online Figure 2).

 solutions add a quality engine, data firewall, and analysis services, which can range from $50,000 to $80,000 (see Table 3, Online Figure 3).

It’s important to say it again: while data warehouses can take a business to another level of competitiveness and growth, one of the keys is to start as soon as possible to control the project’s cost and complexity. 

 serves as vice president of Spud Software in Grand Blanc, Michigan. He and his team have designed several specialty pharmacy work flow and reporting applications. Paul spent 20 years as a regional director with MSX International, a global provider of technical services, where he was on the cutting edge of digital solutions for US Customs and for automotive and retail clients. He transitioned this experience to Spud Software and the health care sector in 2007, where he has been providing digital solutions for improving patient outcomes and patient processing efficiency

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The Real Scoop on Data Warehouses

Customizable processing applications support the specific needs of specialty pharmacy.

Traditional commercial pharmacy dispensing systems do a great job storing a patient’s demographic and prescription data, adjudicating claims with the insurance company, and checking for drug—drug interactions.

However, specialty pharmacies have different needs when it comes to supporting the patient and fulfilling drug contract requirements with pharmaceutical manufacturers. While there are some commercial applications that have limited work flow and clinical content, most still have big gaps and are inflexible when it comes to running your specialty pharmacy business your way.

That’s where customizable patient care processing applications come in. Integrated with your pharmacy dispensing system, patient care processing applications enable efficient, high-touch patient and prescription processing that generates the key data doctors and pharmaceutical manufacturers need.

Some of the key features of patient care processing applications to support specialty pharmacies include:

		Customizable work queues that are tailored to your work flow and team structure

		Work flow processing content for prescription intake, patient onboarding, support program enrollment, injection training support, pharmacist verification 1 reviews, prior authorization processing, funding support processing, side effects and depression screening, health assessment questionnaire II and other surveys, refill processing, pharmacist/nurse consults, scheduling delivery and shipping

		Electronic medical record tabs to provide an efficient synopsis of the patient’s overall condition

		Medication possession ratio and proportion of days covered value displays

		Prescription and patient status features for flexible processing and exception handling

		Patient e-document status communication tools

		Management reports for prescription sales, prescription status, and operations

Patient care processing applications can also be integrated with your e-fax, credit card processing, and shipping systems for maximum efficiency and visibility, while data warehouse and reporting tools enable support of potential reporting needs.

Being Web-based, the applications can also facilitate remote limited access portals for stakeholders, including insurance companies, health care providers, and sales representatives. Additionally, e-fill portals allow patients to indicate their readiness to refill their prescriptions and answer some online screening questions.

These applications are enablers for the specialty pharmacy, allowing them to quickly take on any drug while providing powerful high-touch care, prescription processing, and reporting that is a win-win for all stakeholders in the specialty pharmacy landscape.

Evaluating these applications may lead you the inevitable buy-versus-build dilemma, in which your choices are to invest a lot of time and money to build your own application or to pay high licensing fees for an existing product, whereby you must live with its limitations and your inability to modify it. The good news is there are hybrid options out there. Some specialty pharmacy software development firms provide a core patient care processing application that you can modify to fit your specific business, work flow, and reporting needs. Contact a custom software development firm to identify options that will fit your needs. 

 serves as vice president of Spud Software in Grand Blanc, MI. He designed the first patient care system for Diplomat and has extensive expertise in specialty pharmacy business. 

Paul spent 20 years as a regional director with MSX International, a global provider of technical services, where he was on the cutting edge of digital solutions for US Customs, and for automotive and retail clients. He transitioned this experience to Spud Software and the health care sector in 2007, where he has been providing digital solutions for improving patient outcomes and patient processing efficiency.

Customizable processing applications support the specific needs of specialty pharmacy. 