For Alaska Behavioral Health, Genoa Healthcare’s pharmacy services have been a “game changer”

DR. CURT WENGEL, MD:  Having a pharmacy in-house, in your building, it's a game changer for your patients. And it’s a game changer for you as a prescriber.

JIM MEYERS: Alaska Behavioral Health is the largest behavioral health provider in the state of Alaska.

PHARMACY CUSTOMER SERVICE: Genoa Pharmacy. This is Christina. Can I help you?

DR. CURT WENGEL, MD: We run services for everything from your run of the mill anxiety up through severe, chronic mental illness. We run operations in Fairbanks, Wasilla, and Anchorage.

YUNGA VERCELLINE: My name is Yunga. I'm the pharmacist. I'm the site manager at Genoa in Anchorage, Alaska.

Do you have doses that can get you through tonight?

JIM MEYERS: The partnership with Genoa allows us to focus on what we do, but have that support from somebody who's an expert in what they do, which is running a pharmacy service.

PHARMACY CUSTOMER SERVICE: Okay, thank you.

JONATHON BLUM: It's easy to talk back and forth if there's an issue with the medication, with a script, or a patient concern. Prior authorizations are a huge thing that can be a hurdle for patients to get their treatments, whatever it might be. And I think the pharmacy staff work really well with my nursing staff here in the clinic, trying to figure out what is going to get approved for the patient.

DR. CURT WENGEL, MD: If someone doesn't come today and they come tomorrow, it's not a problem. I just ago down to the pharmacy and say, hey, Joe Smith is here. Can I get this injection? I walk it upstairs, and I give him an injection. In 10 minutes, he got his treatment.

JIM MEYERS: They stock a lot of medications that our clients need that other pharmacies in the community don't. And so if our clients are going to those other pharmacies, they may have to wait several days to get a shipment of meds up from the lower 48, and Genoa does a really good job of stocking those specialty medications.

DR. CURT WENGEL, MD: By having a pharmacy in my building I can work with a pharmacist who is a medication expert. And so I don't have to rely on my expertise because that's not what I was trained to do, but a pharmacist was trained to do those things. Because if we can create a system where the lowest expectation of the system is to be successful, then we can start working on other challenges.

Perfect, thank you. Have a good rest of your day. Bye-bye.

We don't want to let people down. We want to make sure that they have what they need. This is our opportunity to make a difference for everyone.

Alright, you're all set.                                                                 

PATIENT: Have a great day.

YUNGA VERCELLINE: Thank you.