Care home pharmacy contract switch almost complete

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The last three personal care home contracts in western Manitoba will be handed over to MediSystem Pharmacy Manitoba Ltd. within the next two weeks, marking the end of a months-long transition of pharmacy services to the Ontario-based company.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/07/2018 (2085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The last three personal care home contracts in western Manitoba will be handed over to MediSystem Pharmacy Manitoba Ltd. within the next two weeks, marking the end of a months-long transition of pharmacy services to the Ontario-based company.

The remaining contracts are all in Brandon and include Hillcrest Place, Rideau Park and Fairview homes.

All three were serviced by Pharma-Medic Services out of its Richmond Avenue headquarters, which will close its doors on July 27.

Michael Lee/The Brandon Sun
Pharma-Medic Services manager Mark Mercure is set to close the business in a couple of weeks. His three remaining personal care home contracts are the last in Prairie Mountain Health to transition over to MediSystem.
Michael Lee/The Brandon Sun Pharma-Medic Services manager Mark Mercure is set to close the business in a couple of weeks. His three remaining personal care home contracts are the last in Prairie Mountain Health to transition over to MediSystem.

Dinsdale and Valleyview Care Centre were also clients of Pharma-Medic, but shifted to MediSystem this past week.

“We’re very on routine here, we have a regular weekly schedule, and with a couple of homes transitioning this week it’s hit home a little bit,” said Pharma-Medic manager Mark Mercure.

The Super Thrifty locations in Rivers and Virden made the switch in March, while Prairie Mountain Health offered to extend several other contracts by weeks or months to help stagger the changeover, including Pharma-Medic’s.

To date, 36 personal care homes in PMH have moved to MediSystem.

The five homes in Brandon made up virtually all of Pharma-Medic’s business, and Mercure predicted in January that the company would be forced to close if it lost those contracts.

Pharma-Medic, which is a division of Super Thrifty Drugs, competed for the same request for proposals issued last August by the regional health authorities, which had pharmacy services at more than 100 personal care homes throughout the province up for grabs.

Ninety-nine were awarded to MediSystem, which has an office in Winnipeg and is owned by Shoppers Drug Mart and its parent company Loblaw, while two homes in Flin Flon were given to Pharmasave 471.

Three homes were not awarded to other companies.

Third Crossing Manor in Gladstone will be covered by in-house pharmacists at Southern Health-Santé Sud, while two First Nations homes in the Northern Health Region — Nisichawayasihk Personal Care Home in Nelson House and Pinaow Wachi Personal Care Home in Norway House — chose not to be included.

The new contracts came into effect on April 1 and will last five years.

Supporters of the plan have argued that the changes will save money and create a standard level of service across the province.

But Dr. Mary Egan, a family doctor in Brandon who has worked with Pharma-Medic for more than 30 years, disagreed with the notion.

“You can’t standardize people,” she said. “Everybody is individual, and it’s important to know the people and give the people more reassurance that their pharmacist knows them.”

Egan said she was concerned about medication errors and the jobs that would be lost in Brandon.

She commended the work of Mercure and Pharma-Medic, but said the quality of service would not be the same.

Michael Lee/The Brandon Sun
Family physician Dr. Mary Egan has worked with Pharma-Medic Services in Brandon for more than 30 years.
Michael Lee/The Brandon Sun Family physician Dr. Mary Egan has worked with Pharma-Medic Services in Brandon for more than 30 years.

“We can’t accept this,” she said.

A statement from Loblaw said MediSystem delivers daily to its clients. The company declined to comment on whether a pharmacist consultant had been hired to serve Brandon or elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the loss of personal care home contracts, combined with a recent drop in generic drug prices across Canada, has put a financial strain on some pharmacists living in rural areas.

“I know it’s been tough for a lot of the small, rural independent pharmacies because they did rely on their personal care home contracts as part of their businesses,” said Barret Procyshyn, president of Pharmacists Manitoba.

As for MediSystem, Procyshyn said he was confident the company’s pharmacists are doing a good job.

“If someone does have an issue with their family member not getting medication in due time, or there’s issues, they would really have to contact the College of Pharmacists about that, or contact Manitoba Health, or their local MLA if they don’t think they’re getting the (health care) that their family member deserves.”

Mercure has since found a job as a staff pharmacist at Home Health Care Pharmacy on Victoria Avenue, but said that not all of his approximately 10 staff members have been as lucky.

However, he said he feels fortunate to have worked with such a good crew and thanked the local personal care home staff.

“The people working in the care homes, I think, are really special,” he said. “They have a special job and they do a great job.”

» mlee@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @mtaylorlee

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