Acentrus Specialty Signs Over 100 Clients as the Nation’s Largest Network of Health System and Hospital Specialty Pharmacies

Acentrus Specialty™, a national network of health systems and hospitals committed to providing specialty pharmacy care for their patients, has surpassed the milestone of signing over 100 hospital clients with the addition of Southern Illinois Healthcare, Froedtert Health, and the University of Maryland Medical Center as the network’s latest clients. Acentrus Specialty represents the largest integrated care network for health system specialty pharmacy in the United States.

“Health systems and hospitals committed to caring for their patients’ medication needs post-discharge often face challenges in providing this care because of limited distribution drug agreements that restrict access,” said George Zula, Acentrus Specialty vice president. “When patient care remains within a health system rather than outsourced to a third-party pharmacy, the quality and continuity of care is greatly enhanced. The Acentrus network is dedicated to helping our client health systems and hospitals gain access to the life-saving medications their patients need.”

Participation in Acentrus is open to hospital organizations of all sizes, types, and affiliations. Acentrus clients, which range from academic medical centers to small health systems, share one goal: to provide their patients with high-quality care in a setting where clinical and pharmacy services are integrated.

When an organization joins the network, benefits include access to difficult-to-obtain specialty medications, data management, collaboration with health system peers dedicated to sharing best practices, and a portfolio of other services to help hospital-based specialty pharmacies meet the needs of their patients, including backup and contract pharmacy, and expertise in licensing and accreditation. There is no cost for health systems to join Acentrus.

“Acentrus works to advance the belief that exceptional patient care can happen only when health systems and hospitals are able to support their patients with an integrated care approach that includes specialty pharmacy,” said Pedram Pahlavan, Acentrus senior director of specialty pharmacy. “Acentrus gives health systems and hospitals the tools they need to operate specialty pharmacies that provide local, personal, integrated, and cost-effective patient care.”

Specialty pharmaceuticals are high cost, complicated to administer, and often require special shipping and handling. These medications, which treat complex and chronic diseases such as cancer, hemophilia, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis, frequently have significant risk of side effects and require careful patient monitoring. Specialty medications represent the fastest growth sector in pharmacy, with 1-2% of all claims accounting for 50-60% of all expenses.

About Acentrus Specialty

Acentrus Specialty is the integrated care network and health system solution for specialty pharmacy, addressing the largest and fastest growing area of health care expenditures by empowering members to deliver exceptional, cost-effective, locally-integrated care. This is accomplished through a portfolio of services and specialty pharmacy products, as well as member sharing of clinical and operational best practices. The network of health systems encompasses mostly of academic medical centers and integrated delivery networks, serving more than 4.6 million inpatient admissions annually, treated by nearly 200,000 physicians. Follow Acentrus on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/acentrus-specialty or on the web at www.acentrusrx.com.

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