Nancy is a home hospice nurse. For most of her patients, she phones in orders to a local pharmacy. Family or caregivers pick up medications when they’re ready. With the COVID-19 pandemic, Nancy and her colleagues are increasingly worried about making caregivers go out on unnecessary errands. After all, a lot of caregivers have their own health problems. Nancy sometimes picks up medications for her patients, but she’s trying to limit her exposure too. She knows many of her patients like their local pharmacies, but maybe this is a good time to reconsider home delivery.
Enclara’s “mail order” pharmacy is ready to help by supporting safety, dependability and flexibility in accessing medications. With next-day or second-day shipping via FedEx, it’s fast too. This service may provide opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce caregiver burden during the crisis. Here are some factors to consider when evaluating whether mail order is right for your hospice and your patients.
Dependability
- Enclara provides standard next business day shipping for new medications and second-day for refills at no additional cost.
- Enclara’s mail order service includes multiple locations in different parts of the country to protect against local disruptions.
- Enclara has increased inventory levels to prepare for increased demand and is regularly monitoring supply chains and utilization patterns to maintain the highest level of service.
safety
- Home delivery supports the CDC’s social distancing recommendations and saves trips to the pharmacy, some of which may be reducing business hours during the pandemic.
- Dispensing sites are highly automated, employing robotic systems to assemble, verify, and package patient-ready medications to ensure safety, accuracy and efficiency.
- Pharmacists visually verify every order before it goes out to ensure correct dispensing and labeling.
Robust Capabilities 
- Enclara’s mail order dispensing capabilities include a wide range of complex compounding and packaging offerings that may be unavailable locally.
- Dispensing options like pre-filled syringes, topical applications and compliance packaging may be helpful if professional caregivers are unable to access the home.
- Enclara’s E3 MobileTM app provides an efficient way to profile and dispense new meds, order refills and track packages.
Supporting the Hospice Community
Maintaining a robust mail order program is just one way Enclara Pharmacia is supporting the hospice community in the current pandemic. Our call center operations continue to provide customer service and pharmacist consultations. Our Digital Team is providing training on our electronic tools, while our clinical education experts share useful knowledge with their fellow clinicians. Tying it all together is our account management team, working around the clock to help our hospice clients through this crisis. All of us at Enclara are inspired by the work our hospice patients do every day to support patients and their families.
