Fran Davis, CEO, Hospice of Volusia Flagler

"HP has contributed to making us the best hospice in our service area. We have three IPUs; all with automated medication dispensing through HP. The use of the automated system makes medication procurement quick, easy and helps us with compliance. …

“Working with HP has reduced our expenses. Staff no longer have to get meds from local pharmacies and deliver to patient’s homes. Nurses can devote more time to patients and families, performing nursing duties instead of couriering medications. Plus, we no longer pay for medications that aren’t related to the terminal diagnosis like we used to.

"Perhaps the greatest benefit to our patients is found in the ComfortPak HP provides its home patients. … We no longer wake physicians in the middle of the night to call in a prescription to a local 24 hour pharmacy. … Now, with the ComfortPak, symptoms can be relieved in minutes. …

"ComfortPaks are the single best thing to happen to our hospice since pharmacist involvement in our care plan process."

Marcia Metz, Administrator, Housecalls Hospice

"We’ve worked with HP for the last two years. What I’ve found is that their expertise in end-of-life care is such that we’ve very seldom had a physician not go with the HP pharmacist recommendation. In fact, in some cases, the pharmacist’s recommendation is sought out. Our physicians are very appreciative of it. Nurses report that pharmacists are always willing to listen, help out, and give great feedback. Christine, our Client Relations Liaison, has been a wonderful asset for me. When we were recently bought by Louisiana Health Care Group (LHC), we were the only hospice working with HP. Our experience has been so positive, that we were able to pass on our great experience to other hospices in the LHC group; now all 18 are under HP. Also, cost savings have been huge; these other LHC group hospices were using their local pharmacies and have been able to enjoy a huge cost savings going with HP."

Debbie Jackson, Team Manager, Vitas Dayton

"I have had the unique experience of working with HP as both a field nurse and in management. … As a field nurse, I absolutely loved [HPConnect] – it was tremendously helpful, updating medications, printing out profiles. And the HP team does a phenomenal job of keeping [HP Connect] updated and efficient.

"My experience with HP as a manager has also been great. Our Client Relations Liasion (CRL) is unbelievable – if I [email her] a question, I get an answer in an hour. I also love that the techs now profile the meds; this has really speeded up the process and cut time on the phone in half. Now by the time I get to a pharmacist, she has the list of medication in front of her and we can spend the time talking about what is covered and listening to her recommendations."

Stephanie Smith, Associate Clinical Director, Seasons Hospice and Palliative Services of Maryland, Inc.

"I have had a really good experience with HP. One of the most impressive things about HP is their excellent Quality Assurance follow up. Their QA team is excellent. Also, working with our CRL is great; if I were to email her an issue, I would have an answer by the end of the day or first thing the next morning. Our CRL is excellent at educating our staff and keeping us updated on MUGs changes, she is very accommodating. To know that [ComfortPaks are] on hand, if needed, to help with symptoms is a great comfort."

Janet Champoux, Hospice Clinical Manager, Mercy Medical Center Hospice

"We’ve been working with HP for close to three years and have enjoyed a great experience with the company. It’s been beneficial from both a patient and employee perspective. From an employee perspective, they really benefit from the quick access. From a patient perspective, the wide variety of compounding available and the concentrated intensals – more than a local pharmacy can provide – have been wonderful. We’ve also enjoyed the FedEx shipment of medications to a patient’s point of care; it’s also been fantastic and really works. I love being able to go to the website and track down a package if there is a question. I can just pull up the package information and let a patient caregiver or family know where the package is without a lot of phone calls. The availability of reports has been great; I can do quick checks of all types of information, from ComfortPak usage to antibiotics for infection control.

"From an administrative perspective, it really helps the nurses stay on track. Also, the ability to have quick access to patient information on [HPConnect] is fantastic … I’ve had one nurse tell me that it’s cut down on her physician phone calls by 75% … .

"Also, the MUGs have been very beneficial, especially for nurses new to hospice. The way the information is laid out breaks it down easy for nurses. I really appreciate the algorithms."

Norm Mast, Executive Director, Hospice of Tuscarawas County

"We had been looking at several different hospice pharmacy services companies. At the time, we were using local pharmacies and really having a difficult time controlling expenses; this was a big reason we went with HP. … 24 hour pharmacist coverage was vital to us, especially in dealing with the new CoPs. Working with HP allowed us to get ComfortPaks in the home, something we had been trying to do on our own for quite some time but were having difficulty doing. We’ve done very well using the MUGs. And the customer service has been outstanding, our client liaisons … have been phenomenal in follow through."

Shelly Schmit, Patient Care Associate, Vitas Dayton

"HP’s training and implementation is excellent and continues to get better. Our [Client Relations Liaison] has been wonderful. She takes the time to review everything, even if it’s things she has been over before with out staff, and she is extremely eager to teach our field staff the best way to use the HP system. … HP works to provide the best and most up-to-date information for your hospice. I wish and hope every new admission ordered a ComfortPak, there should be one in every patient’s home. I have had wonderful experiences with all the HP team members I’ve worked with – all the way to our interface analyst team. From an operations standpoint, there isn’t anything that I’ve needed that they haven’t been able to do for me."

Leah Dixon, Nurse, Pennyroyal Hospice

"I like having the [HP Mobile] available in the field. … I also like the ability of seeing the patient’s date of birth and SSN because I can call in medications to local pharmacies and use the demographics that are on [HP Mobile] to give to the local pharmacist."

Penni Vaughn, Nurse, Horizons Hospice

"I really like the convenience of ordering medications while in the field with [HP Mobile]."