AFS Pharmacy Team Solidifies New Partner
The AFS Pharmacy aggregation recently transitioned 340 pharmacies from McKesson to Cardinal Health from one day to the next. On March 1, AFS and its participating retailers started a five-year relationship with Cardinal after being supplied by McKesson for 10 years.
The move was a part of the Topco Aggregated Pharmacy Initiative (API) bid process that was completed last year with the objective of not only providing our pharmacies stronger economics, but forging a relationship with a supplier whose strategy was more aligned with Topco’s goal of helping its member partners survive in an increasingly challenging operating environment. Cardinal expressed a willingness to work with the API to support and develop programs that will keep regional chains and independents on a healthy footing.
While the move took place overnight, the work leading up to the transition started nearly one year ago. A tremendous amount of work went into preparing each site for the change in product, order codes, pricing, pharmacy system EDI set-up and ordering process. Various training sessions were also held to orient retailers to the new processes and procedures for conducting business with Cardinal.
While the entire AFS Pharmacy team was involved, notable in the process were Kyle Hansen and Rada Zekanovic who took full managerial control of the conversion, including extreme customer service follow-up after the changeover. Additionally, Denise Kunkel and Sam Haddadin were team leads in preparing the stores for the PSAO (insurance processing function) and EDI (pharmacy systems set-up) respectively.
“I’m beyond proud of the AFS pharmacy team for all the hard work involved with the change in supplier,” said Eliseo Faz, director of pharmacy administration. “It was inspiring to watch them take control of the project and manage it with extreme care and concern. This was evidenced by the long days and weeks they invested to make the conversion a success. I couldn’t ask for a finer team.”