Hillcrest residents can use local pharmacies again

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Residents at Hillcrest Nursing Home will no longer be required to use a single pharmacy that contracts with Hillcrest.

Colinda Nappa, Hillcrest administrator, told the board of trustees at its regular meeting Tuesday morning that federal regulations give nursing home residents the right to choose their own pharmacy.

In May 2010, Hillcrest approved a contract with Heartland Pharmacy Care of Omaha to provide all medications at the facility, despite criticism from residents and their family members that the contract excluded local pharmacies. Board members and then-administrator Peggy Rogers, cited medication errors and delivery problems as the reason for the change.

Since becoming administrator last year, Nappa said she has been asked by numerous family members to review the pharmacy contract Hillcrest had, first with Heartland, currently with Omni.

"I knew it was a touchy subject," she said after Tuesday's meeting. "But residents cannot be coerced into using one pharmacy over another, according to federal regulations."

Residents or their family members can call the pharmacy they want to use to request the change, she said.

Trustee Randy Dean said the board signed the contract with the Omaha pharmacy as they were led to believe it was in the best interests of the residents.

"Expectations were not being met, that was the way it was put to us," he said, adding that he's glad local pharmacies can now be utilized.

Nappa said she understood that the board was misinformed at the time. Errors in filling medications would be remedied by changing the way prescriptions are being filled, she said, by using "cycle versus on-demand."

Prescriptions used to be filled at the beginning of the month, Nappa said, but now are being filled whenever they run out. This will cut down on the large number of prescriptions going and coming in at the first of the month.

She added that errors in prescriptions can be addressed through "communication, accountability and follow-up."