Specialty Pharmacy Services

Medical Insight: Specialty Pharmacy - Essentia Health

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Text, Medical Insight. The Essentia Health logo appears, consisting of three leaves in a circle.

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Welcome to Medical Insight, a weekly health care feature brought to you by the experts at Essentia Health. Here's your host, Louie St. George.

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Text, Louie St. George, Host.

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Today on Medical Insight, Kenzie Hohman tells us about the Essentia Health Specialty Pharmacy, which manages medications for complex and chronic conditions.

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Kenzie Hohman, Specialty Pharmacy Manager.

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KENZIE HOHMAN: Specialty Pharmacy is an ambulatory pharmacy service like a traditional retail pharmacy. The big difference is in that conditions that we treat and the medications that we're providing.

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Medications fill bins on shelves. Some are in yellow bags labeled Caution.

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Specialty medications tend to be more complex in administration, in their regimen, or simply have more difficult side effects to manage.

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A pharmacist fills a paper bag with a prescription and staples the bag closed. They place the paper bag in a plastic bag and zip the plastic bag closed.

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Patients that are receiving specialty medications include oncology, hematology, multiple sclerosis, a number of chronic inflammatory diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, as well as other conditions, like growth hormone deficiency. LOUIE ST. GEORGE: The specialty pharmacy team at Essentia includes professionals who assist advocate for patients, saving them millions of dollars over the years.

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A person wears a headset and holds a vial and instruction sheet. Text on vial, For Training Purposes Only.

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KENZIE HOHMAN: Many of the specialty medications are very high cost. And so are navigators and liaisons are very integral in helping the patients access these high-cost therapies. I think one of the most fulfilling pieces is helping patients connect them with the resources that allow them to be successful with their medications.

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A smiling person opens a package. Another person approaches a pharmacy counter. A pharmacist places a bottle on the counter.

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Patients can get their medications delivered directly to their home, or they can pick it up at any of our 21 pharmacy locations.

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Bottles and boxes of medication sit on pharmacy shelves. Text on sign, Essentia Health Pharmacy, Curbside Pick-Up, Call 2 1 8 6 0 6 9 3 6 5. Remain in your car. We'll come to you.

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Our pharmacy locations can provide over-the-counter medications or non-specialty prescriptions as well. And patients can get their meds by curbside delivery at those locations if they choose. LOUIE ST. GEORGE: The Specialty Pharmacy is located in Superior, but serves patients from all over. For Medical Insight, I'm Louie St. George. To learn more about this and other health topics, visit essentiahealth.org/medicalinsight

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