Automated pharmacy means more Veterans get prescriptions faster

Last year, VA's Southwest Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (SW CMOP), located in Tucson, Arizona, mailed more prescriptions than ever before to Veterans living everywhere from New Mexico to Alaska and all the way to Guam.

"Last year, we reached a high of 23,204,802 prescriptions mailed to Veterans," said Director Michael T. Sutherland, Pharm.D. "It looks like we will hit 23.8 million this year. Of course, this accomplishment is only possible because of the hard work of our outstanding employees."

Pictured above, Michael T. Sutherland, director of VA's Southwest Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy, shows VA Secretary Denis McDonough how the facility fills and mails about 90,000 prescriptions a day.

Seven Tucson MOP employees were recognized for their dedication by VA Secretary Denis McDonough during his recent visit: Lorrena Estillore, Aida Diallo, Jacinda San Nicolas, Dan Duval, Tyree Ross, Samuel Swoopes and Sonya Vidal.

VA's SW CMOP is one of seven highly automated, large-volume mail service pharmacy operations that prepare, fill and mail almost 84% of all VA prescriptions dispensed to Veterans throughout the United States. The Tucson facility mails approximately 56,000 packages each workday with a turn-around time of about two days.

The sophisticated automated dispensing systems allow production to be accomplished quickly with exceptional accuracy and at a lower cost than performing the same dispensing tasks at local VA pharmacies.

As a result of CMOP dispensing program support, pharmacists at local VA facilities can spend more time counseling patients instead of being distracted by physical product dispensing tasks.

Since 2009, VA's highly automated CMOPs have been rated "among the best" mail-order pharmacies in customer satisfaction according to the J.D. Power U.S. Pharmacy Study.