A celebration was held Thursday for the opening of an on-site pharmacy at RiverValley Behavioral Health’s Walnut Street facility, an effort officials said is to help better serve clients and the community.
RVBH President/CEO Wanda Figueroa-Peralta said the project is part of the organization’s strategic plan to remove mental and physical healthcare barriers. Figueroa-Peralta noted that transportation is a significant barrier for many clients.
“Often they go to therapy, then somewhere for the prescription, go to another place, and that takes a lot of their time. Plus, there are a lot of difficulties that come with that, sometimes economic issues. Having a one-stop location will help individuals navigate those systems and get the resources,” she said.
The pharmacy will be run by Genoa Healthcare. Genoa serves more than 1 million people annually across its more than 700 pharmacies located within community mental health centers in the United States. Genoa is part of Optum Rx, a pharmacy care services company.
With Genoa’s pharmacy model, people receiving care from RiverValley Behavioral Health will be able to have all medications filled on site. In addition, Genoa Healthcare has specialized offerings including pre-filled pill organizers, proactive outreach calls, prescription mailing and delivery, and prior authorization
assistance.
While the main goal was to address the needs of RVBH clients, Figueroa-Peralta said the pharmacy would accept prescriptions from all community members.
She said the service will also allow case managers to balance their schedules better because they can pick up their clients’ prescriptions in one location. Figueroa-Peralta said that program could also enable deliveries to their residential services.
Genoa Director of Operations Jenni Ryan said they are excited to join RVBH’s efforts to make health care accessible.
“We try to eliminate barriers for these patients,” she said. “So with them having transportation issues, we offer mailing, with an additional charge, and we synchronize medications so that they’re all filled at one time, so they don’t have to take several trips.”
The RVBH facility is located at 1100 Walnut Street. RVH is a state-designated Community Mental Health center, serving a 7-county region in Western Kentucky and providing more than 30 programs that include inpatient and outpatient services for families impacted by mental health, developmental disabilities, alcohol and substance abuse disorders.
