Have you ever wondered how sophisticated, specialized, and customized medications make it to your doctor for when you need them the most? Who is permitted to make and distribute these critical treatments, and how do they go about being certified? Meet AIS Healthcare - the leading provider of targeted drug delivery and infusion care. It's a health care provider that recently received Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation from URAC.

Who Is AIS Healthcare and What Does It Offer?

AIS Healthcare works hard to advance quality in health care and improve lives by operating state-of-the-art pharmacies, providing exceptional nursing services, and leading-edge targeted drug delivery and infusion care. Its mission is to improve the everyday lives of patients and providers, in ways big and small. And it succeeds on all counts.

The company has two compounding pharmacies focused on utilizing Targeted Drug Delivery (TDD): Ridgeland, Mississippi; and Dallas, Texas. These facilities are designated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as 503A compounding pharmacies, and they produce patient-specific prescriptions for targeted drug delivery.

503A compounding pharmacies are specialty pharmacies that compound treatments according to prescriptions specific to a particular patient. 

From these facilities, AIS Healthcare prepares prescriptions and delivers them to doctors and patients all around the country. The company has the most highly trained nurses in the nation delivering in-home and in-clinic care to support its patients throughout their care journeys.

AIS Healthcare also has five Advanced Infusion Care locations specializing in intravenous (IV) and subcutaneous (SubQ) immunoglobulin therapy patient care: Valdosta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Clinton, Mississippi; Panama City, Florida; and Dallas, Texas.

AIS Healthcare partners with physicians to provide the highest levels of patient-centric therapies. The company is proud to do more for both patients and health care providers alike by exceeding industry standards and customer expectations in everything it does.

What Is the Difference Between a Drugstore Pharmacy and a Compounding Pharmacy?

When most people think of a pharmacy, they think of their local drugstore where they pick up their prescriptions along with candy bars and dog treats. A compounding pharmacy has the same goal of providing patients with the important treatments that they need, but it does it on another level - and it's not a retail outlet. 

Drug compounding is the mixing, combining, or modifying of ingredients to create specific medications tailored to the requirements of an individual patient. To treat certain diseases or illnesses, the type of treatment may need to be customized for the specific patient rather than the patient being able to take regular medicines in standard doses. Alternately, some folks simply can't take certain prescriptions the way they're mass-produced. For instance, an individual may be allergic to certain dyes contained in the regularly manufactured pills they otherwise would take. Compounding pharmacies cater to these special patients and their particular needs.

Special licenses and quality standards exist for compounding pharmacies so that standards are set and adhered to for the safety of patients. Pharmacists who compound according to prescriptions specific to particular patients are required by state boards of pharmacy to comply with special guidelines.

What Is URAC and What Does It Do?

URAC is an independent, nonprofit organization that helps ensure patients receive quality health care. The organization accredits health plans, pharmacies, providers, and many of the important types of companies that tend to patients' needs.

Its mission is to lead the way to exceptional health care for all.

In 2008, URAC expanded its pharmacy accreditation to include specialty and mail-service pharmacies.

URAC's role is to set the highest standards in health care quality and safety. The organization's standards utilize evidence-based measures to assess whether or not a health care company will be certified or accredited. These evidence-based measures are developed in collaboration with many important stakeholders in the health care community, including health plans, providers, and associations.

What Is the URAC Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation?

The URAC Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation is the gold standard for targeted drug delivery and infusion care providers, demonstrating to health insurers and manufacturers that a specialty pharmacy promotes positive patient outcomes and consistently delivers the level of quality that patients deserve. Patients with complex or chronic diseases rely on specialty pharmacies to ensure their specialized needs are taken care of not only in a compassionate, considerate way, but also that the therapies they receive are precise, sterile, and effective.

How Did AIS Healthcare Obtain Its URAC Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation?

Receiving the URAC Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation is a process that requires strict adherence to rigorous standards. It's not a rubber stamp. It's an achievement.

AIS Healthcare achieved the accreditation by meeting high industry standards to produce medications of the highest quality and sterility and has the patient management and service required to help the people they care for. The company prides itself on taking extra steps and making extra investments to ensure every person, every process, and every protocol puts patient safety first.

To gain accreditation, AIS Healthcare had to perform at the highest levels in 10 important categories that proved its position as a quality health care organization.

URAC analyzed AIS Healthcare's patient management program to make sure it included patient education and protocols that matched the disease state and drug specifications needed for individual patient treatments. The organization ensured clinical protocols at AIS Healthcare were based on specific clinical guidelines and weren't generalized for all patients.

For accreditation as a specialty pharmacy, AIS Healthcare had to prove its clinical assessments and interventions were all performed by a pharmacist or other qualified professionals. It had to show that its patient management program was evaluated annually to ensure it was effective. URAC also confirmed that AIS Healthcare's program evaluation was using sound methodology for considering the clinical, financial, and quality of life benefits of its treatment programs.

For AIS Healthcare's accreditation, URAC also evaluated the company's dispensing procedures to ensure compliance with the relevant regulatory and best practice guidelines required. URAC visited AIS Healthcare's facilities and examined its dispensing operations to confirm proper clinical oversight was in place, as were the proper procedures for prescription processing, intake, utilization review, verification, preparation, and dispensing of treatments and drugs.

URAC also checked AIS Healthcare's processes for maintaining temperature of medication and drug integrity performance metrics for dispensing and distribution accuracy, telephone performance metrics monitoring, license and certification documentation, and the business's continuity plans.

The result was that by URAC's exacting standards, AIS Healthcare demonstrated that it provides the highest value in delivering enhanced clinical services to its patients and the physicians it serves with targeted drug delivery and infusion care.