Keeping Long-term Care Emergency Kits Ready with Greater Speed and Confidence

Introduction and Intended Outcome

In long-term care, the need for efficient, accurate medication management is only increasing. By 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 20% of the U.S. population will be 65 or older, and about 70% of adults who reach age 65 will need some form of long-term care in their lifetime, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As demand grows, long-term care pharmacies must support more facilities, manage greater prescription complexity, and keep emergency inventory accurate, compliant, and ready at all times.

For California-based Skilled Nursing Pharmacy, that meant finding a better way to manage emergency medication kits (e-kits) at scale. By implementing Cencora‘s radio frequency identification (RFID)-enabled Medication Tray solution, the specialized pharmacy provider founded in 1950 transformed a labor-intensive process into a faster, more standardized workflow that improved efficiency, strengthened confidence in kit accuracy, and enhanced responsiveness to medication recalls.

Challenge

Skilled Nursing Pharmacy serves approximately 250 facilities and processes 10,000 to 15,000 prescriptions each day. Its emergency IV e-kits help facilities access urgent first doses when residents need immediate treatment. When a kit is opened, the pharmacy sends a replacement, retrieves the used kit, and restocks it for redeployment.

Before adopting Medication Tray, that restocking process relied on manual, item-by-item verification. Technicians inspected each medication, confirmed expiration dates, documented missing items, and prepared kits for pharmacist review before the kits could be sealed and returned to service.

“We send out approximately 100 IV e-kits every single day,” says Joe Ragheb, pharmacist and e-kit department manager at Skilled Nursing Pharmacy. “The whole department is working on e-kits all day. So any tool that can improve efficiency and safety is welcome.”

Although the team kept pace with demand, the workflow left little margin for efficiency. As Ragheb explains, “We always prided ourselves in being able to push out the number of e-kits that we needed, but the stress level was tremendous compared to what it is now. And any unforeseen variable would cause delays and unrest.”

Solution

Cencora’s Medication Tray solution transformed the pharmacy’s approach to inventory management. With pre-tagged products, rapid scanning, and standardized reporting, the system enabled Skilled Nursing Pharmacy to restock and verify e-kits more efficiently while improving confidence in kit accuracy and expiration compliance. The implementation process was straightforward, with minimal disruption to existing operations.

“For the facilities, there was no difference. They just open the e-kit, take what they need, and close it. The changes were all on our end,” Ragheb explains.

The time savings were substantial. “Before we had the RFID system, I would be dedicated to checking IV e-kits at least two to three hours every single day,” Ragheb says. “Now instead of spending two to three hours just checking IV e-kits, I spend five minutes.”

The RFID technology also strengthened recall responsiveness. In the event of a medication recall, Ragheb could quickly identify affected e-kits instead of manually checking each one. This capability is further supported by Cencora’s daily email alerts, which leverage drug recall data to notify staff of recalled products in Medication Tray kits.

As Alec Scovel, MBA, vice president of diversified pharmacy growth at Cencora, notes, “Medication Tray gives pharmacies the visibility to act faster and the data to act smarter. By reducing manual effort and making it easier to identify expired, expiring, and recalled products, the solution helps improve efficiency, strengthen safety, and support more confident e-kit management.”

Outcome

Medication Tray helped Skilled Nursing Pharmacy turn a manual, time-intensive process into a faster, more reliable workflow, achieving meaningful improvements in efficiency, visibility, and operational confidence.

The gains extended beyond time savings. With faster restocking and clearer visibility, the team could keep more kits ready, respond more quickly to facility needs, and reduce the daily stress of scrambling to prepare for the next run. As Ragheb says, “We always have stock ready, as opposed to scrambling to make enough for the next run. Now we can always send that at a moment’s notice because the system is so much more efficient.”

Medication Tray also improved confidence in accuracy, expiration tracking, and recall response. “Every time we look at the list, I’m confident that it’s correct,” Ragheb says.

Conclusion

With Cencora’s Medication Tray solution, Skilled Nursing Pharmacy turned a manual, time-intensive process into a faster, more reliable workflow. The pharmacy reduced e-kit verification time from two to three hours to about five minutes, improved kit accuracy, strengthened medication safety, and gained better visibility into inventory, expirations, and recalls.

Just as important, the team achieved these improvements without changing workflows for the facilities and couriers they support. The result is a more efficient, confident approach to e-kit management — one that helps optimize inventory, improve recall responsiveness, and keep critical medications ready when residents need them. PTMR

To learn more about Cencora's RFID-enabled Medication Tray Solution, email MedicationTray@Cencora.com.