WVU Medicine Allied Health Solutions Specialty Pharmacy receives URAC reaccreditation

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The WVU Medicine Allied Health Solutions Specialty Pharmacy has earned URAC reaccreditation. Specialty pharmacies serve patients with complex, chronic diseases and are crucial to patient outcomes.

URAC is an independent, nonprofit accreditation entity, based in Washington, D.C., the mission of which is to advance healthcare quality through leadership, accreditation, measurement, and innovation. 

Only 472 pharmacies in the nation hold URAC Specialty Pharmacy accreditation, and WVU Medicine Allied Health Solutions is among four URAC accredited specialty pharmacies in the state. 

“Once you are part of an accrediting organization, the process becomes more rigorous when you are up for reaccreditation,” Louis Sokos, B.S. Pharm., M.B.A., WVU Medicine Allied Health Solutions director, said. “Accreditation lays the foundation for your pharmacy to provide better care.”

URAC-accredited specialty pharmacies:

• Provide therapy-specific patient management services; 
• Promote safety and accuracy in dispensing practices; 
• Qualify all medication distribution processes for appropriate temperature ranges; 
• Provide 24/7 patient and prescriber support; 
• Comply with foundational standards on risk management, consumer empowerment, and performance management; and  
• Report annual performance measures to URAC.

“As the standards for accreditation become more rigorous, we continue to reaffirm our commitment to providing the highest quality of specialty pharmacy care to our patients,” Todd Karpinski, Pharm.D., M.S., WVU Medicine chief pharmacy officer, said.  

The WVU Medicine Allied Health Solutions Specialty Pharmacy is one of two specialty pharmacies in the state to hold accreditation from both URAC and the ACHC, an organization that provides a full range of nationally recognized accreditation and compliance programs tailored specifically to the home care and alternate site healthcare industry.

“The standards for the two accrediting organizations are similar, but dual accreditation is a mechanism to hold specialty pharmacies to a higher standard,” Sokos said. “These standards are in place to ensure we are able to deliver the safest care to our patients.”