From Jonathan Ogurchak, PharmD, CSP – STACK CEO & Co-Founder

I’m immediately launching a new starter tier for STACK – a way for pharmacies that are facing 2020’s budget, timing, and resource challenges, to put a platform like STACK in their hands to empower your pharmacies to stay on top of the “outside of the dispense” areas that aren’t going away in the face of those challenges.

2020 has been tough on everyone, especially pharmacy owners.  As frontline workers, you’re expected to put yourselves in the trenches to make sure that patients are cared for, all while ensuring that the pharmacy keeps working like a well-oiled machine.  Having been a specialty pharmacy owner myself – trust me, I know the challenges you’re facing.

On top of that, you’re gearing up for a potentially tough winter – balancing the needs of employees, their families, and all of the changes that might need to take place (again) related to stay-at-home type restrictions.  Budgets have been frozen, too, making it challenging to put all of the resources in place that would truly benefit those employees. 

I’ve been talking with pharmacies on a daily basis that voice these same concerns – and realized that in times like these, we need to help support as best as we’re able.

This starter tier goes into effect today, and will remain in effect until later this spring.  We’ve expanded our availability as well, so we can look to implement your team in as little as 5 business days.  It’s the least that we can to do try to help you keep heads above water in the face of everything you’re handling right now. 

If you’d like to take a peek at what STACK has to offer, please feel free to reach back out to me directly, or schedule a time for a demo here.  

Wishing you, your families, and your teams nothing but the best,

Jonathan

A Message from our CEO – Jonathan Ogurchak

There’s been so much new coming out of STACK over the last several weeks – I felt like it would be a good time to bring it all together and highlight how we’ve been looking around every corner to anticipate the needs of our clients. We’ve realized that even though we can keep building great products, we can get to more complete solutions – faster – by seeking out the best of the best and building meaningful partnerships. By building solutions TOGETHER, we’ve anticipated ways to connect our clients with exactly what they’re looking for – and at discounts that you wouldn’t be able to get except for being a STACK client.  Here are those that we’ve announced recently:

Accreditation Support – Look no further than the team at StranzCrossley, Inc.  We recognize their expertise when it comes to preparedness, management, and maintenance of what’s needed for accreditation programs – so we built a relationship there.  They are our preferred Accreditation Support Partner, and can work with pharmacies to set up their operations to match exactly what’s needed to delivery quality

Compliance Education – Sure, we can help to organize your trainings..but what happens if you don’t have the necessary content to include IN those trainings?  Enter CEimpact – a leader in professional healthcare education.  They have a suite of over 15 programs that pharmacies need (and payors/accreditors are looking for) that now align within STACK to provide you exactly what you need.  Assign it to your employees, track it through to completion, just like you would your other STACK tasks.

Comprehensive Law Database – Another question we’d hear was “well, you can organize licenses, but do you provide information about changes to pharmacy law state-by-state?”  We didn’t – but now we’ve partnered with Bula Intelligence to bring their Comprehensive Law Database right to you.  Stay on top of changes at the state level, and match that with the ongoing license management you’ve come to love within STACK.

Screenings, Verifications, Etc – You’re expected to complete background checks, primary source license verification, and much, much more for your employees already – why not integrate that into a single source of truth like STACK?  Accurate Background does all of that – and aligns with the STACK framework to bring it all together. 

 

To quote Chubbs Peterson (or the Carpenters…either way) – WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN.  As we expand our universe to encapsulate everything you need to manage your professional life, we’ll continue to find partners like those I just mentioned – ones that both provide the meaningful service AND approach business in a likeminded way – to round out and improve the STACK experience.  It’s based on your feedback and our desires to bring the best platform to the marketplace that’s going to get us there. 

STACK Integrates with Accurate for Comprehensive 3^rd Party Checks 

November 10, 2020

STACK today announces that it has finalized an agreement with Accurate to integrate comprehensive background screening into their pharmacy information management platform.  This serves as an added benefit to STACK clients, allowing them to send out for required services such a drug testing, criminal background checks, professional license primary source verification, and much more.

Through this relationship, STACK clients will have the ability to utilize Accurate’s comprehensive screening services directly from their STACK platform, complementing the personnel file management capabilities that are already a component of the STACK infrastructure.  All services have been negotiated to be offered at a discount for STACK clients, helping to centralize and organize these mission critical business areas, along with providing connectivity to Accurate.

“We’re continuing to revisit the comprehensive professional experience for our clients, and finding ways to fill in the necessary gaps that companies need,” said Jonathan Ogurchak, PharmD, CSP, Co-Founder & CEO of STACK.  “Our relationship with Accurate does just that – providing primary source verification, background checks, drug screens, and other areas of the required professional experience and delivers it directly through STACK.”

STACK customers can begin to take advantage of discounts and integrations as of today.

About STACK

STACK is the industry’s only Pharmacy Information Management Platform, designed to align ongoing management of critical components of your professional life.  Whether compliance with third-party requirements (like accreditation or licensure), or aligning organizational membership benefits, the intuitive framework ensures that no deadlines are missed, and nothing is lost in a sea of multiple passwords.  For more information about STACK, visit managewithstack.com

About Accurate Background Accurate Background is a trusted provider of automated workforce screening. U.S. and international clients across all industries, from emerging businesses to Fortune 500 companies, rely on their compliant solutions. Accurate Background is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association and has been recognized by Inc. 5000, Deloitte Technology Fast 500, and the Workforce Hotlist. To learn more, visit accurate.com.

We’ve had lots of new followers here at STACK over the last several months, so with hitting our year install milestone AND 500th LinkedIn follower today, we wanted to share a longer post to reiterate why we’re doing what we’re doing:

STACK is the ONLY healthcare professional information management platform. Designed by pharmacists and health tech professionals, we were tired of hearing frustrations related to day-to-day management of what should be simple pharmacy operational tasks. However, administrative burden associated with managing areas “outside of the dispense” continued to increase costs to the business, taking away very critical dollars that could be spent on patient-facing care.

More importantly, however, those “outside of the dispense” areas are faced by every organization. Yet, there wasn’t a simple, intuitive solution that brought all of these areas together in one place. Instead, you’re managing it in spreadsheets, Windows file folders, SharePoint, or maybe even the good old fashioned paper file folder. Every organization was left to their own devices to come up with a creative solution to tackle these mission critical aspects. 

Enter STACK. A carefully a combination of carefully curated content, along with a new approach to organizing, assigning, following up, and proving every aspect of compliance associated with good business practices.  We’ve built ways to centralize and organize all of the aspects of your organization, with ways to empower you and your teams to work more effectively, and ultimately eliminate risk.

We’ve built meaningful partnerships with likeminded organizations who help to augment and connect the work you’re doing within STACK – groups like StranzCrossley, Inc, CEimpact, and Bula Law all share common goals of bringing resources to grow better teams – and STACK now serves as a way to connect it all together.

More than just pharmacies, we recently launched a member and education management portal for the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute – ensuring their members can take advantage of their top-line educational content, and ensuring their organization can approach member management in a far more meaningful way.  

We’ve only just begun – with more organizations coming onboard each and every week, we’re continually pushing the envelope of what you should expect from a healthcare software platform.  We’re striving to put all of the meaningful information for your professional life in one place so you don’t need to search for another username, another password, another website.  Lots to be excited about for such a young company – even one that kicked off their sales efforts in the middle of a pandemic.  Join us – take a look for yourself and see how STACK can drastically change the way that you manage your business. 

Reposted from PRN Newswire

Learn more about pricing here

STACK Partners with Bula Intelligence as Pharmacy Law Database Partner

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ —

STACK today announces that is has entered into a partnership with Bula Intelligence to bring their pharmacy law database into the hands of STACK clients.  This serves as an added benefit to STACK clients, allowing them to harness the capabilities of the renowned, curated platform into the industry’s only pharmacy information management platform. 

Through this relationship, STACK clients will have the ability to purchase access to Bula’s searchable Pharmacy Law Database directly from their STACK platform, complementing the state-level tracking that is already a component of the STACK curated cloud.

“One area that we’re consistently asked about is our ability to provide updates and access to laws impacting the practice of pharmacy information via our platform,” said Jonathan Ogurchak, PharmD, CSP, Co-Founder & CEO of STACK.  “Our partnership with Bula not only addresses that question from clients, but also exceeds their expectation through integrating with THE premier legal intelligence solution for pharmacies.” 

STACK, the industry’s only pharmacy information management platform, has also negotiated bundled discounts for the Bula Intelligence’s Pharmacy Law Database content on behalf of their clients, in addition to providing the direct integration that STACK has grown to be recognized for. 

“We’re excited for the opportunity to partner with the team at STACK to share our industry-recognized compliance solution in an integrated fashion”, said Laura Carpenter, BSPharm, JD, LLM, CEO of Bula Law.  “This partnership, affords us the opportunity to put our resources in the hands of forward-thinking pharmacies already utilizing STACK.” 

STACK customers can begin to take advantage of discounts and content availability as of today. 

About STACK 

STACK is the industry’s only Pharmacy Information Management Platform, designed to align ongoing management of critical components of your professional life.  Whether compliance with third-party requirements (like accreditation or licensure), or aligning organizational membership benefits, the intuitive framework ensures that no deadlines are missed, and nothing is lost in a sea of multiple passwords.  For more information about STACK, visit managewithstack.com 

About Bula Intelligence 

Bula is the top subscription-based legal intelligence solution dedicated to pharmacy. As the leading national expert solely focused on helping clients maintain compliance, Bula empowers by delivering simplified current law, legislative, regulatory & sub-regulatory information in an accurate, timely & meaningful manner.  For more information, visit www.bulalaw.com

Reposted from PRN Newswire

STACK Partners with CEimpact as Preferred Education Content Partner

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ —

STACK today announces that is has entered into a partnership with CEimpact as their Preferred Education Content Partner.  This will help STACK to offer additional first-class services to its clients through the availability of integrated, curated educational content.

Through this relationship, STACK customers will have the ability to access first-in-class compliance trainings for their employees, meeting requirements expected by third-party payors and accreditors, all at a discounted rate.  Content will flow directly into STACK, allowing for comprehensive management of internal and external expectations.

“The team at CEimpact is very likeminded with us at STACK – we both have a desire to grow the industry through education,” said Jonathan Ogurchak, PharmD, CSP, Co-Founder & CEO of STACK.  “Our partnership will empower pharmacies to gain efficiencies through utilization and assignment of compliance-related content that is truly needed.”

STACK, the industry’s only pharmacy information management platform, has also negotiated bundled discounts for the CEimpact content on behalf of their clients, in addition to providing the direct integration that STACK has grown to be recognized for.

“We’re excited for the opportunity to partner with the team at STACK to grow education areas across the pharmacy sector”, said Jen Moulton, BSPharm, RPh, President at CEimpact.  “Our mission has been to improve lifelong learning for professionals, and this partnership is another way for us to do just that.”

Full integration will be finalized later this calendar year, but STACK customers can begin to take advantage of discounts and content availability as of today.

About STACK

STACK is the industry’s only Pharmacy Information Management Platform, designed to align ongoing management of critical components of your professional life.  Whether compliance with third-party requirements (like accreditation or licensure), or aligning organizational membership benefits, the intuitive framework ensures that no deadlines are missed, and nothing is lost in a sea of multiple passwords.  For more information about STACK, visit www.managewithstack.com

About CEimpact

CEimpact is an industry leader in pharmacy education and training. Through CE subscription services, their learning experiences empower healthcare professionals and support their lifelong learning journey. Partnerships enable clients to provide education through content development, accreditation, group subscriptions, and learning management solutions. For more information about powerful education with impact, visit www.ceimpact.com.

Reposted from PRN Newswire

Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (PBMI) Selects STACK as Membership and Education Management Software Platform

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ —

The Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (PBMI) and STACK today announce the availability of a new membership and educational platform for PBMI members.  This dynamic web-based platform will empower PBMI members to take full advantage of their benefits through both scheduling and tracking of educational programs and improved membership directory capabilities. 

As the leading provider of research and education for the pharmacy benefit market, PBMI informs, advises, and influences the industry on drug cost management. PBMI provides a forum for purchasers to exchange ideas and drive marketplace changes that improve pharmacy benefits and control costs. The company offers a wide range of services, including research, continuing education and web resources to help all critical stakeholders work better together to optimize the overall value of drug benefit programs. 

“PBMI is a trusted leader in the marketplace when it comes to education”, said Brian Haug, acting Executive Director of PBMI.  “The ability to align and enhance benefits to our members with STACK afforded us the opportunity to strengthen that position by consolidating all of our existing infrastructure into one location – which made this move a critical one for both our internal operations, as well the member experience.” 

STACK, the industry’s only pharmacy information management platform, has adapted its patent-pending asset management framework into a web-based model – perfect for the nationwide scope of an organization like PBMI.  This web framework also affords existing STACK customers in the pharmacy compliance management realm to benefit from an integrated web platform to manage all areas “outside of the dispense” 

“We’re thrilled for the opportunity to be trusted by an organization as reputable as PBMI to enhance and improve their operations and empower them to continue their growth,” said Jonathan Ogurchak, PharmD, CSP, Co-Founder & CEO of STACK.  “Their insightful approach toward their members excites us for the ongoing possibilities of our relationship.” 

Utilizing a single-sign-on approach, PBMI members will be able to manage the educational assets at their fingertips with other areas of their professional lives in a simple to use way – including the same compliance management benefits that are available in the curated STACK for Pharmacy product, which is also available at a discount to PBMI members through this partnership. 

With the growth into additional target markets, STACK is launching a new web presence – www.managewithstack.com – to further showcase how STACK is positioned to align all areas of ongoing professional maintenance into one location. 

About PBMI

The Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (PBMI) is the nation’s leading provider of research and education that informs, advises and influences the industry on drug cost management. For more information about PBMI, visit https://www.pbmi.com/ 

About STACK

STACK is the industry’s only Pharmacy Information Management Platform, designed to align ongoing management of critical components of your professional life.  Whether compliance with third-party requirements (like accreditation or licensure), or aligning organizational membership benefits, the intuitive framework ensures that no deadlines are missed, and nothing is lost in a sea of multiple passwords.  For more information about STACK, visit www.managewithstack.com

Reposted from PRN Newswire

STACK Partners with StranzCrossley as Preferred Accreditation Support Partner

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — STACK today announces that is has entered into a partnership with StranzCrossley, Inc as their Preferred Accreditation Support Partner.  This partnership continues to solidify STACK’s position as the leader in pharmacy information management. With StranzCrossley, STACK will offer additional first-class support to its clients through the availability of integrated documents and ongoing accreditation consultation.

Through this relationship, STACK clients will have the ability to work with the renowned team at StranzCrossley through an integrated model of both best practice delivery and ongoing alignment and maintenance, all at a discounted rate.

“We’ve respected the team at StranzCrossley for as long as I can recall,” said Jonathan Ogurchak, PharmD, CSP, CEO & Co-Founder of STACK.  “The ability to now embed their expertise into STACK and afford the opportunity for our clients to benefit from their services is a huge win for the industry.”

STACK, the industry’s only pharmacy information management platform, has worked with the StranzCrossley team to align the STACK curated content model with the accreditation support know-how to afford consulting support services for clients in need.

“STACK’s Platform simplifies the accreditation survey process,” said Mala Crossley, CEO at StranzCrossley. “Knowing what information is required and having that information at hand reduces staff stress and expedites the survey.”

Full integration will be finalized later this calendar year, but STACK clients can begin to take advantage of discounts and content availability as of today.

About STACK
STACK is the industry’s only Pharmacy Information Management Platform, designed to align ongoing management of critical components of your professional life.  Whether compliance with third-party requirements (like accreditation or licensure), or aligning organizational membership benefits, the intuitive framework ensures that no deadlines are missed, and nothing is lost in a sea of multiple passwords.  For more information about STACK, visit www.stackpharmacy.com.

About StranzCrossley, Inc.
StranzCrossley is a consulting group with decades of experience in infusion and specialty pharmacy accreditation, as well as broad knowledge of pharmacy and pharmaceutical business fundamentals.  For more information about StranzCrossley, visit www.stranzcrossleyinc.com.

When times are tough, tough decisions are often made. 

Let’s think of it this way: if you have $5 in your wallet, you can fill your stomach at lunchtime with a fast food 4 for $4 meal and still have some change to spare.  It’s so much easier to make that quick trip through the drive thru lane without the immediate thoughts of the long-term implications.  With every McNugget you consume, though, you’ve made a choice between a healthier option – investing in your future – and the easier option.  When the times are tough and it’s easier to look away from the complications associated with your possibly questionable decisions. Time will tell how those little decisions add up, and the effect on your overall health.  However, it’s reasonable to assume that choosing a non-fast food option has less impact on your cardiovascular health, diabetes risk, and weight gain than would the “easy” route.

 

Right now, organizations worldwide are being faced with similar situations.  Do we invest in infrastructure that’s necessary for the long term, or look to make short term cuts to make ends meet?  It’s far easier to recognize the short-term gain of saving money to reallocating resources away from areas needed to maintain the business over time.  More stories come to light every day as to these difficult decisions that are being made with furloughs, layoffs, and downsizing.  Sure, you’re saving money today to hit budgetary constraints – but what happens in 3 months, 6 months, 12 month’s time when you need the results that should have been completed by those internal groups.

 

Compliance departments tend to fit in that unique position as well.  Their responsibilities are absolutely mission critical – yet oftentimes go unnoticed as valuable since they aren’t immediately revenue-driving in nature.  However, should a license lapse or accreditation falter, the contracts relying on those requirements (and the ability to drive associated revenue) goes away.  Why is it then that non-patient facing departments tend to be the ones that face the chopping block when times get tough?  Once you’ve missed deadlines, you can’t go back and recreate what’s missed.

 

That’s where STACK comes in – it’s the healthy alternative on the McNugget Budget. We’ve designed the infrastructure that can solve the short-term need of helping to offset budget restrictions while also affording the long-term solution of augmenting the support traditionally provided by personnel resources. With STACK, you have the resources at your fingertips to be able to both build and maintain a healthy framework for your organization. 

 

Times are tough – there’s great uncertainty in where the future is headed.  One thing is for certain: organizational compliance isn’t going to get any easier, no matter how you look to manage it internally.  Find ways to better reallocate your resources and set your organization up for future success – schedule a demo with STACK today.

Six Reasons to move from SharePoint to STACK 

#1: Complicated Setup and Maintenance 

Many people think that they can buy SharePoint, complete some setup, and get started. 

Unfortunately, that’s rarely the case. 

SharePoint does have some out-of-the-box functionality – and you can build useful things with just those functions. If you want features that meet the needs of your company, you’ll need to work with a developer. That’s one of SharePoint’s weaknesses. 

If you’re at a big company, you might have a developer in house that can take care of it (it largely requires skill in ASP.NET, which isn’t uncommon). To get the most out of your system, however, you’ll need someone who’s well-versed in SharePoint development. That’s rare – and more expensive, which we’ll discuss shortly. 

The complexity isn’t over once you’ve customized your instance of SharePoint. It’s multiplied, in fact, because now you need to maintain and update it. If you want to install a new plugin, you may need to bring a developer back in. 

Updates can break your customizations, too. You’ll need more development to get things working again. 

Then there’s the maintenance of the whole system. You need to track of who’s using what, how your resources are organized, and how to get the most efficiency out of the structure you’ve had someone develop for you. That takes a lot of time. 

It’s not unreasonable to bring on at least one employee whose job is solely focused on SharePoint – a SharePoint Administrator. As you can imagine, that adds significant cost. 

#2: Expensive to License and Host 

Okay, so we’ve established that SharePoint can be expensive to set up and maintain. However, that’s not the only expense you’re looking at. One of the SharePoint’s disadvantages is its licensing structure. 

Here’s a quick breakdown: 

• SharePoint Online 1: $5/user/month 
• Office 365 Business Essentials: $5/user/month 
• SharePoint Online 2: $10/user/month 

• Office 365 Business Premium: $12.50/user/month 
• Office Enterprise E3: $20/user/month 
• SharePoint 2016 server (for on-premises use): $2,500+* 

Good luck finding any information on how much it actually costs to run an on-site SharePoint server. In our research we have seen ranges from $2,845, $7,000, and $9,000 for server costs. It may depend on how many users you’re going to run through that server. 

How do you choose between these subscription levels? Your guess is as good as ours. Some include storage, others include access to standard Office apps (or no Office apps), you can get email, or not…working your way through the options is a bit like finding your way out of a maze. 

By the time you figure out which subscription plan you need, you could have set up STACK.  Not to mention, STACK is designed with pricing transparency in mind.   

#3: Requires Employee Training 

Even tech-savvy employees are likely to require training to get the most out of your SharePoint intranet, especially if you’ve done a lot of customization. 

Many companies offer SharePoint training course – that alone should tell you that SharePoint isn’t intuitive to use. If you have more than a few employees, that training is going to be expensive. 

And in addition to the monetary cost, there’s going to be a notable time cost as well. It can take you a quite some time to get your SharePoint instance fully set up. Getting all your employees trained is only going to add to the time before your company benefits from using it. 

#4: Poor Search Capabilities 

This might not seem like a big deal at first. So, what if the search function isn’t perfect? If everyone uses SharePoint like they’re supposed to, you won’t need advanced search performance. You’ll just be able to find things. 

That’s how it starts – you might continue thinking that for a while. 

But things spiral out of the control fast (as we’ll discuss in a moment). Subpar search is a big deal. If you look online for discussions of SharePoint disadvantages, you’ll see that this is brought up often. 

It’s one of the biggest limitations of SharePoint, and it’s worth keeping in mind. 

#5: SharePoint Always gets Messy 

If you’ve worked with SharePoint in the past, you’ve seen this happen. You go to track down a document from a few months or a year ago. It’s not where it’s supposed to be. Maybe there are multiple copies in a few different locations. The documentation that says where it’s supposed to be is wrong. You figure out who probably used it last. Then find out that they’ve left the company. 

That document is gone, and you’ve wasted several hours when you could have just recreated the document instead. 

The huge number of features, extensive customization, and a wide variety of uses within a single company means things get complicated very quickly. 

SharePoint best practices and workflows break down. People start cutting corners. Files get forgotten and misplaced. Within a few years, you have a big mess on your hands. For a long time, that won’t affect your employees’ day-to-day work. 

But after a certain point, SharePoint becomes more of a hindrance than a tool. (Which is why SharePoint has a reputation…too many people have seen this happen.) 

If you’re just using it for short-term document storage, that might not be a huge issue, but if you’re looking to create a SharePoint knowledge base that helps your employees be more productive, you probably shouldn’t. 

#6: SharePoint Is Slow to Adapt 

SharePoint is like a cruise ship: It’s huge and powerful. Nobody knows every part of it, but there’s no denying that it has some serious momentum. Trying to turn it with anything less than hours’ notice is next to impossible. 

Microsoft is an innovative company, but rolling out new changes to any of their products is a massive undertaking. That includes SharePoint. If you’re hoping for frequent updates with new features that help your company be more productive, you’re going to be disappointed. 

If you want your organization to move and adapt to new problems quickly, you need a tool that does the same. You need a tool that isn’t designed as a one-size-fits-all. SharePoint isn’t that tool – STACK is.  

SharePoint’s Disadvantages Can Cripple Your Productivity 

When you want to use a software platform to improve communication, collaboration, and productivity across your company, your first thought may be SharePoint. Don’t make that mistake. 

Instead, explore options that are laser-focused on getting you what you need. These are the tools that will help your employees be more productive, which means better results for your bottom line. In the pharmacy world, STACK’s curated information ecosystem approach not only addresses all of the reasons above to make the switch, it empowers your organization to overcome the deficiencies you find in software that’s been built for the masses.