Public Higher Education Bulletin

An economically feasible sole source request to continue with purchases of pharmaceutical products for the University's Ambulatory Care Pharmacies and Clinics.

This request was necessitated by a significant, unpredictable patient volume and recently approved, high cost medications. The amount of purchases have exceeded the estimated procurement authority set forth by the previous justification (SSJ 284JCM). The benefit derived from a revised procurement authority would be the ability to purchase medications required to provide appropriate care to University of Illinois patients and signifcantly increase revenue.

Due to the established infrastructure between McKesson and the department of Ambulatory Care Pharmacy (e.g. existing credit history, and the ordering system which integrates with the inventory management system) this remains an economically feasible request. Other reasons to be considered from an economical impact is the benefits from the extended relationship service components as well as the efficiency and effective drug dispensing and inventory management processes McKesson's software currently in place allows pharmacies to set automated re-orders based on par levels and to upload orders into the dispensing system which maintains a perpetual inventory. The pharmacy staff is trained on the McKesson systems. Should implementation and re-training of a different wholesaler system be required, then the department would incur an economic hardship and the timely provision of medications would be affected which could result in delays in patient care. I n addition, the existing accounts and credit history established by McKesson streamline the pharmaceutical orders and compliment the virtual inventory basis.

The University has determined that this purchase is only economically available from this source because the Pharmacies have existing accounts and drug purchases significantly interface with various McKesson systems for inventory ordering/managing/dispensing split billing and distribution software systems.