Specialty medications treat patients living with the most complex and chronic health conditions. These life-saving medications require high-touch oversight and deep expertise from specialized pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and others like those at Accredo Specialty Pharmacy.
To help get these vital treatments into patient hands faster, Evernorth Health Services has developed and implemented new automation technology that is accelerating the delivery process.
The technology, now operating inside Evernorth’s newly opened specialty care facility in Newark, Delaware, combines robotics, software, and custom assembly-line systems to streamline how medications are retrieved, packed, and prepared for shipment.
With a goal of improving turnaround times and helping more patients get their specialty medications faster, an integrated team of Evernorth engineers, software developers, and pharmacy operations specialists collaborated to automate major portions of this process. Their efforts resulted in four patented technologies that help accelerate fulfillment while maintaining safety standards.
“Bringing this technology to life required ingenuity from an integrated team, all focused on a singular goal of supporting patients living with specialty conditions,” said Dallas Long, managing director of information technology at Evernorth. “Our whole team was dedicated to developing a solution to help Accredo serve more patients while creating a blueprint that could be replicated across our other specialty care sites.”
The system includes automated “cold‑pick” machines that use robotics to retrieve refrigerated medications, verify accuracy, apply labels, and prepare items for packing. Ice‑loading machines add cooling bricks to containers. A network of backup machines and fail-safe processes help sustain reliability during high-volume periods. Comprehensive workflow software connects with all machine controls to manage medication orders and coordinate process steps.
Advanced automation safely speeds fulfillment with trained experts guiding every step
This new technology solution is supporting the efforts of onsite pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and other experts as they maintain thorough oversight on shipments and ensure packages are properly secured before they are sent to patients.
“Our teams have worked hard to make Evernorth an industry leader in pharmacy automation,” said Mike Davis, senior director of software engineering at Evernorth. “We have a culture of innovation where we are empowered to apply technology to solve business challenges in a meaningful way, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The new system is just one part of Evernorth’s ongoing commitment to patient care by improving the speed, reliability, and scalability of specialty medication delivery.
Accredo raises the standard in specialty pharmacy, delivering care beyond the prescription and additive savings beyond the trend. Through our pharmacy model, plan sponsors can count on competitive specialty drug pricing and access to the specialty therapies your members need. We provide condition- and drug-focused expertise that prepares you for what’s ahead while driving the most value for you now. Our pharmacy engine propels savings to you and delivers well-being support for your members at no cost.
