YouScript and Grane Rx Partner to Reduce Hospitalizations Using Pharmacogenetics for the Post-acute Care Industry

Grane Rx is poised to take a leading role in promoting patient safety through precision medicine.


YouScript and Grane Rx announce today an agreement to deliver precision prescribing support to post-acute care organizations.

Adverse drug events (ADEs) are a leading cause of avoidable hospitalization among the senior population. Each year, these events claim more than 100,000 lives and cause more than 700,000 emergency department visits. The vast majority of ADEs are caused by medications prescribed according to best practice guidelines.1

That’s because traditional prescribing best practices don’t take into account the different ways that individual participants react to medications. Enter Grane Rx’s Medication Insights, powered by YouScript.

Utilizing a proprietary Risk Analysis dashboard, prescribers are alerted in real-time as to which participants are most vulnerable to significant medication-related problems. Potential issues are identified within the software, and providers are able to view and select alternative medications both within the drug class and for a specific therapeutic indication.

“The FDA has stated in drug development guidance that drug-gene interactions are as significant as drug-drug interactions,” said Kristine Ashcraft, Chief Executive Officer at YouScript. “I applaud Grane Rx for taking the lead to integrate this key information into medication management for our most vulnerable seniors.”

Recent studies2 in the home health environment showed that using YouScript can save approximately $4,382 per patient over a 60-day period, in addition to reducing hospitalizations and readmission rates by 52 percent and 42 percent respectively.

“As post-acute care shifts from a fee-for-service model to a pay-for-performance model, facilities will be penalized for excessive avoidable hospitalizations and poor outcomes,” said Bob Rowland, Chief Operating Officer at Grane Rx. “Polypharmacy is prominent in seniors, which increases their risk of adverse drug events that lead to hospitalization.

“This tool will offer newly available clinical insights to help prevent these events and avoidable hospitalizations related to ADE’s among post-acute care patients.”

YouScript will be available to all independent post-acute care organizations utilizing Grane Rx’s pharmacy services.

To learn how Medication Insights can benefit your organization, visit www.MedicationInsights.com to sign up for a free analysis.

1. Budnitz DS, Pollock DA, Weidenbach KN, Mendelsohn AB, Schroeder TJ, Annest JL. National Surveillance of Emergency Department Visits for Outpatient Adverse Drug Events. JAMA. 2006;296(15):1858-1866. doi:10.1001/jama.296.15.1858
2. Elliott LS, Henderson JC, Neradilek MB, Moyer NA, Ashcraft KC, Thirumaran RK. (2017) Clinical impact of pharmacogenetic profiling with a clinical decision support tool in polypharmacy home health patients: A prospective pilot randomized controlled trial. PLOS ONE 12(2): e0170905. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170905

About Grane Rx
For nearly 20 years, Grane Rx has been a leader in pharmacy solutions and services for post-acute care, supporting PACE organizations and Skilled Nursing Facilities across the United States. Grane Rx offers pharmacy solutions in multiple states. Our PACE pharmacy solutions include innovative packaging, EasyRead Pharmacy labels, and LearnRx literacy tools available in 22 different languages, which are designed to improve medication adherence while expanding efficiencies and lowering costs—revolutionizing pharmacy services. Medication Insights represents the latest tool available to help limit adverse drug events and associated avoidable hospitalizations, thus improving the quality care we provide patients.

For more information, visit www.GraneRx.com.

About YouScript

Based on fifteen years of technology development that makes precision prescribing possible, Seattle-based YouScript was founded in 2016 after incubating the technology for over a decade at leading pharmacogenetic testing lab. The YouScript clinical decision support tool is the only medication management system available that assesses the cumulative effect of a patient drug regimen and unique pharmacogenomic results. Based on over 14,000 curated references and product inserts, YouScript uses comprehensive predictive analytics to interpret and provide an at-a-glance summary of the complex web of genetics, medications, over-the-counters, herbals, and other factors impacting drug safety and response; identifying at risk patients for testing and offering ranked alternatives with reduced interaction risk whenever an adverse interaction risk is found.

For more information, visit www.youscript.com.

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Press contact:

Jennifer Hayes
YouScript
jhayes@youscript.com
206-576-9557

Scott Sosso
Grane Rx
ssosso@granerx.com
412-449-0504