19.01.2012Santeon hospitals enter into agreement on home deliveries of medication

Hospital group Santeon has entered into a framework agreement with ApotheekZorg to organize the purchase of distribution and care with regard to home deliveries of medication (TNF-alpha blockers). Herre Kingma (Chairman of the executive board of Medisch Spectrum Twente) will sign the agreement on behalf of the six Santeon Hospitals.

As of 1 January 2012, Santeon Hospitals have taken responsibility for the organization and cost of patients’ home care; this in response to the shift of TNF-Alpha Blockers from the city pharmacies to the hospital budget. ApotheekZorg is a Dutch national pharmacy that helps the Santeon hospitals organise home deliveries of medication. The collaboration offers the opportunity to exchange knowledge and leads to an even greater emphasis on patient care. On behalf of the six Santeon hospitals, Herre Kingma remarks with regard to this partnership: “As a hospital group with a collective turnover of 2 billion Euros, Santeon is a prominent player in this market. However, the motives for this partnership are not solely economical, but the partnership is more and perhaps particularly an expression of the fact that the hospitals collaborating under the name Santeon all strongly emphasize quality, safety, innovation and efficiency”.

The hospitals will take the existing regional situation and collaborations within the first and second line care into account. Further details regarding the distribution and care will be handled by and tailor-made for each individual hospital.

The hospital pharmacists of Santeon will enter into an agreement of one year with ApotheekZorg. Meanwhile, nearly every Santeon hospital has started to fill in the process details with ApotheekZorg. On the proposal of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, it was decided last year that the costs of TNF-Alpha blockers would be transferred to the hospital budget. This medication is often prescribed to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis and chronic sarcoidosis.