| |
Client Spotlight: McKesson Corporation
By Ralph Hooper, Manager of Client Services, San Rafael, CA
San Francisco-based McKesson Corporation is the largest health care company in the world and has been been an RSG client since the early 1980s. In an era when innovation, excellence, and strategic thinking are de rigueur for success, McKesson is an exemplar in each of the market segments it serves.
McKesson's history is the stuff of grand epics. John McKesson and Charles Olcott founded the company in 1833 in New York City, running the business from a small shop in the financial district. They imported and distributed therapeutic drugs and chemicals. Much of their early business was stocking medicine chests on grand sailing ships with drugs imported from Europe as well as medicinal herbs, roots, and spices acquired from Shaker settlements in Pennsylvania.
Daniel Robbins became a partner and, with Olcott's death in 1853, the company became McKesson & Robbins. By the 1850s it was distributing pharmaceutical products via covered wagons in 17 states and territories, from New England to California. In 1855 McKesson & Robbins began manufacturing drugs. Its extracts, tinctures, pills, and tablets became known all over the world, and the company began winning awards for its groundbreaking work.
In the early 1900s the number of pharmacies and hospitals across the country increased dramatically. The company persuaded a number of well-established wholesaling firms to become its subsidiaries, thus forming a national drug wholesaling company. That move made McKesson & Robbins the leading distributor of pharmaceutical drug products in the United Sates at a pivotal moment.
In 1967 the company merged with Foremost Dairies of San Francisco and became Foremost-McKesson Inc., a name that many of us surely remember. The new enterprise was now the largest U.S. distributor of drugs, alcoholic beverages, and chemicals as well as a major distributor of dairy and other food products.
In the 1980s and 1990s the company reset its focus on health care and divested its dairy, food, chemical, and alcoholic beverages businesses.
Today McKesson is a Fortune Global 500 company with more than 32,000 employees and annual revenues exceeding $106 billion. Its customer base includes 200,000 physicians, 26,000 retail pharmacies, 10,000 long-term care sites, 5,000 hospitals, and 450 pharmaceutical manufacturers. A snapshot of McKesson's corporate business units provides a compelling picture of a company fully engaged in health care solutions with clear focus and vision.
| BUSINESS UNIT |
FOCUS |
| McKesson Pharmaceutical Distribution |
More than 40,000 customers including retail chains, independent pharmacies, and institutions |
| McKesson Pharmacy Systems |
More than 10,000 U.S. pharmacies |
| McKesson Medical-Surgical |
Products, equipment, and services to physician offices, surgery centers, and other facilities |
| ZEE Medical |
First aid, safety, and training solutions |
| Moore Medical |
Online distributor of more than 15,000 medical, surgical, and pharmaceutical products |
| McKesson Patient Relationship Solutions |
Therapy options and adherence training solutions |
| McKesson Specialty Care Solutions |
Health care management solutions |
| McKesson Technology Solutions |
Comprehensive health care information technology systems |
| McKesson Provider Technologies |
Clinical, financial, and administrative software applications |
| RelayHealth |
Online clinical, financial, and administrative communications between patients, providers, payers, pharmacies, and financial institutions |
| McKesson Health Solutions |
Disease, case, and demand management solutions |
McKesson's initiatives in health care information systems are especially interesting from an RSG perspective. A prime example is the McKesson Horizon Cardiology Cardiovascular Information System, which enables a health care provider to capture and track cardiovascular procedures, manage overall workflow, and analyze not only the patient's progress but also the quality and efficiency of the provider's overall cardiovascular care.
RSG loads McKesson data from multiple TPAs and provides extensive actuarial reporting and analysis. Account manager Belle Chiao works closely with Risk Manager Kevin Jones and presents a full complement of monthly custom reports. In Kevin Jones' words: "RSG provides us with complex, sophisticated reporting and solid support, which are both critical to our ongoing risk management program."
|
