University Hospitals

When Matthew McGuire, PharmD, MS, BCPS, joined UH in August 2022, he assumed oversight of pharmacy purchasing for many sites, including UH’s adult hospital, Cleveland Medical Center; pediatric hospital, Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital; and the Seidman Cancer Center.

McGuire, the organization’s manager of pharmacy supply chain and automation, came to University Hospitals with a wealth of experience from his work as a pharmacy operations manager for another system in Cleveland. In his new role ensuring UH has the medications needed to care for its more than 1 million patients, he knew that there would be solutions that would help him be effective.

One solution McGuire has leveraged since his first week at UH is QuicksortRx.

QuicksortRx allows McGuire to instantly assess real-time medication price, availability, and purchasing trends across multiple facilities and their many classes of trade across UH.

McGuire has found himself dedicating time every day to working with QuicksortRx to help complete tasks more efficiently. “It’s an invaluable tool for helping us find the best products at the best prices,” he says. “QuicksortRx provides us with real-time drug data we can easily review and act on.”

This data is beneficial for many reasons, says McGuire, including identifying and responding to market and contract changes. “You want to catch them quickly. If we had several full-time employees dedicated to reviewing our accounts and auditing every drug class and NDC, eventually they would spot these changes, but it could take a week, a quarter, even a year. With QuicksortRx, we can immediately see contract changes — without having to allocate additional resources — and then make our decision on how to move forward.”

McGuire also appreciates how QuicksortRx helps UH identify savings opportunities quickly. “The real-time data from the platform helps you learn about opportunities faster and find better prices on products you may not have on contract. The platform gives us impartial price comparisons so we can make more intelligent, independent decisions.”

Using QuicksortRx, McGuire has helped UH achieve seven-figure cost savings in less than 10 months. The platform has also supported efforts around improving contracting, which McGuire says is a high priority for the organization’s leadership. “QuicksortRx has allowed us to perform a comparison of products used across our hospitals and infusion sites to get fairer pricing based on our utilization.”

QuicksortRx’s pharmacy supply chain expert, Jason Mills, meets with McGuire weekly to stay on top of UH’s biggest opportunities, market changes, and trends. “The QuicksortRx team is dedicated to their users,” McGuire says. “Whenever I have questions, they’re responsive. They also ask for feedback, take what we share with them seriously, and are always working to further develop solutions. It’s great to see such a commitment to continuous quality improvement.”

McGuire acknowledges the positive impact QuicksortRx has had on his effectiveness in his new role at UH.