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Current Central Fill Models
Customer Owned - The Central Fill site is wholly owned, licensed and operated by the customer (retailer, health system pharmacy, etc.). In this model, the Central Fill pharmacy typically is set up as a separate licensed facility servicing a large number (20+) of the customer's local pharmacies. The costs to process the prescriptions are absorbed by the company or allocated from the Central Fill pharmacy to the local pharmacy. Typically, these facilities utilize high-volume prescription processing automation.
Contractor Owned - The Central Fill site is owned and operated by an entity other than the end user customer. Typically, this is a wholesaler, independent contractor, pharmacy services provider, or other existing Central Fill operation that has excess capacity. In this model, the owner of the Central Fill pharmacy supplies the infrastructure and supportive personnel to produce the prescriptions for the end-user customer. Typically, each end-user customer provides the pharmacist(s) who review their company's prescriptions (The system can direct a particular company's prescriptions to their own pharmacist for review, so that multiple company's prescriptions may be processed concurrently). The owner charges the end-user customer a Transaction Fee to cover the costs of processing and pays for the cost of goods. This facility can service one or many pharmacy end-user customers no matter how large or small, since it consolidates pharmacy volume into one facility. Typically, these facilities utilize high-volume prescription processing automation.
Hub and Spoke - The Central Fill site is wholly owned, licensed and operated by the customer. In this model, a particular pharmacy within the chain or group of pharmacies is "designated" as the Central Fill Pharmacy. This designated pharmacy (which already has a pharmacy license) processes prescriptions for other members of the group. Typically, this pharmacy services anywhere from 10 to 20 other pharmacies within the chain or group and utilizes primarily in-store automation to assist with the fulfillment. The costs to process the prescriptions are absorbed by the company or allocated from the Central Fill pharmacy to the local pharmacy.
It is important to note that while these definitions have become the de-facto standard, new models and combinations are also possible.
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