Wexford, PA./PRNewswire/—Millennium Pharmacy Systems (“MPSRx”), a privately-held healthcare services company providing contract pharmacy services to the long term-care industry, announced the recent completion of a $40 million equity financing. Essex Woodlands Health Ventures (EWHV) led the investment group, which included new investors Ascension Health Ventures and Steve Wiggins, an Operating Partner at EWHV, and existing investors CHL Medical Partners, Boulder Ventures, and individuals.

“We are pleased to secure the financing needed to facilitate the continued rapid scaling of our innovative business,” said Gary Duty, President and Chief Executive Officer and a co-founder of MPSRx.  “We believe that the MPSRx system is now gaining benchmark status as the standard of medication management in the long-term care industry.”  Mr. Duty co-founded MPSRx with William Gatti and Steven Brody, successful entrepreneurs in the institutional pharmacy and long-term care businesses.  The senior management team also includes co-founder Lena Sturgeon, a seasoned long-term care pharmacy and skilled nursing facility executive, as Chief Operating Officer;  Michael Gold, Senior Vice President Marketing and Business Development , an executive with extensive experience in pharmaceutical services; and Suresh Vishnubhatla, who joined the Company in early 2007 as the Chief Technology Officer.

“We are excited about Millennium’s imaginative technology-driven business model for improving the care and safety of nursing home patients and pleased to join with this proven team of entrepreneurs and managers to help them build MPSRx into an industry leader in long-term care services,” said Mark Pacala, a Managing Director at EWHV and newly appointed Director of the six-year-old company.

The equity infusion will be utilized primarily for working capital to enable the company to continue its rapid pace of uninterrupted organic growth in the traditional long term care pharmacy services market.

The company raised its first institutional round of financing, led by CHL Medical Partners and including Boulder Ventures and individuals, in September 2005.  The present raise brings the total of the Company’s committed growth equity capital to over $60 million since its startup in 2001.

About Millennium Pharmacy Systems, Inc. (www.mpsrx.com)

Millennium Pharmacy Systems is a pioneer in the field of medication management systems for the long term care industry. The company utilizes advanced information handling technologies and informatics-driven logistics to provide a virtually error-free environment for managing and administering medications for residents of nursing home facilities. For further information please visit www.mpsrx.com.

Mr. Vishnubhatla joined Millennium Pharmacy Systems in 2007. In his role as the CTO, he oversees the development of the software products and network operations. He joined MPS from BodyMedia Inc., where he was the Senior Vice President, Products and responsible for product development (hardware, software and informatics), clinical research and regulatory affairs. Prior to BodyMedia Mr. Vishnubhatla was responsible for Product Development at Emerson Electric Corporation’s Power and Water Solutions business.

His work during his career was primarily in the fields of real-time systems, software system development, networking and distributed computing. He has over 15 years experience building integrated systems that bring hardware, software and algorithmic components together to perform complex tasks.

I’ve recently talked to the  Director of Application and Data Services of MPS, Christopher Miller about the role technology plays in pharmacy systems and about his latest speaking event. The following is a transcript of the interview.

What is the primary goal of your technology when walking into a new customer facility?
Our hope is that by reducing errors and overall paperwork, nursing staff can spend more time with the residents of their nursing home.

What challenges does MPS face when taking on a new customer?
Concern about the learning curve and change of how nurses perform med pass. We take the training phase of a new customer start-up very seriously and spend a great deal of time removing the intimidation factor and helping them grow comfortable with the new way of doing things.

What makes you think that MPS is the pioneer in using bar-coded medication management technology?
Barcoding is an integral part of the MPS system. However, it is not its only selling point. Rather than building a system that is based on barcode scanning, we have incorporated the safety and accuracy features of barcoding within a framework of other operationally-guided workflows.

Where do you see technology in regards to long term care medication management in the next five years?
Technology will continue to improve patient outcomes and reduce the risk of errors of medication or documentation. More and more systems from various vendors will share information to reduce paperwork and manual re-entry of data.

In the age of identity theft and privacy issues, how does MPSRX handle such concerns?
Our system uses a private, point-to-point network, encrypted data, and encrypted transmission to keep information very secure. All user activity is logged, approximately 80,000 events per day at a 100-bed nursing home.

You’ve recently lectured at the Pennsylvania Society of Health-System Pharmacists in early October, how was the response and how do you feel MPS ranks in the pharmacy technology playing field?
I was approached by several of the attendees wanting more information about our company and the system that supports it. Specifically to long term care, we are certainly at the forefront of this technology wave.

What makes you feel that MPSRX is the only choice for medication administration safety?
In the skilled care industry, we have the only end-to-end solution; some organizations provide an order entry system, others manage documentation. Ours completes the cycle by managing the process all the way from the order origination to full management of med pass and the clinical documentation the accompanies it.

Christopher tells me that there are plenty of new, exciting and innovative features to be release in the near future.

Our bar code medication solution is put on display at the 39^th Annual Assembly in Harrisburg. The PSHP assembly is the premier event for pharmacy technology companies to show off solutions of success with pharmacy technology, bar code medication solutions, pharmacy automation solutions and more.

This year’s theme is to “think out of the box” to make the event more of an interactive learning experience for visitors and vendors to learn more about pharmacy technology. We’ve always thought out of the box and I feel that is what makes us an important in the world of bar code medication technology.

We’ve recently moved Mary Kutz to Regional Vice President of MPSRX. Mary is just great, being a pharmacist, she knows what it takes to ensure safety with medication management. Mary has help us develop standards and guidelines when dealing with barcodes and barcoded medications. Her experience will prove beneficial as the new Regioanl Vice President.

Not too long ago an Institute of Medicine report released on July 20, 2006 stated that at least one-fourth of all medication-related injuries are preventable. The report suggested computer-based strategies such as electronic prescribing, among other initiatives, can help to reduce errors. Since 2003, we have been using computers to prescribe drugs and to electronically receive prescriptions at the pharmacy.

Since the Institute of Medicine recommends that all prescriptions be written electronically by 2010, our years of experience in e-prescribing will help nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other long-term care facilities fulfill this goal. In addition to reducing medication errors, our solutions focus on increasing patient safety while reducing both cost and liability for facilities.

We’ve recently been highlighted in the August 6th edition of the Sentinel Reporter.  The article explains the importance of eliminating medication errors by using bard-coded technology.  Our bar-code solution plays a key role in Chapel Pointe’s  quest for eliminating medication errors.  Rather then re-post the article here, just pay a visit to our website to read more.

Formulary checks are an important part of the prescription medication process.  Our product actually contains a real-time electronic formulary check for patients.  Staff members can also check patient profile summaries for formulary compliance at any time.

At the time of this writing, MPSRx.com is number one in Google for Formulary Checks.  This is a good thing because I feel that we have lots to offer pharmacies that seek a reliable and efficient mechanism to provide formulary checks.

We have recently been working on a few exciting projects here at Millennium Pharmacy Systems. One thing in particular is the new MPS Information Packet that outlines everything you need to know about what we have to offer. Yes, it is true that we are an industry-leading provider of pharmaceutical management services to long-term care providers, but we provide much more than that.

Our new information packet will help customers and others in the industry understand how powerful MPS solutions are and why they are important in the field of pharmacy automation. Visit our homepage to fill out our contact form to be placed on the list to receive the new MPS information packet.

We have created this blog to keep you informed of quick happenings as well as important updates to the MPS pharmacy automation solutions.  Feel free to discuss any topics with us by way of comments and posts of your own.

If you haven’t seen, we’ve recently updated our corporate website by providing you with more useful information and background on MPS.  We have also addded a section to the website to display career oportunities.