Initial Success and Substantial Government Savings May Mandate Prime Vendor Contracts for Table of Organization and Equipment Units and Deployment Support

Abstract

In November 1994, the Department of Pharmacy at Madigan Army Medical Center and the 62nd Medical Group Logistics (Fort Lewis, Washington) examined the feasibility of prime vendor support for the 18th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in a Table of Organization and Equipment (TOE) unit rapid deployment. The TOE medication list was deemed to be out of date and a state-of-the-art formulary was developed. By identifying three National Drug Code bioequivalent substitutes for each National Stock Number, a 94% prime vendor match was achieved for pharmaceuticals form the new formulary serving as our template. The 6% of medications that were not able to be matched consisted of items deemed as military-unique or items not covered by the prime vendor government contracts with wholesalers. On August 7, 1995, a trial was conducted to determine whether the local prime vendor had the capacity to support a deployment under its present contract with Madigan Army Medical Center. Two hundred eighty-six line items were ordered, mocking the deployment of two medical units. More than 95% of the line items were filled within 5 days from the local prime vendor. Under the local contract, the prime vendor was under no obligation to have out-of-stock medications provided by overnight shipment from other national distribution sites. This advantage, which is standard in national pharmaceutical prime vendor contracts negotiated by large civilian group purchasing organizations, would have substantially decreased the period of time to attain a > 95% fill. The results of this trial have provided strong support for prime vendor utilization in future deployments.