The LTCPA advocates for the interests of the long-term care pharmacy community, which ultimately affects the daily care of the many men and women currently living in long-term care settings. By providing a national, unified voice on major issues, such as long-term care pharmacy costs, specialized nursing facility pharmacy services and the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, the LTCPA highlights the critical issues of concern surrounding the pharmacy needs for more than 60 percent of the nation's long-term care residents.

The Long Term Care Pharmacy Alliance (LTCPA) is comprised of three major national long-term care pharmacies - Kindred Pharmacy Services, Omnicare, and PharMerica; as well as several smaller organizations. Together, LTCPA member companies serve more than 1.2 million people -three out of every five residents of long-term care facilities - through networks of nearly 500 pharmacies nationwide. LTCPA members specialize in providing pharmacy services to nursing facility residents who take an average of eight medications a day and thus require special care and monitoring.

These specialized services include;

• Conducting regular safety reviews to determine if any changes are needed in their medications
• Dispensing of drugs in specialized packaging systems that reduce the possibility of medication errors and are the standard of care in nursing facilities
• Delivering round-the-clock attention to critical and emergency medications to meet long-term care regulatory requiremen
• Preparing and dispensing intravenous medication solutions, a service that retail pharmacies typically do not provide
• Providing considerable on-site support and consultation to nursing facilities and other institutional providers.

Read more: Long-Term Care Pharmacies vs. Retail Pharmacies (PDF)

For more information on long-term care pharmacies, please call the LTCPA at (202) 386-7559.