WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Rounding out its Kerr Health management team, Kerr Drug has gone beyond its own deep bench of retail-oriented players.
(THE NEWS: Domann named Kerr Health's VP sales and business. For the full story, click here)
For the past year, the company, which dominates drug store retailing in its home state of North Carolina, has been fine-tuning a new pharmacy-care business model aimed at employers and built on its solid foundation as a pharmacy and healthcare innovator. So it’s no surprise that Kerr turned to a highly experienced pharmaceutical industry veteran to head up sales and new-business efforts for the fast-growing health-services operation.
That choice is Dick Domann, an affable, 30-year drug industry veteran who forged a successful, 27-year drug-channel sales career with GlaxoSmithKline. As such, he’s forged close ties with retail pharmacy and is intimately familiar with its concerns, capabilities and potential as a patient-centered solution to America’s healthcare woes. As Kerr Health’s first VP sales and business, Domann brings a broad perspective in pharmaceutical marketing, managed care and government relations to Kerr, which is working to burnish its credibility with employer-based health plans in North Carolina and elsewhere.
Domann also is no stranger to Kerr’s operating region. Since 1987, he’s called North Carolina home –– GSK is based in the state’s famed Research Triangle district near Duke University, the University of North Carolina and other centers of learning and medical practice –– and he’s been active in local community, business and political organizations for many years. He’s also a fledgling novelist, having authored and published one novel, with another on the way.
Domann’s induction is another sign of the sweeping changes ongoing at Kerr, which has firmly established its bona fides as one of retail pharmacy’s best healthcare innovators. Kerr Health, the health-services division of Kerr Drug, encompasses a wide gamut of pharmacy-based patient services – including disease management, medication therapy management, employer-based inoculation and clinical-care services, long-term care and specialty pharmacy.
Much like Walgreens, Kerr is focused on expanding the range of clinical and pharmacy services it can provide to employer-sponsored health plans and managed care organizations. It bills its vision for patient health as “holistic” in terms of its view of the patient, and positions its services as an adjunct to the care provided by time-stressed physicians and community health centers.
“Kerr Health synergistically unites Kerr Health Care Services and KDI Health Solutions, two subsidiaries of Kerr Drug, Inc., one of the nation's leading and most respected names in the chain drug industry,” the company notes in a description of its offerings. “Kerr Health provides a broad and customizable offering of value-driven products and services to medical practices, patients, employer groups, long-term care facilities, and municipalities.”