At its 19th annual Retailers Business Conference, Cardinal Health introduced an exclusive brand of home healthcare products, a front-of-store management tool, outbound calling, and prescription counting technology.

The company's new brand of home healthcare products is called TrustWorth, which is aimed at helping Leader Pharmacies diversify revenue. The TrustWorth line includes safety, mobility, and personal-care products, many of which are reimbursable through Medicare, Medicaid, and most third-party insurance plans.

For the front store, Cardinal has partnered with ECRS. The ECRS point-of-sale system can automatically re-order front-store merchandise as it's purchased and provide electronic order updates, confirmations, and profit analysis on products at the item level. According to Cardinal, the ECRS system reduces inventory and stock-outs and is proven to increase front-of-store sales by 5% to 10% andcan decrease the amount of time spent managing inventory by as much as 60%.

To help pharmacies improve patient medication compliance, Cardinal is offering guaranteed industry-best pricing for the Web-based Abby Calling Technology. This automated outbound calling system can notify patients when prescriptions are ready or need to be refilled, distribute special promotions, and conduct consumer surveys. The pharmacy's phone number appears in the patient's caller ID.

Cardinal is also offering industry-best pricing for Kirby Lester pill counting systems. The company's advanced models use barcode scanning and offer detailed dispensing reports and visual drug verification.

"Through our broad Leader offering, we're creating long-term partnerships to help independent pharmacies attract new, loyal customers, drive efficiency, and improve their financial performance," says Mike Kaufmann, group president of healthcare supply chain services.

Still another service introduced will help train pharmacy staff to interact with patients. myPharmacyTrainer is an online training site with eight different "virtual" patients. This allows consulting with these patients in an interactive, video game-like environment and teaches staff how to connect patients with pharmacy products and services to specific needs.

"An interactive training resource like myPharmacyTrainer will help independent pharmacies improve patient care and drive sales with minimal time investment," says Steve Lawrence, Cardinal's senior VP of marketing and sales support.