Diamond

Indiana, PA – Diamond Drugs, Inc. is proud to announce that they are the new primary sponsor of the Angels’ Wings Program, which provides gifts and necessary items to those in need during the holiday season. In 1984, the Donnelly Family, then owners of The Indiana Gazette, created a program to give to those in need in Indiana County during the holiday season. The program has had a few name changes over the years, but the mission has always remained the same: to spread a bit of joy and hope during the holidays to those who need it most.

With the recent sale of The Indiana Gazette, the Donnelly Family wanted to find a new primary sponsor of the program and Diamond Drugs, Inc. quickly came to mind. “After seeing the history of their commitment to the program over the years, Diamond Drugs is the perfect fit as the new primary sponsor of the Angels’ Wings Program. They have always been amazingly generous with their support,” said Linda Donnelly, who will remain involved with the program as an advisor.

The Indiana Gazette will continue to sponsor the program as well.

Mark Zilner, Diamond’s Owner & Chief Operating Officer, is looking forward to sponsoring the program. “We are honored to take over the Angels’ Wings Program and continue the wonderful work that the Donnelly Family, Indiana Gazette, and ICCAP have done over the years for our community. Angels’ Wings is a program that helps so many during the holiday season and we are looking forward to working with ICCAP and The Indiana Gazette to ensure the continued success of this valuable program.”

Applications and information about the program can be found on www.angelswingsprogram.com, on Facebook, or by emailing info@angelswingsprogram.com.

For a second year in a row, Diamond Drugs, Inc. was voted “Best Place to Work” in the 2023 Best of Indiana County contest.

The online contest, sponsored by Renda Broadcasting of Indiana, began in March with a nomination period and concluded with a two-week voting period in April. Voters nominated their favorite Indiana County businesses and organizations in a number of categories via the contest website. The nominees were then placed on a ballot, which voters could cast daily through the end of the contest.

Diamond’s local retail locations also won “Best of” in several categories. Diamond Drugs was voted “Best Pharmacy”, while Diamond Medical Supply was voted “Best Medical Supply” and “Best Home Care.”

To see the full list of categories and winners, go to bestofindianacounty.com.

Pharmacists Nancy Chia and Christopher Bender from the OPTICS clinical team prepared presentations on drugs of abuse in corrections and vitamins and supplements, respectively, for the NCCHC Spring Conference on Correctional Healthcare in New Orleans, April 29 through May 2.

To present at NCCHC, however, Nancy and Chris had to follow formats that only allowed brief explorations of these topics. Thankfully, they recorded full in-depth webinars that you can watch right here.

For any clinical pharmacy questions, please contact OPTICS at 800.882.6337 x2830, or email OPTICS@diamondpharmacy.com.

Diamond Pharmacy chief executive officer, owner, and president Mark Zilner was featured in recent articles from two prominent business publications.

Zilner is the subject of the cover story in the December 2022 edition of Smart Business Pittsburgh titled “A Prescription for Growth”.

He was also interviewed by The CEO Magazine for “Technology and Tradition: Mark Zilner RPh”, published in the Executive Interviews section of The CEO Magazine’s website.

Read the December 2022 issue of Smart Business Pittsburgh here.

Read Mark’s interview with The CEO Magazine here.

It is with heavy hearts that we acknowledge the passing of our founder, Gilbert “Gib” Zilner. Gib, along with his wife Joan, purchased Diamond, then a small corner drug store, in 1970. In 1983, they made the decision to bid to provide pharmacy services to a correctional facility, and the business was never the same. Today, Diamond is the nation’s largest provider of pharmacy services to correctional facilities, employs nearly 1000 people as one of the largest employers in Indiana County, and notably in 2022, was voted “Best Place to Work” in the Best of Indiana County awards.

If you knew Gib, you knew he did things his own way, and he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind or stand up for what he believed was right. He cared deeply about Diamond and the well-being of his employees. He cared about Diamond’s customers. He truly strived for Diamond to be the best, and he put his heart and soul into the company. Even in his later years, he was a staple in the Diamond halls, always working towards the next goal.

Gib was a loving family man. He was so proud of his four children, his grandchildren, and his wife Joan. If you wanted to get a smile out of him, you just needed to ask him about his family. Gib, Joan, and Mark worked together closely for decades at Diamond, and that shaped the company culture. Family was at the root of everything, and it shaped an atmosphere that is unique, especially for a large corporation.

Gib was an avid outdoorsman, and he loved to hunt. His office was a record of his travels, with beautiful trophies from around the world.

Through his family, his work, and his hobbies his life touched many, and he will surely be missed.

Thank you, Gib, for your hard work, your dedication and your leadership. Diamond won’t be the same without you, but we will do our best to make you proud.

Love,

Your Diamond Family

View a special tribute to Gilbert here.

Diamond Drugs, Inc. earned gold medal distinction as the “Best Place to Work” in the “Best of Indiana County 2022” online voting contest.

The results of the contest, presented by Renda Broadcasting of Indiana, were released August 3. Local residents were first asked to nominate their favorite local businesses in a variety of “best” categories via the official contest website back in March. Once nominees were finalized, residents could then vote on their favorites once every 24 hours from April 13 through April 29.

The purpose of the contest was “focusing on and highlighting the best businesses, companies, groups, locations, items and services in Indiana County Pennsylvania,” according to the official website.

Diamond’s retail locations also topped the “best of” ballots in several categories, including:

Diamond Drug Store- Gold Medal, Pharmacy; Gold Medal, CBD; Silver Medal, Medical Supply Store

Diamond Medical Supply- Gold, Medical Supply; Gold, Home Care.

To see the full list of contest winners, visit www.bestofindianacounty.com.

Diamond CEO Recognized for Successful Leadership

INDIANA, PA- Mark Zilner, the president, chief executive officer, and owner of Diamond Pharmacy Services, was named a 2021 Pittsburgh Smart 50 Award winner by Smart Business Magazine and USI Insurance Services.

Since 2014, the Smart 50 Awards have annually recognized 50 executives from companies in western Pennsylvania and the greater Pittsburgh region for their “ability to effectively build and lead successful organizations,” according to the Pittsburgh Smart 50 Awards website.

Zilner was chosen from a pool of over 100 nominees in October and formally recognized with the award during a virtual gala on November 18.

To see the full list of 2021 Pittsburgh Smart 50 award winners, click here.

Looking at Clinical Pharmacy Through a New Lens

Indiana, PA- Since 2015, the clinical pharmacists of Diamond’s Drug Information Center have been a lifeline for institutional healthcare providers, dispensing pharmacotherapy expertise on demand – from dosing, to disease states, drug-drug interactions, formulary management, and more.

But with the pharmacy profession moving closer to integrating clinical pharmacists into direct patient care in recent years, these clinical pharmacists had evolved beyond just providing drug information, and they wanted their healthcare partners to see this clearly.

They started with a fitting name change. The Drug Information Center is now the Office of Pharmacy Therapeutics and Integrated Clinical Services, or OPTICS. OPTICS is more than a name change – it’s a change in focus, and in capabilities.

“The Drug Information Center was our first real venture into a formalized clinical pharmacy program,” said Zane Gray, Pharm. D., BCACP, the clinical pharmacist supervisor for the group. “Now through OPTICS, we’re getting away from that restrictive information-based approach and into a more patient-oriented team.”

This new patient-oriented approach is best reflected in the “Integrated Clinical Services” portion of the name. The goal is simple: To actively incorporate tenets of their clinical pharmacy expertise into the everyday operations of the facility medical teams they serve, rather than just acting as a passive reference.

“We’re actually going out and interacting with our clinicians and having a meaningful effect on patient care,” Gray said.

OPTICS achieves this meaningful effect on patient care through collaborative formulary management practices, medication therapy management, individualized patient care plans, comprehensive medication managment, and a new service called the Medication Surveillanz Monitoring Program (MSMP), a tool to identify the safest and most cost-effective treatments for patients while mitigating adverse drug risks.

“Now we feel we’re actually integrated into the process of patient care,” said Stephen Ford, Pharm.D., BCGP, an OPTICS pharmacist. “Sometimes we’re even able to communicate with providers before medications are prescribed or recommended, and we can follow those patients longitudinally.”

Moving away from an information-based approach does not mean doing away with drug information, however. OPTICS will continue to focus on provider-level education, offering customers the webinars, clinical reference documents, and yes, the on-demand clinical answers they’re accustomed to receiving from the Drug Information Center.

The only noticeable change the OPTICS team wants customers to see is a continuous improvement in their patients’ outcomes.

“I believe OPTICS is a one-of-a-kind program,” Gray said. “We’re taking patient care models that you see in the community, that maybe aren’t as applicable to the patients in the facilities we work with, and adapting them into new patient-centered clinical pharmacy services that you can’t find anywhere else, but at Diamond.”

To learn more, visit www.diamondpharmacy.com/opticsteam

Diamond Pharmacy Services was recognized as the Industry Partner of the Year by the Pennsylvania Assisted Living Association (PALA), a Harrisburg-based trade association representing personal care homes and assisted living communities in the Keystone State.

As one of four categories within PALA’s inaugural Keystone Awards, Industry Partner of the Year recognizes businesses and organizations “who have demonstrated outstanding leadership through their dedication to PALA and the Personal Care and Assisted Living industry overall”, according to PALA’s website.

PALA Executive Director Margie Zelenak dropped by the company’s White Township headquarters September 18 to present a certificate to a delegation that included company vice president Gilbert Zilner, personal care and assisted living account executives Charles Plazio and Nick McFerron, and education coordinator and infusion educator Trina Plazio.

“Diamond Pharmacy understands the regulatory requirements for Personal Care and Assisted Living Communities,” Zelenak said in a statement. “Their expertise in medication management has provided the PALA members with the resources needed to deliver quality care to the residents they serve.”

Zelenak also credited Diamond’s sponsorship and support of annual PALA conferences, both in terms of money and for providing speakers to present continuing education seminars to PALA members.

“Because of their support, we can continue to provide quality education for the communities,” she said.

The PALA award is fitting for a company that grew into Pennsylvania’s largest independently owned long-term care pharmacy.

“Diamond has a long history serving the assisted living and personal care communities,” said Charles Plazio. “Besides providing medications to their residents, we do our best to be an overall care resource for them, and working closely with PALA makes this easier.”

Diamond Pharmacy’s award will be formally recognized at the upcoming PALA Fall Conference in Lancaster, October 23.

The American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Foundation (ASCP Foundation) is pleased to announce that the 2018 Herb Langsam Pharmacy Provider Services Award has been conferred to Diamond Pharmacy Services for their distinguished “Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP).” Bestowed annually by the Foundation, the Herb Langsam Pharmacy Services Award acknowledges a pharmacy organization that is an exemplary provider of pharmacy services.

Diamond, established in 1970 as a provider of retail pharmacy services, has grown into the nation’s largest correctional pharmacy provider and Pennsylvania’s largest independently owned long term care pharmacy.

Committed to stewardship, Dr. Deborah Milito, Pharm.D., BCGP, FASCP of Diamond Pharmacy Services, developed the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, incorporating the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) Core Elements for nursing homes. The basis of the program, is to provide other consultant pharmacists with the educational background to optimize antimicrobial prescribing and improve outcomes while empowering them to become educators and facilitate staff training within their own facilities. The ASP, which was launched in 2016, identified some early goals to help Diamond facilities drive their antimicrobial stewardship initiative. These goals include lowering the amount of urinalyses (UA) ordered, determining an appropriate diagnosis of all antimicrobials, and identifying a discontinuation date. Since the inception of the ASP, Diamond Pharmacy Services has realized a reduction in unnecessary UAs by up to an impressive 75% in some facilities in the first quarter of 2018, increased the use of facility specific antibiograms by almost 70%, and stayed focused on obtaining cut dates for all antimicrobial orders.

Integral to the continued success of the ASP, is the leadership provided by Joan Zilner,R.Ph., President; Gilbert Zilner, R.Ph., P.D., FASCP, Vice President; Mark Zilner, R.Ph., Chief Operating Officer; Matthew Valasek, R.Ph, MBA, Director of Pharmacy Operations; Deborah Milito, Pharm.D., Director of Clinical/Consultant Services Long-Term Care Antibiotic Stewardship Officer; and Paul Daisley, R.Ph., Director Long-Term Care.

The ASCP Foundation is the research and education affiliate of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP). The Foundation’s mission is to improve the health and well-being of older persons through appropriate, effective, and safe medication use.