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SEATTLE, Aug. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The nation's oldest and largest national professional society of pharmacists recently announced that Seattle's Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group was named as the winner of this year's Pinnacle Award for Group Practices. Established in 1998 by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation, the Pinnacle Award recognizes leaders in pharmacy who are improving the quality of health care. This is the first year a Seattle company has won the prestigious award for Group Practices.

"This is one of the greatest honors in our industry," noted Ryan Oftebro, CEO of Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group. "It is testament to the dedication and innovation of our team and the unwavering passion we all share for making a difference in people's lives."

The 90-year old Seattle company was recognized for several of its programs and many of its "first ever" innovations in the industry that are changing the face of pharmacy.

One-Step PrEP™: Patients at risk for contracting HIV can now walk into the pharmacy and in less than one hour walk out with PrEP (Truvada). Results have been so impressive that Kelley-Ross was the only pharmacy asked to present findings at the National CDC HIV Prevention Conference last year.

In-Home Medication Coaching: Kelley-Ross has pioneered the "pharmacist house call" for both senior living communities and recently discharged hospital patients. The results in this relatively new arena have been staggering and in some cases have reduced 30-day hospital readmission rates for high-risk cardiac patients from a national average of 25 percent to six percent.  

Another forward-thinking program developed by Kelley-Ross is its take-home Naloxone kit. Inspired by personal family tragedy, Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group's CEO, Ryan Oftebro, launched a program to make it easy for people to simply walk into the pharmacy, obtain training in reversing opioid overdoses and walk out with Naloxone and the ability to save lives. This program has now been extended and recently King County has partnered with Kelley-Ross to supply Naloxone.

These programs, and others like them, are developed in Kelley-Ross's innovation lab, where Oftebro encourages employees to be bold with serving the company's mission to improve people's lives through the continuum of care.

The Pinnacle Award is the latest and most notable of a series of recent accolades received by the progressive Seattle pharmacy and its leading pharmacists. Other recent awards include the Pharmacy Times Next Generation Pharmacy Awards for Entrepreneurship and the Washington State Pharmacy Association (WSPA) Innovation Award.

"It's been an exciting summer," Oftebro added. "To be recognized like this by so many leaders in our industry for the hard work we do here is truly humbling."

A celebration of this year's Pinnacle Award winners is scheduled for September 19 in Washington, D.C. and is considered by many to be the industry's premier event of the year.

SOURCE Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group