Nearly 25 years ago, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) proposed amending its regulations to provide for the use of central fill pharmacies. These changes were proposed in 2001 in response to a multitude of significant shifts in the pharmacy industry:
- Prescription volume dispensed in retail pharmacies was expected to increase 35% between 1999 and 2004.
- The number of available pharmacists during the same time period was anticipated to increase only 6%.
- The rapid growth in the number of prescriptions written and dispensed was noted as a primary driver indicating the need for central fill pharmacies.
These factors drove the DEA to engage with the pharmacy industry to work toward increased efficiency while maintaining quality patient care. Discussion revolved around the need to transfer some of the time-consuming, non-clinical duties such as prescription filling to central fill pharmacies so that retail pharmacies could dedicate more time to assisting patients and serving their communities.
Twenty years after the changes were initially proposed, the world faced a pandemic, driving the demand for pharmacy services to unprecedented levels. Due to the pandemic, state and federal regulatory changes such as the PREP Act expanded the scope of practice for pharmacists so the industry could better meet urgent healthcare requirements.
As we move past the pandemic, the pharmacy industry continues to evolve, facing a never-ending list of new challenges, driving continued demand for central fill solutions. Today’s pharmacist is trained to deliver patient facing-services and understands the need to accelerate the pace of patient care in the retail pharmacy setting, including immunizations and medication therapy management. Yet when we examine the retail environment of our customers, we often learn that pharmacists are spending more than 50% of their time dispensing medications.
Shifting some of that dispensing away from the retail pharmacy to a central fill pharmacy could allow providers more time to focus on patient care services. Central fill could be the game-changer that can enable pharmacies to create the time for their pharmacists to practice at the level they were trained for. We cannot afford to wait another 25 years, or even a decade, to fully realize the potential of central fill. The time is now. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the United States will face a physician shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036. Central fill can help to close this gap while we collectively look for ways to train a new generation of pharmacists to meet the post-pandemic demand including unprecedented prescription volume growth, increasing regulatory requirements, and an expanding list of pharmacy services.
At iA, we’re ready to address the needs of the future today. With a wealth of pharmacy knowledge and expertise on our team, we partner with pharmacy providers to design and build customized centralized fulfillment solutions tailored to each customer’s needs.
We welcome the opportunity to talk with you about how iA’s central fill solutions can help your pharmacy reach its goals, today and into the next decade and beyond.