Twenty years ago, in 2001, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) proposed amending its regulations to provide for the use of central fill pharmacies, which were also referred to as refill pharmacies, fulfillment centers, or call centers. At that time the DEA noted that it was “proposing these amendments in response to significant changes taking place in the pharmacy industry.” In 2001, one of the primary drivers was the “increased demands being placed on traditional pharmacy systems by the rapid growth in the number of prescriptions written and dispensed.”
The DEA also noted that between 1999-2004, the volume of prescriptions dispensed in retail pharmacies was expected to increase 35%, and during the same period of time the number of available pharmacists was projected to increase only 6%. These two factors compelled the DEA to engage with the pharmacy industry to “seek new ways to increase efficiency while maintaining quality patient care.” The vision was to create an opportunity 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.
Fast forward twenty years to 2021, when it comes to pharmacists, the United States has a different set of circumstances. As a 2019 paper in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education notes, “[d]ata indicate seismic shifts in supply and demand, from critical shortage [of pharmacists] to imminent oversupply.” However, the same paper notes that while America’s medical colleges have done an admirable job of creating a new generation of pharmacists – the paper notes that, “[t]he change in the profession to employing more patient-care focused jobs has been observed as slow and minimal, although academia has focused on the clinical training….”
Today’s pharmacist is trained to deliver patient facing services and the COVID-19 pandemic is acting as a catalyst for pharmacy to deliver patient care. What pharmacies need to focus on is accelerating the pace at which pharmacists deliver patient care — like immunizations and medication therapy management — and central fill is the central strategy pharmacies can take advantage of to create the time their pharmacists need to practice at the level they are trained for.
iA is prepared to be a true partner in making this a reality. Our team is led by pharmacists and features a mix of field service engineers and software professionals that are ready to work with pharmacy providers to build a centralized fulfillment solution that is tailored for their specific pharmacy. We often find that when we work with our customers to examine their retail environment, we learn that their pharmacists may be spending more than 50% of their time dispensing medications. That’s valuable time they could be spending with patients. Shifting dispensing away from the retail pharmacy setting to a central fill pharmacy environment allows pharmacy providers to additional time to focus on patient care services and offering choice.
We can’t wait for another twenty years to pass to realize the potential of central fill. This is pharmacy’s time. And while 37 states recognize pharmacists as providers, we should work collectively across the pharmacy community to get to 50. A November 2019 American Association of Medical Colleges report found that there is a shortage of 43,000 providers across the U.S. Pharmacists can step into that role and our schools of pharmacy have helped train a new generation of pharmacists that are ready to meet the demand that has been unleashed during the pandemic.
We welcome the opportunity to talk with you about how your pharmacy can realize the potential of central fill solutions with iA – today. And, in doing so, iA can work with you to help prepare your pharmacy for the future.
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1. Drug Enforcement Administration; Notice of Proposed Rule Making Allowing Central Fill Pharmacies To Fill Prescriptions for Controlled Substances on Behalf of Retail Pharmacies; 66 Fed. Reg. 46567-46571 (September 6, 2001)
2. Id.
3. Id.
4. Id.
5. Id.
6. Lebovitz, L. & Eddington, N. 2019, “Trends in the Pharmacists Workforce and Pharmacy Education”, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, vol. 83 (1), art. 7051, pp. 1, (available online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6418852/)
7. Id.