As we continue our journey to work with pharmacy providers to realize the full potential of Pharmacy Fulfillment with iA, let’s review the drivers that are pushing pharmacies to evolve at a rapid pace and why now is the time for automation in the pharmacy setting.
Accessibility to pharmacy providers, health care, and the pandemic.
The pandemic has changed the way we work and live in many ways. It is certainly serving as a catalyst for reexamining the role of pharmacists in delivering patient care. Nearly 9 in 10 Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy*. And in 2020, patients visited a community-based pharmacy 35 times compared to four times** with their primary care physician. There is currently a physician shortage, which is trickling down to longer wait times and delays in patient care. Meanwhile, pharmacists are eager to practice at the level they were trained and now, with physician shortages, it is more essential than ever that we help free up their time to do so.
How the vaccine roll-out plays an important role in the need for pharmacy automation solutions.
Since vaccines were made available, pharmacists have delivered more than 141 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine according to the CDC. That is over 35% of total vaccines given. In many cases, this extraordinary task was accomplished in addition to all of the other responsibilities pharmacists had taken on pre-pandemic.
Even before the pandemic, the demand for changes on the business side of pharmacy was already high. COVID-19 has simply served to accelerate adoption of those changes. Examples include increased demand for consumer/patient choice, lower reimbursement rates, and the need for increased front-line care. These are all serving as drivers for pharmacy to evolve. Let’s take a look at each of these drivers and their respective objectives and how they may compete with one another.
When we look at consumerism and patient choice, we know that
- Consumers enjoy the convenience of an online experience.
- Much like the online experiences that Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, or other online retailers offer, consumers want to be able to shop where and when they want to shop.
- Consumers also want their purchases delivered when and where it makes the most sense for their lifestyle, and they want real time updates on the status of their orders.
- The same dynamic applies to prescriptions, and it could be even more important. For example, some consumers may avoid public exposure due to the pandemic. And others are taking advantage of remote living, no longer being tied to the specific locale of their workplace.
Enabling iA customers to increase the level of patient choice when it comes to prescription delivery, while also improving their ability to move prescriptions seamlessly as a patient’s location changes is becoming more important.
We also know that lower reimbursement rates for prescriptions is a driver. That’s why iA works with our customers to understand how iA can help them reduce dispensing costs that support their margins and may even create operating capital that can perhaps be used to support expansion of patient care services. This is where our Pharmacy Fulfillment by iA pharmacy automation solutions can have a tremendous impact and deliver unforeseen value-add.
However, there are other innovations that are serving to drive the desire to examine any and all savings. Direct to consumer cost saving programs, such as medication discount cards, are helpful for patient retention. And today’s era of targeted and personalized advertising, further enables a patient’s ability to easily shop for medications at the lowest price, and this also serves as a catalyst for pharmacies to reduce cost to fill.
But the responsibility to patient care, is, in my opinion, the strongest driver for me, personally.
Patient care is a primary driver for pharmacy automation.
As many of you likely know, the World Health Organization states that a patient’s adherence to their medication regimen may be more impactful on their medical outcomes than the specific treatment itself.
We know that pharmacy automation can help improve medication adherence in a variety of ways:
- Increase a patient’s on-hand supply to 90-days, especially for synchronized medications.
- Improve patient choice and access to compliance packaging.
- Create the time pharmacists need to increase time spent focused on medication therapy management services.
But with shrinking margins, and limits to a pharmacist’s time, it is difficult to provide these services at every pharmacy within a network. And pharmacies also need to spend time educating their patients about the benefits of compliance packaging, a benefit currently with slow patient adoption rates. Pharmacy automation can play a role here as well, but in addition to a central fill strategy, specialized strategies may also be required.
And a final driver is front line care. As we noted at the beginning of this article, the pandemic has accelerated pharmacies rapidly, increasing their ability to provide immunizations and diagnostic testing. iA, like our customers, want pharmacists to be practicing at the top level of their skill set.
Patients know and trust their pharmacists. Pharmacists are highly accessible. The demand for front line services is already there and the resulting revenue from these additional services will help create new revenue. But to do this successfully, pharmacists must create the time they need to step into these new roles. Pharmacy Fulfillment by iA creates that time.
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*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2022. Get to Know Your Pharmacist | cdc.gov. [online] Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/programs/stateandlocal/resources/pharmacy.html.
**Megha Gandhi, P. and Rachel Chandra, F., 2022. The Impact of Community Pharmacists on Social Determinants of Health. [online] Pharmacy Times. Available at: https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/the-impact-of-community-pharmacists-on-social-determinants-of-health.