Pharmacy of the Year Finalist Gateway Pharmacy

 Pharmacy of the Year Finalist Roden-Smith Pharmacy

Pharmacy of the Year Finalist Bushard’s Pharmacy and Apothecary

Lauren Biscaldi is the Managing Editor of Drug Topics. 

Technology is reshaping the way that health care is delivered. From the physician’s office to the pharmacy, a slew of innovative ideas and solutions are poised to change the way pharmacies interact with their customers and patients.

® sat down with Eric Lindsay, MBA, vice president of product management at OmniSYS, to discuss some of these solutions.

®: Can you provide an overview of technologies available that can help pharmacies and pharmacists manage compliance? What are the challenges with these technologies, if any?

 The area of compliance is both complex and multifaceted, so I will focus on of the most pressing aspects to your readers.

 The growing movement related to pharmacists as a care provider increases the need for pharmacists to be credentialed for certain clinical services and—as a result— increases the demand for related information technology services. This is challenging for both pharmacies and pharmacists, because of the relative newness of this need, and hastens the need for pharmacists to partner with a knowledgeable technology vendor.

Some pharmacies may want to outsource the credentialing process to third parties based on resource constraints and areas of expertise. If this is the path taken, a system is needed to facilitate items such as information gathering, status tracking, and error correction.

Taken one step further, consider the following patient experience scenario: A patient searches to find which pharmacy locations provide a service they need, and arrives at the pharmacy only to find that a credentialed pharmacist is unavailable at the time of the patient visit. Pharmacies need a solution to ensure that when patients look up locations for specific services, the location presented has the right credentialed pharmacist available. Although this seems somewhat straightforward, practically, there is added complexity. Think about a pharmacy that offers various services by different credentialed pharmacists; those pharmacists and services may only be delivered during specific hours. That information is critical to present to patients during their service and location search. Purpose-built technology that addresses these nuances is vital to delivering on the promise of an exceptional patient experience.

 Medication adherence can be viewed as a patient need based on implications to clinical outcomes as well as financial repercussions to the pharmacy. Pharmacists are well positioned to impact behaviors in this area, based on their status as trusted care providers and the breadth of available information technology solutions.

Some of the types of information technology solutions that pharmacists can use to impact medication adherence include:

 that drive medication adherence through patient refill reminders, notifications when it is time to pick medications up, and related educational materials

 so that they can be picked up on the same day to greatly improve patient convenience

 that can be used to identify nonadherent or at-risk patients whom pharmacists may want to personally call, or otherwise engage that patient’s physician

 that provide actionable trended patient risk reporting for prescribers, clients, and payors

Interoperable or integrated pharmacy and laboratory solutions

 that support the exchange of laboratory testing results to monitor medication adherence, help guide patient care, and modify treatment plans or confirm clinical impressions

Solutions of this nature can be found from a variety of vendors, ranging from those who provide just some of these specialized services, to larger enterprise solution vendors. There are a few services purpose-built for pharmacy solution providers who are better positioned to address the nuances of pharmacy and their rapidly evolving business models that are underway.

Pharmacies across all markets should strategically be thinking about how their technology stack and partners are aligned with their future state so that they can determine the plat- form and partner that are the best fit for their business now and in the future.

What are the top considerations that a pharmacist/pharmacy should make when deciding what technology to implement into their practice?

The process of selecting an appropriate technology vendor for pharmacists and their staff will vary based on their unique needs. There are, however, some common considerations across pharmacies, including:

Is there alignment between the pharmacist/ pharmacy and vendor regarding industry direction and, therefore, how the solution needs to progress?

 Does the technology vendor have a proven track record of success?

 Beyond the technology provider, are they experts in your business and advocating for your industry with government, payers, associations, and other key stakeholders?

 Does the solution fit with how your pharmacy provides care and have the necessary integration into your existing workflow?

 Which vendor provides maximum return either through driving growth or reducing costs, and how long will it take to achieve this return?

 Can the vendor address your partnership needs, such as: support hours, service level agreements, system integration, data encryption, and more?

What are some of the most common workflow issues pharmacists face, and how can technology help address these? How does bringing technology into the pharmacy workflow address pharmacist burnout?

Pharmacists and pharmacy staff, across practice settings, are feeling tired or burned-out because of staff shortages, professional demands, and the realities surrounding COVID-19. Although many may feel that adding new technology into the system simply means that there’s more to learn, we’ve seen the opposite of this when the technology is the right fit. Technology can, and should, meaningfully improve the pharmacy team’s workflow efficiency and enable the pharmacist and their teams to spend more time serving patients. Technology solutions can also result in additional benefits, such as improving medication adherence, reducing risk, driving revenue, and improving customer convenience or experience.

Some typical solutions that follow the flow of a prescription and improve workflow efficiencies, separate from of the pharmacy management system, include:

 that automate the prescription filling process and reduce administrative tasks.

 that run automatically on a set schedule, addressing staffing constraints while maximizing third-party reimbursement by lowering paid at U&C events

 that automate inbound and outbound communications (eg, refill reminders, will-call alerts, store hours, and more)

 that support the expanding role of pharmacies as providers.

Immunization registry reporting solutions

 that automate the process of submitting immunization claims to state registries and facilitate a means to easily correct errors

Articles

Technology can help manage every aspect of the pharmacy.

Total Pharmacy

Technology

Technology and Data

Become the Pharmacy of the Future With Technology Solutions

T'was ever thus in pharmacy retail: there are different methods of presenting goods to consumers. As times change, so do those methods—and, of course, what products or category of products are offered.I believe it's instructive to look back before looking forward to plot out strategies.

Back in the day, many pharmacies had what was known as the “shotgun” look. My great-grandfathers' (then my grandfathers’) pharmacy on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, which opened in 1903 and is shown here circa 1923, is just one example Prescriptions were dispensed on the back wall of a narrow room.The shelving along the walls was clear to the ceiling, with sliding ladders to retrieve goods up high. Display cases lined both sides, with products displayed enclosed in glass. Up front, you’d often find a soda fountain on one side, with small tables down the center aisle for consumers to enjoy fountain treats.

In this modern era, pharmacies' front ends are radically different in design. OTC products are now self-serve, displayed on shelving that is accessible—not behind glass. Also missing are the high, unreachable wall shelves. A few soda fountains are still rocking in some pharmacies, bringing in traffic: A real asset in these all-too-modern times (In most modern pharmacies, they’re gone).

The nostalgia factor can, however, still be tapped, albeit less dramatically, by stocking up on products familiar to older consumers from their youth. To fill gift needs, nostalgia can fuel the sale of old-fashioned candy in a big way. Although clinic pharmacies have their own issues in retail sales for obvious reasons (think space issues), I contend that with the deft placement of specialty products, they too can work some magic in raising retail sales.

Let’s think about the days of yore, and the products that were big sellers. We can't forget patent medicines, which made outrageous—and in some cases, criminal—claims of efficacy in combating assorted ills. They were loaded with alcohol or laxatives and counted on either the buzz or a good bowel movement to satisfy a patient’s need for some relief and neglecting to address the malady they claimed to abate. With time and research, we've discovered the herbal, vitamin, and natural remedy formulas that have been proven to successfully treat many common maladies. These are great avenues for positive health results, as well as generating positive and legitimate revenue. Other modern era fads also include diet products that make grand, over the top promises of life changing weight loss. Commonly, the help they provide is found in the instructions on their labels: “Take these pills” (I call them placebos) “along with a proper diet and exercise.”

In fashion trends, low-end or costume jewelry will sell—in particular, styles that are fun, fanciful, and unique. These products will have a run of sales for a limited time, so don’t become married to them— simply become friends, while making new friends (new styles) periodically. For kids, display items like fidget spinners and Beanie Babies—another trend dipping its toe into nostalgia. Although they have come and gone, cute plush still sells, and small puzzles and toys continue to fill gift needs.

Looking ahead, to try to jump on fads or trends while they are on the way up can be filled with trepidation. Use caution, and walk before you run. Sometimes when a fad takes hold, it might already be too late by the time it hits the press! It’s better to count on trusted suppliers for “the buzz.” Also helpful is hearing chatter from customers about what’s going on in schools or in your local neighborhood. Fads tend to start regionally and travel unpredictably at various speeds. If you have a source for these types of products, jump in modestly and be prepared to jump ship. Closing out products at a discount isn’t a loss…. it’s a WIN! 

Of course, every store has different customers, so the actual movement of different offerings speaks volumes… if you’re listening. There are many established winning categories to tap into: fun edibles, well-displayed, are great. Specialty hand creams, not found in chains, with a tester available, is a tried and true winning formula. They are strong sellers in winter and summer, as are unique lip balms. Lots of us crack our lips while cracking a smile! These classic categories re-worked can be a way to spark your own trends.

Maybe the hottest fad ever, with legs longer than a giraffe, is… (drum roll)… 

Every—literally every—customer walking into any store has a cell phone and they all need charging. People don’t like their cell phones; they love them. All kinds of accoutrements, from ear pods, ways to hold phones, Bluetooth speakers, and more, all retail great. But all charging cords are king!Fuel this fire! These are retail gold.

In closing, I’ll turn to 2 nostalgic admonitions: One, Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and two, You’ll never go broke underestimating the public’s taste.

Tapping into nostalgia is one way to guide front-end stock choices. 

Front End Sales and Marketing

Now #Trending: Picking and Choosing Items to Stock the Front-End

 in the 1980s as a franchise program for independently owned pharmacies, the primary focus of community pharmacy was dispensing medications. Although some pharmacies specialized in home health care needs, such as durable medical equipment, others in the space focused purely on retail.

“Especially in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, chain [pharmacies] weren’t as prevalent,” Brian Nightengale, president of community and specialty pharmacy and long-term care at AmerisourceBergen, told 

®.“The independents were the main thing you saw in terms of pharmacies; chains were more regional and smaller—certainly not the large national presence they have now.”

As the role and influence of chain pharmacies began to evolve, Nightengale explained, the impetus for 

“When it was founded in the early 80s, it was to create a national brand [with] national support to compete with the expansion of the chains,” he said. “As we got into the mid- to late 90s, the substantial growth in chains and the rapid expansion was part of the growth of 

Over the past 2.5 decades, Nightengale has had a front row seat to the growth and expansion of 

, formerly serving as the president of the 

. However, despite the changes across the industry—ranging from drug coverage and reimbursement models in the early 2000s to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020—the 

“We’ve remained consistent in our mission over the past 40 years to rally together independent pharmacies, to support them in driving care and services in their communities that are much needed, and to give them a more powerful voice and presence in the industry,” he said. Although the 

 services have evolved over time, “our sense of purpose in supporting and using our scale, scope, and expertise…has not changed,” Nightengale said.

“It’s such a journey we’ve been on with our pharmacy owners­ and, as importantly, with their patients,” she said. “Our initial focus when we started 

 was on buying power [and] brand awareness. The goal was to feel more like a chain for our independent pharmacies—focused on signage, rugs, striping, and the 

 brand. As consumer and patient needs and requirements have shifted, our pharmacies have continued to evolve with those changing needs.”

In 2008, Zilka began building the AmerisourceBergen business coaching program, an initiative that focused on helping independent pharmacy members grow and optimize their businesses. When the program kicked off, Zilka explained, it was run by a team of 2. Today, there are nearly 40 coaches working with Good Neighbor Pharmacies across the country.

Part of that work has involved maintaining a line of sight into pharmacists’ continually evolving needs. Even a decade ago, a pharmacy owner wouldn’t have needed to concern themselves with digital advertising or social media marketing. “[Today], we’re focused on so much more,” Zilka said. That “more” includes assisting pharmacy owners with the digital transformation necessary to thrive in today’s business environment. 

 supports owners with digital marketing through Facebook and Google, the latter of which was just expanded to include Google Shopping Ads, which will enable pharmacies to attract more front-end shoppers by making pharmacy inventory available to the community when they search for products near them. GNP also provides front-end support, which since January 2020, has included addressing the disruption and challenges faced by every member of the health care industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 business coaching team at ThoughtSpot 2015. 

“This is my favorite topic right now, because our independent pharmacy owners are really, truly heroes in terms of how they stepped up during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Zilka said. “Not only from having to shift their business model from walk-ins to drive thru, curbside service, or even delivery, [but] they also organized food drives, grocery delivery, and so many things within their communities to help.”

And, she added, “We would be remiss if we didn’t talk about their vaccine efforts and the important role they played throughout the vaccine process. They had to evolve on the fly.” 

 worked quickly to establish a federal network partnership with the CDC on behalf of independent pharmacies, providing stores with much-needed vaccines for their communities. In early April 2022, 

officially surpassed 5 million vaccine doses

 sent to participating independent pharmacy members.

In part, this success was fueled by tireless advocacy work from the larger 

 team. “A lot of the focus in advocacy [up until the COVID-19 pandemic] was at the federal level,” Nightengale explained. “We started out needing to educate federal regulators and legislators in Congress about the pharmacy business model, the value of community pharmacy, and [about] some of the challenges that, quite frankly, laws and regulations were creating, preventing pharmacists and pharmacies from providing the level of care that they can.”

One such example, Nightengale noted, is the work 

 and AmerisourceBergen has done to address direct and indirect remuneration (DIR) fees. Nightengale recalls spending up to 2.5 years trying to educate members of Congress and their staff on what DIR fees were, what they stood for, and what exactly it represented in the larger Medicare ecosystem. Once accomplished, that work was able to shift toward addressing more specific issues, including “the problems [DIR fees] cause, how it increases patient out-of-pocket costs, and specific legislation that’s required for reform,” Nightengale said.

“That’s just 1 example of the evolution of education into real recommendations and action,” he said. “One of the biggest results of that is finally, we have legislation that has a real chance of moving forward to 

But despite all that Zilka, Nightengale, and 

 have accomplished, the work is far from done. The pharmacy landscape is constantly in motion, and even more changes are on the horizon.

“As I think about our pharmacies and how they’ve evolved over the past 40 years, there’s so much to be proud of,” said Zilka, “but we also still have so much work to do. Most importantly, we [must] continue to advocate and evolve the model of pharmacy as a recognized and meaningful extension of the overall health care system and as an essential access point for those who need the most care.”

Nightengale agreed, expressing his hopes that the very public response by independent pharmacies to the COVID-19 pandemic can create an opportunity for the profession. “My hope is that through this advocacy momentum we have through increased awareness, people all across this country recognize the value of pharmacy and the abilities pharmacies have to provide care for [patients] and their families, and that they [can] benefit from the incredible accessibility, expertise, and personalized care the community pharmacies and their staff provide.”

Looking forward to next year, Zilka anticipates 

 will “double down on the advocacy. We’re truly at an inflection point as a profession,” she explained, “and I think we [must] continue to share the important story of the role pharmacies played throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the important role they can play going forward.” The organization will also be investing in future independent pharmacy owners by increasing access to education through a new scholarship program funded in partnership between 

 and the AmerisourceBergen Foundation. The Good Neighbor Pharmacy Scholarship Program will support Black and African American students pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy degree at a historically Black college or university. This scholarship highlights the rewarding career of community pharmacy and underscores the importance of diverse representation in the pharmacy industry.

“It’s really easy to get up every morning and champion [our] independent pharmacy owners,” Zilka said. “Their resilience is second to none, [and] the care they provide to their patients and communities is phenomenal. We’ve been able to help them grow and evolve as the industry and patient needs evolve around them…leading us toward the ability to increase access, equity, and the services they’re able to provide patients.”

AmerisourceBergen & Good Neighbor Pharmacy surpass 5 million vaccine doses allocated through its Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for COVID-19 vaccination. News release. AmerisourceBergen. April 4, 2022. Accessed July 15, 2022. 

https://www.amerisourcebergen.com/newsroom/press-releases/amerisourcebergen-good-neighbor-pharmacy-surpass-5-million-vaccine-doses-allocated

AmerisourceBergen commends the introduction of S. 1909 & H.R. 3554, the Pharmacy DIR Reform to Reduce Senior Drug Costs Act, in Congress. News release. AmerisourceBergen. June 8, 2021. Accessed July 15, 2022. 

https://www.amerisourcebergen.com/newsroom/media-statements/amerisourcebergen-commends-the-introduction

After 40 years of experience, Good Neighbor Pharmacy is ready to tackle whatever challenges lie ahead for independent pharmacies.

Conferences

Community Practice

Thinking Back and Looking Forward, Good Neighbor Pharmacy Is Ready for the Next 40 Years

 in partnership with American Associated Pharmacies sits down with Don Arthur, RPh, a pharmacist and owner of Black Rock Pharmacy in Buffalo and Brighton Eggert Pharmacy in Tonawanda, New York, to discuss what clinical care may look like, the biggest challenges that lay ahead for independent pharmacies, and successes that he's seen in pharmacy.

. We're joined today by Don Arthur, to discuss the challenges that lay ahead for creating the next generation of independent pharmacies, how ground advocacy is shaping clinical care delivery, and what he's implementing to create the improved pharmacy of the future. As we transition into this next phase of the pandemic, what do you think clinical care delivery will look like at independent pharmacies?

Well, I think it's going to take on many different appearances. But I think point-of-care testing is the big theme, you know, that I'd like to talk about today. Some of the other clinical services that independent pharmacies have been providing: medication therapy management, some of the newer programs with diabetes, I think those will continue to have opportunities. I think what's happened to community pharmacies in the last two and a half years now, is how they were able to quickly adapt and become familiar with the various point-of-care testing that's out in our community. So I would say as we transition away from the pandemic, I think antibody testing, still talking about COVID is some opportunities, and I'd like to talk a little bit about that. But I think some of the lab partners that we had not even known of prior to COVID have approached us now to do finger pricks for vitamin deficiency. So lots of clinical opportunities in the near future.

So do you think that this future will require state or federal legislative changes? Or will it be on the ground advocacy work that makes this care a reality?

 Well, I wish it were the latter. I wish it was simply advocating for it, and it would become a thing, but unfortunately, it doesn't work that way and our pharmacy space. We have the federal government involved, obviously, the FDA and others, but we also have states involved: State Board of Pharmacy, state health department's. In community pharmacy, we have to deal with all of those regulatory bodies. But specific to where we are today, emergency orders really created our opportunities. We began COVID testing in November of 2020, 9 months after the pandemic began. It took us that long for our state governor to recognize that independent pharmacies could play a role. And then it took us several months to go through the licensing requirements to become an LSL and receive a CLIA waiver. So I think I'm really hoping, we showed here in Western New York, that we have been able to test our community quickly, efficiently, professionally. We've tested over 92,000 people to date. We continue to test much smaller daily numbers. But our vaccinations, we have vaccinated over 15,000 people since the pandemic began. And I think that that volume, hopefully has shown the regulators or politicians that we are absolutely the best place to receive certain types of point-of-care testing, but it will take permanent legislative action, both at the state and federal levels, for us to be able to do that.

 So what do you foresee as the biggest challenge in creating the next generation of independent pharmacies?

Well, in terms of my family, my dad started our pharmacies back in 1958. And most independent community pharmacies at that time were single pharmacies, opened by graduates of local pharmacy schools. And the average prescription, I think back then was under $10 and there were no such thing as PBMs. We actually, if you look at this historically, when we put our typewriters, I began working in 1977 in our family's pharmacies and in the early 1980s, when pharmacy computers were introduced to independent pharmacy, we took those typewriters that I still remember and put them under the counter, and we began processing prescriptions with our computers. At that time, insurance plans had started to evolve and offer prescription benefits with co-payments for patients and once we went to computers, we needed a platform similar to MasterCard Visa, to just basically handle that transaction for a transactional fee of 25 cents, 30 cents, whatever it was at the time. And they did a phenomenal job at that. But look what they've become, you know, now they're called prescription benefit managers. And unfortunately, even though we were there in the beginning, and we helped create that industry, they're probably our biggest challenge for independent community pharmacies. They are a partner, one would think, but the relationships we have with them are very, very difficult. We all have contracts that we sign independently as community pharmacies. But as I talk to my attorney, friends who do contract law, they're always confused by the lack of negotiation in the contract. So they are contracts, but they don't really feel like contracts because we as independent community pharmacies don't really have any options. And they're unfortunately becoming more and more difficult. On a day-to-day basis, I have two community pharmacies in Western New York, one Black Rock pharmacy opened in 1958. It's a traditional pharmacy, our volume is based on dispensing of tablets and capsules and solutions and liquids. And it's been very challenging to be able to work within this PBM world that's been created. My second pharmacy, Brighton Eggert pharmacy is a little bit different. We are a compounding pharmacy. We do nonsterile compounding. And we've been very fortunate in that regard to get a large amount of support from our physician community and our patients. So we've grown that business, we have a large erectile dysfunction business that we created with neurologists and throughout our area within a 60-mile radius. So, Brighton Eggert has been able to adapt a little more quickly than our traditional Black Rock pharmacy, but we shouldn't have to, these clinical opportunities, these things that pharmacy does, they should supplement an already vibrant, successful pharmacy, if you've been in your community since 1958, you're filling a large volume of prescriptions, which we are because we've developed a relationship with the community, sometimes three generations of families, and they respect us, they trust us, and they want to be with us. But a pharmacy like that should be able to compete to thrive, to be successful in the community, on providing those services, those traditional pharmacy services, if they're able to adapt and add staff and great clinical opportunities, that's fine, but they shouldn't have to do that to keep the lights on. So our biggest challenge is PBMs. And, of course, government, working with government, most independent pharmacies tend to be somewhat moderate, because we're just trying to find somebody out there on the state level and the federal level to help us.

 Okay, and so conversely, what successes have you seen in the industry so far?

 If we can get away from our traditional filling of prescriptions with tablets and capsules and having to interact with PBMs, and I'm always optimistic, I'm hoping that they do recognize the value we have in our community. Certainly our patients recognize and respect that. I think the local politicians in our communities too, but we're just not getting that from the PBMs. I'm hoping we soon have some successes in that area, both at the state and federal legislative level, in our interactions with prescription benefit managers, but in our relationships with our PSAOs, our pharmacy service groups that help us represent us in interacting PBMs. I hope we can come to some kind of an understanding that independent pharmacies truly do have value. We can help outcomes. We can help reduce healthcare costs. We can help make people healthier. So I'm optimistic in that regard. We are involved with CPSEN and CPSEN has grown throughout the 50 states, which is great for independent community pharmacy. They get it. Some of their programs we are working with. In New York state, there are active programs for diabetes. You had a nice article in your last 

 that talked about HbA1c point-of-care testing. I'm very interested in doing that. I think that's a big opportunity for independent community pharmacy. Again we've clearly shown everyone that there are certain health care services that are extremely convenient at independent community pharmacies. We showed that again, I do have 2 pharmacies and we decided to create a drive thru testing facility at my Brighton Eggert pharmacy, to be able to test 92,000 Western New Yorkers and counting and to vaccinate 16,000 people. Well, we didn't do it with our current staff. We were fortunate, we hired at one point 12 RNs working for us on a full time basis, and we were vaccinating 150 people a day. And I'm not any different than other independent community pharmacies throughout the country. I think in the last 24 months, we've shown that vaccinations, point-of-care testing, programs through CPSEN, medication therapy management. The spotlight has clearly been on us, the last two years. I think we've performed exceptionally, and I think that's hopefully going to create opportunities for the next several years and into our future.

 Okay, so in your current pharmacy practice, what kind of programs and practices are you implementing, to help create the improved pharmacy of the future?

I had mentioned our compounding business, and we focus on opportunities in that particular space. We're frustrated. We're fairly new compounders. We aligned ourselves with PCCA, Prescription Compounding Centers of America. And they've been fantastic. My father, we had eight pharmacies, and my father was a former president of NCPA. And my brother Brad, my dad was president in the early 80s and my brother Brad went through the system, and he was president a few years ago. So I've been going NCPA conventions since 1980, when I was in pharmacy school down University of Florida. And compounding was there back in the beginning, and my father and I, we had eight pharmacies. We were big front-end pharmacies at the time. We had gift departments and grocery departments. We sold beer, and we were part of True Value Hardware. And we said, ‘you know what, that's not us. We're pharmacies, we care for our community back in the pharmacy department. But we're also retailers and compounding’s just not something that we have an expertise in, or we're interested in.’ Well, I kept walking by their booth, and five years ago, we decided to start a compounding, a nonsterile compounding business. So we are somewhat new to the industry. But it's really changed our relationship with physicians, we now are problem solvers for our physicians whether it's in pain management, orthopedics, podiatry, or dermatology, but physicians now call us and ask us to help them solve problems. That's pretty neat. I didn't really experience that prior to getting into compounding. So we'll continue to grow that business. But it's this point-of-care testing, which is really exciting to me. We learned so much over the past two and a half years. It's amazing how technology changed from in the beginning of the pandemic. You would have to go to a large lab like Quest labs in our area and you would have to pay $225, wait upwards of seven to 14 days to get results on a COVID test. And now we do rapid antigen testing with results in 15 minutes. We do rapid PCR testing with results within an hour. We have a lab partner where we do lab-based PCR with results the following morning. So it's amazing how technology has been so rapidly evolving in that particular space. With that we met in creative relationships with businesses that I never even knew existed in our community. And we've been partnering with a local lab that has a national and an international presence. And they just received FDA EUA approval for a COVID antibody test that’s simply a fingerprint that gives you an analytical, numerical value. You know, we've been antibody testing in our pharmacies for the last year and a half with we've been using the first step. And it's a great antibody test, but it's just yes or no. So it doesn't really help the person know what level of antibody protection they have at a given time. This test will give you a number and that number equates to what they call the COVID-19 immune index and the number that goes from one to 20. It will define if you're at low risk or at high risk. So we're pretty excited. We think we're within weeks of launching that, again the company received an FDA EUA for this, where our role will be point-of-care testing. We will take the finger prick, we will put the sample into a card, and a courier will pick up those sample later that day. The patient will have very, very specific numeric report of their antibody levels with a very user-friendly explanation. Why is this of value? Probably, we're vaccinating about 25 people a day. Most of those people are age 51 and older, receiving their second boost, their fourth shot. And I think the number one question they have those under age 50, who are not yet eligible unless they have an underlying condition. Their question is, ‘do I need it?’ As I talked to the lab specialists that we work with and really understand and know this much better than I do, they think it's an excellent question, because it's not beneficial to overvaccinate someone. So if we know that people have different levels of antibody, well, we don't know, is it a genetic component? Is it a health component? There are several factors, I'm sure. But they all go back to the point of, if we have an antibody level, that's accurate, we can answer that question. And if your levels are low, it would be appropriate to receive another booster, if your antibody levels are high, you have significant protections still, and it's not necessary at the time. So we think we're going to be doing that, within the next two weeks. We feel it's going to be a covered service under insurance due to the Cares Act back in 2020. We're pretty excited about that. Because unfortunately, fall is right around the corner and we don't know what that's going to bring in the world of COVID. But to have a tool like that, for people to be able to know their antibody levels, and then make a decision based on that as to whether or not to receive another vaccine, I think is exciting.

 Okay, so do you have any final thoughts or takeaways that you'd like to share? Before we wrap up?

The final thoughts are that March of 2020, COVID, it's changed my pharmacy. I don't talk very much about the hand sanitizer, but if you remember in the beginning Purell just wasn't available. And, again, the country came to independent community pharmacies, especially those that had some compounding and lab experience, provided us with a federal formula, and asked if we could compound basically hand sanitizer. We made 10s of 1000s of bottles of hand sanitizer. We were providing in five gallon bottles for companies. We did that. We were able to adapt to do that over several weeks. We were able to gear up and provide a drive thru point-of-care testing for COVID. And the nasal swab as other independents have throughout the country and in very large numbers, up to 1500 in one day, during one of the holiday outbreaks. We were able to adapt to do that. Vaccines we've talked about, we've been vaccinating in New York State for 10 plus years. Unfortunately, the rate of flu vaccines is not as high as we would like it to be. So we would do 10,15, 20 a day during the season. We vaccinate for shingles. We vaccinate for pneumonia. But we had never thought that our staff expanded with some registered nurses could vaccinate up to 150 people a day. We've clearly showed our government that we can do these things. If you remember independent pharmacies throughout the country, it took some of us three months to receive our first vaccine, the government felt it was best to handle in clinic settings, which I think they may or may not have been right. I think those clinics, there was such a demand in the beginning when the vaccination became available, but they could have done better, they could have absolutely opened up those vaccine clinics and communities. I was actually a big part of some of those in our area. At the same time, they should have gotten those vaccines out to independent pharmacies day one. Ee should have been the focal point and chain pharmacies, because we've been vaccinating the community for the past 12 years. The rollout was difficult, but we're still vaccinating 20, 25 people a day. And I don't think there are any vaccine clinics. They've been gone in western New York for over 10 months. So I think government quietly, I wish it was publicly said, ‘wow, independent community pharmacies, look what you've done’, but I think they absolutely know. Tvery time we order vaccines, which we do weekly, New York State calls us and says ‘where are you finding these people? We've got pharmacies that haven't ordered vaccines and months.’ Where are these people coming from? I would say 90% of them are not our current patients. They're people that have heard about what we've done in the community in relationship to COVID and they're driving to us and we're vaccinating them. I'm excited about our future. I've got two boys, third generation working in our two community pharmacies, so I'm excited for them. I don't ignore the challenges we have with prescription benefit managers, but look what's happening around the country, all 50 states seem to be taking a much closer look, the FTC decided to take a look. I bounced around quite a bit today, as I do, but I do think there's lots of opportunities in the future.

Thank you for listening, and we hope to see you next time at the counter.

Podcasts

Don Arthur, RPh, discusses what lays ahead in independent pharmacy, from clinical care to success stories.

Looking to the Future of Independent Pharmacy

 Hello and thank you for tuning in to today's episode of Over the Counter, in partnership with AmerisourceBergen and Good Neighbor Pharmacy. I'm Miranda Hester and I'm an editor with 

. I'm joined today by Mark Szilagyi, owner and pharmacist at Gateway Pharmacy, a member of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy Network. Thank you for being here.

Gateway Pharmacy was recently named a Pharmacy of the Year finalist as part of Good Neighbor Pharmacy’s annual ThoughtSpot Conference and Trade Show. The award recognizes pharmacies that have gone above and beyond for their communities and displayed excellence in patient care and innovative pharmacy practice. Mark, congratulations to you and your team members on this amazing recognition. I'm excited to hear about the vital role that your pharmacy plays in your community and how you've continued to build that local legacy. But to start, can you give us a bit of background on the history of yourself and your pharmacy?

Absolutely. Gateway has been here in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania since the 1950s. And then in 1982, my dad Mark Sr. and his partner, Henry Katra. They both purchased the store and have been running it since then. So, of the 2 families, it's my sister and I and Henry's kids, Nicholas and Kristen Katra. We basically started when we were about 6 years old, a good funny story. I know 6 sounds young to start in pharmacy, but my mom would get tired of dealing with me. She would send me into work with my dad. And that's when I started at Gateway: pricing, different things up in the warehouse and just kind of puttering around as like a 6-, 8-, 9-, 10-, 12-year-old would do in a pharmacy.

I've had many, many roles here. From stock boy to pharmacy register to pharmacy technician and then to pharmacist and then finally to pharmacy manager and part owner. That's kind of my personal role here. As far as the store goes, we've been here since 1950. We purchased the store in 1982; it's been a staple of the community since then. We've been trying to offer as many services to the community as we possibly could.

 Can you tell me more about the Phoenixville community? What is your patient population like and what are they looking for from their local pharmacy?

Absolutely. The town is pretty interesting. In the 1800s, Phoenix Steel started; [Phoenixville] was a huge steel town, and as a lot of Pennsylvania towns that had steel or coal did in the 1980s, they closed the plant, and so the demographics really changed from a booming, popular town. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie 

—it's an old movie, a horror movie—and that was the biggest thing about Phoenixville after the plant closed—that it was filmed in Phoenixville. The demographics really changed in the 80s. It became a town where money wasn't flowing. The plant was closed. We had a lot of older people who stayed, and then a lot of people who left and went to the city, or went to more prosperous areas.

Then, in the mid 2000s, [community leaders] decided that they were going to try to revitalize the town. They started opening up Bridge Street to have some new restaurants and different pubs and beer gardens and things like that. And it's just taken off in the last 10 to 15 years. We have a really diverse population. We have those people from the old school, blue collar, steel mill; we have new millennials who have moved into town, who really love the bars and all that. Our population is really—I don't want to say too unique—but really wonderful because we have everybody from older people who've been here for 56 years to people who just moved here maybe 2, 3, 4 or 5 years ago. It's a great community. People come together, and it's a small community too—so a lot of people know everybody, and there are a lot of names that…you'll see and [say] ”Oh, that's a Phoenixville name.” It's a really great diverse and vibrant community.

 Let’s talk about your approach to patient care and relationships at Gateway Pharmacy. What kind of experience do you strive to provide your patients, and how do you and your staff members make that a reality?

I always thought about a couple of things, actually. The one thing I always thought about was [that] going to the pharmacy or going to the doctor is not really always the most exciting or pleasurable experience. I mean, when you're sick or you don't feel well, [or] you have something wrong with you, your mentality changes. [It’s different] than if you were going to get a breakfast or going to go shopping for clothes or something that you would enjoy. I try to impart that sort of mentality of the patient, that not everybody may want to be here, coming to us. Our goal is to try to make it as easy and as pleasurable as possible.

Being that we are small community, it's nice to greet people and try to know who they are, and to remember them. I can say that some of our staff are just so amazing. I could point out Tricia, our general manager. She knows so many people by name, goes right to the basket when she sees them, doesn't have to ask the name. We don't always necessarily require that of everyone, but that type of mentality, that we're here for you, we know who you are, and we're ready to help you out in any way we can, I think is good—not only for us, but it's great for someone who doesn't want to be there. It sort of helps smooth everything over and you leave feeling good about trying to not necessarily fix, but sort of treat, what is wrong. We're making a bad thing a little bit better.

We don't prescribe medicine. So we can't say, “Well, you know, this is the drug you take,” but we can communicate it to the patient, and that's really our job as a pharmacist. I tell people they don't pay me to count pills. They pay me to talk to you. They pay me to communicate and work you through the process of getting a prescription. I think that our staff really tries to impart that as best they can, and to just tries to make the experience a little bit better.

 Great, thank you. As those in the industry know, pharmacists’ role and value in the health care system has been increasing exponentially for many years, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mark, can you discuss how Gateway has grown and evolved its services and offerings over the years to meet the changing needs of your patients.

After COVID-19, we had a number of things in place that we really saw starting to take off. The biggest one was obviously the immunizations. We always did immunize people; we did flu shots yearly, and we do shingles shots, pneumonia, and Tdap. But obviously, with the COVID-19 vaccine… that was a huge thing. We really had a great response with our customers and the community at large, being able to provide it through a couple other different organizations that we worked with. We also do medication adherence—the SMM program is what we call it—which really tries to help people not only get their medication every month or every 3 months, but also to tries to keep them on track to take [those medications].

We are now starting a diabetes prevention program, which is headed up by Nick Katra, one of the partners. The goal is to try to capture people who are prediabetic, and to teach them a way to avoid getting diabetes through lifestyle changes.

We also have a compounding lab, which we do a lot of different stuff, some pet medication. We do some programs for patients who are unable to take certain dyes and fillers. And we have actually— it has really been a robust thing—is some long-term care homes, which has been a wonderful, wonderful experience for us. We found that in the community, there were a lot of smaller group homes that had maybe 5, 6, or 7 patients…and they had patients taking care of them. They were not getting the type of service from their previous groups that we were able to provide. It wasn't that we were doing anything really all that phenomenal or new. It was just that we work personally with them, to blister pack their medicine, do a monthly cycle for them, provide them with medication records, so that they're able to give the medicine to the patients. That's been a wonderful, wonderful windfall for us. We're really proud of that program.

One of my personal favorites is doing a lot of pet medication. It's been really a great experience, because we're finding that as an independent pharmacy, you're a lot of times priced out by the bigger guys, as far as prescriptions go. This was an opportunity, once AmerisourceBergen was able to get us a contract to do pet medications, that we could become relevant in that space, and that's been great. You're not dealing with insurance companies, so that's something that's been fantastic.

We had a mobile app before [the pandemic], which has been used a lot more. We instituted a text function, and everybody texts now. I mean it's just amazing how 90 year old people, they text—which is fabulous, because I think it definitely helps you communicate better.

And we do a lot of over-the-counter stuff. Our gifts section is just phenomenal. We have a great candy case that we just put in a couple months ago, and people have really responded to that. So, we do a lot of different things. And after COVID-19—or during COVID-19—we really didn't change anything other than that we made [the pharmacy] more accessible to people. If people wanted to do curbside, we did curbside. If people wanted delivery, we did delivery. The good thing about it was doing the vaccines and getting more exposure; I think people started to see all the things that we did, which was really great because we always did these things. It was just letting those people who didn't know about us already see all the great things that we did.

 Mark, can you tell me about the mobile vaccine clinic that Gateway had during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Yeah, we had a great partnership in town with the mayor, Valley Forge Fire Company, West End Fire Company, Phoenixville emergency management and Phoenixville hospital. We all got together in a very serendipitous way. It turned out that I could get the vaccine, [and] they couldn't, but I didn't really have the people to provide the right volume of shots. We got together and we did amazing things. I think we've vaccinated over 10,000 people at this point. It's been it's been a wonderful thing.

We would go to schools; we did Phoenixville Area Middle School, we did Phoenixville High School, we did Owen J. Roberts Middle School, and we did Owen J. Roberts High School. We also provided a number of different vaccine clinics together with them. It was just a wonderful experience. We got to really know the mayor, who is an amazing man. We got to know a lot of the community even better than we already do, so it was fun. I will say this: it was fun because it's amazing what you can get done when everybody is on the same page and has a common goal. I think we really did that. And we've created partnerships for the rest of our lives with that.

 It’s so inspiring to hear how you and your team have continued to go above and beyond for your community during such a critical time. Independent pharmacies are known for their ability to provide trusted and high-quality patient care, but there is so much more that goes into running your business behind the scenes. How has being a part of the Good Neighbort Pharmacy network helped advance and optimize your pharmacy’s operations so you can focus more on delivering the best care possible?

Being a part of AmerisourceBergen and Good Neighbor Pharmacy has been integral, particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic…We knew that this [the vaccination process] was going to be something that we wanted to be a part of; we just weren't sure what we were going to be able to do, whether it was just a couple people here, just a local population. And as I said before, it turned into a wonderful thing where we did the high schools in the area and a lot of the community. When I worked with Mark, our business coach, he really gave me the ideas like, “You can do more, you can do more than a couple hundred people.” He laid it out, that it's “Look, if you guys really want to do this, you can do this.” And so, with AmerisourceBergen having the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine… I'll be honest, I was incredibly intimidated by having ultra-cold, frozen, 1200 shots of [the vaccine] sitting in a freezer in my pharmacy. I was nervous about that, [thinking], I don't want to screw this up. My sister and I sat down one day and we said, “Can we really do this?” We talked to Mark a little bit and then we talked to our group that we were working with and we said, “Let's do it, let's get this done.” And it took off from there. I said to Mark, “I can't thank you enough for inspiring us and for AmerisourceBergen being able to provide us the shot.”

What happened in our county was, the local health department sort of took over initially and they did these mass vaccination clinics and that was great. They did what they needed to do, but they cut a lot of the local smaller groups out, so we weren't able to get a lot of the vaccine to the state. When AmerisourceBergen stepped up and said, “We have this available,” it really gave us that opportunity. I said to Mark, “You know, it's really nice to be able to play in the game”—like that old 

 kind of thing—and see what we can do. I think when you see the numbers and what we were able to do, if you look at the vaccination rates in our county, we definitely had a hand in vaccinating a lot more people, because AmerisourceBergen put us in the game.

 As we mentioned earlier, Gateway Pharmacy has been named a Pharmacy of I Year finalist by Good Neighbor Pharmacy. Mark, what does this recognition mean to you? And what are you most proud of?

That this nomination is not just for the owners, or [for] me or my sister. It really is a testament to everyone that we work with—all the employees here—and a testament to the community because it's been difficult for independent pharmacy. In the last 10 years, it's been a difficult drive. There are a lot of competitors, a lot of big chains; they use tactics where you have to go to them for monetary reasons. It’s really a testament to our customers who stuck with us for years and years and years; [they] didn't have to come to us. This nomination really is… we wouldn't be here without them. It's a great honor. I think it's well deserved from all groups, our customers, the owners, and all our employees.

 That’s wonderful, and best of luck to you! To close out our conversation, what are some of your biggest priorities for the year ahead? What excites you most about the future of independent pharmacy?

I think we're excited to see what happens with the new vaccine. In the fall, we're going to plan on vaccinating as many people that want to get vaccinated. We're planning on doing flu shots, which I think is going to be another big thing. It's been really a good scene for us. What I am most excited about for independent pharmacy, I think, is being independent. I think that gives us a really good niche. Like we said, the competitors… they basically force you there. You're not happy to go there. You go there because you have to. Being independent allows us to stick and move and figure out different things: how can we help this smaller group, or [what happens] when you get enough small groups together? It starts to snowball and you start to pull people together and you start to have a little bit of a network. That’s what I'm interested in: Not necessarily getting the people who can't come to us, but getting the people who want to come to us. Getting those small groups and finding enough small groups together to make a big group to thrive and to grow and to do new and different things.

ThoughtSpot

Mark Szilagyi, co-owner and pharmacist at Gateway Pharmacy, a member of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy network, joins Drug Topics to discuss the role his pharmacy plays in his Phoenixville, Pennsylvania community.

Front-line Leaders: Gateway Pharmacy

 Hello and thank you for tuning in to today's episode of over the counter in partnership with AmerisourceBergen and Good Neighbor Pharmacy. I'm Miranda Hester and I'm an editor with 

®. I'm joined today by Micah Lansford, owner and pharmacist at Roden-Smith Pharmacy, a member of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy Network. Thank you so much for joining us.

Roden-Smith Pharmacy was recently named a Pharmacy of the Year finalist as part of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy’s annual ThoughtSpot conference and trade show. The award recognizes pharmacies who have gone above and beyond for their communities and displayed excellence in patient care and innovative pharmacy practice.

Dr. Lansford, congratulations on this incredible recognition. I'd love to hear more about how you've supported your patients and community over the last several years. But first, can you share a bit of your background in history of both yourself and your pharmacy?

 Thanks for having me on; I appreciate it. My name is Micah Lansford. I'm the owner and pharmacist in charge here at Roden-Smith Pharmacy. I went to Texas Tech University for my undergrad degree in biochemistry and then went to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, for pharmacy school. My background thus far in my career has mainly been community pharmacy.

We're located in Clovis, New Mexico. It's all the way on the east side of the state, about 10 miles away from Texas. Roden-Smith pharmacy has been around for almost 75 years through various owners; I just happen to be the current one. My dad bought the pharmacy back in 1996 and I purchased it from him in 2019. My parents are still involved. My mom was a technician and a bookkeeper and my father is still a pharmacist, of course. He relieves our staff pharmacists whenever they are out, and he also holds a block in our morning rotation that's primarily checking patient medications. They're both really very helpful still, to this day, in my ownership of the pharmacy.

 Can you speak a bit about your specific community in Clovis, New Mexico? And what makes your patient population unique in terms of their needs and how they interact with your pharmacy?

 In Clovis, we have a relatively diverse community, for more of a rural community. We have an Air Force base here that's a special operations base that means a lot to us; we're awfully proud to have the Cannon Air Force base here. Those members of the Air Force community, their families live here, we go to school with them, and we’re involved with them in a lot of ways. It changes the dynamics having them here. We have a huge agricultural community, a railroad community, a dairy community… And so in our town of about 50,000 people, we have some pretty different occupations that all collide together and coexist here.

You mentioned the family-owned aspect of your pharmacy. Has that dynamic influenced your approach to patient care and relationships?

 It definitely has. I started working in the pharmacy when I was very young, probably at an illegal age. I got to observe not only my parents, but our entire staff engage with patients. I felt like I really had a front row seat to see how to really take care of people, especially whenever they really needed something above and beyond a normal patient interaction. Being able to observe that really has a lasting effect and you want to have that type of engagement with patients as often as possible. That's what's rewarding about being a pharmacist, especially on the front lines—being able to have those experiences with patients.

 As everyone in the industry knows, the pharmacist’s role in patient care has, and continues, to grow exponentially. Can you discuss how your pharmacy has expanded its services and offerings over the years to meet patient's evolving needs?

 At Roden-Smith, we are all about our [medication synchronization] program. We see it as the main foundation of every other service. It really allows us to not just spend time filling prescriptions, but to do it in a thoughtful way. Then we can spend time pursuing other things like our nonsterile compounding, both hazardous and nonhazardous. We do facility management and consulting; we actually go into facilities almost every week to review patient medications, in addition to consulting services to make sure that the facility staff and our staff are on the same page whenever it comes to those patients at facilities who are synchronized.

We do travel health; we do pretty much all vaccines, both in the pharmacy and in the form of remote clinics. We offer delivery services, we do multidose packaging, and to a lesser extent, we offer testing services. We want to continue to invest in services that produce outcomes for our patients that are helpful. We've had experiences in the past with services where we can say we offer it, but it's not necessarily helpful for patients, or doing the most good with our time and resources. In the future, we want to make sure that anything we're adding onto our plate does the most good that it can do.

 Thinking specifically about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, what were some of the evolutions you needed to make to your business to continue delivering the care your community needed? How did you navigate factors like testing, immunization, and treatment to ensure access for your patients?

 That was something that we were really proud of. When COVID-19 started, nobody really knew what the appropriate reaction was. It seemed that there was this idea that a vaccine was going to become available; I knew that in our area, and in eastern New Mexico, that it was going to be an expectation that we provided [the vaccine], and provided it in an efficient way for a lot of people to get it. With allocations, and how they originally came out in New Mexico, the National Guard was put in charge of it. There was paperwork required to do business with the state, so to speak. And so, I tell people all the time, I wouldn't have that time, if I hadn't had been so organized with [medication synchronization], where I could spend days just preparing for the vaccine.

We partnered with the state in that way. We were able to get a couple hundred doses and had already developed a list of first-line eligible patients for it, and went to them within the first couple of weeks. We went to primary care clinics, we went to our facilities, and we went to our providers and frontline workers to give them the vaccine where they were at, and then also offered it in the pharmacy. We were able to get rid of a couple hundred doses in the first week in a really meaningful way.

That expedience, in initially getting rid of it in the best way, allowed the state to trust us with a lot more vaccines. I called the general who was in charge of it at the time and said, “You know, I'm really the only one here doing it. I could give a lot more, if you could promise me more vaccine.” He asked me, “How much can you give?” And I said, “Well, if I had 2000 doses a week, I could figure out a way to give it.” I thought I was overshooting what he was going to be willing to give me, but he said okay. I knew I was going to be getting 2000 doses a week for at least a month. I thought “How the heck am I going to get rid of 2000 doses that I've said I could get rid of?” It really put a lot of pressure on me to reach out to local people in the community and pull together to make it happen.

We reached out to a local building owner who owned [a building where] a grocery store that went out of business [used to be]; he offered up his building for us to set up a remote clinic. We reached out to the telecom provider to provide free internet there for us to put in all of our equipment, and we reached out to emergency management with the city and they provided services on-site and coordination for patients, [in addition to] cones and chairs and partitions and all kinds of equipment. The schools provided some equipment; emergency management provided an EMT on-site every day to manage our post-vaccination room.

We went through several months of giving as many as 500 vaccines a day. I think that working through local connections and partnering with a local pharmacy—with the connections and relationships we have and [are able to capitalize on]—those really made it a really successful endeavor for us. We had people driving from all the way up in Farmington, New Mexico—6 or 7 hours away—to Clovis, New Mexico, to get their vaccine because they had heard that they could come and get it, and it would be efficient and quick. They didn't have to worry about jumping through a bunch of hoops to get their vaccination in the first few months of 2021. It was a very stressful process, but we're awfully proud that we made it happen. We were able to give just an incredible amount of vaccines in the first few months of 2021.

 How has being part of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy network benefited your pharmacy, particularly during the height of COVID-19, and what areas of support proved most valuable?

 I would say that through my rep and through our business coach, and through our boots on the ground people [at Good Neighbor Pharmacy], that's one of the most helpful things. If I have an issue with something, I can reach out to Todd, my rep, or Justin, my business coach. I can walk through with them, and they can connect me to the right people—whether that's products or services or paperwork, they're there to aid me in those endeavors and make sure that if they can't help me, they're going to get me connected with somebody who can help me. I really appreciate those two guys, especially for really being there for us throughout the whole process.

 What does it mean to you that Roden-Smith Pharmacy has been named a Pharmacy of the Year finalist?

 It is a special recognition to even be nominated. It’s something that we've often thought that would be cool to go after, then had second thoughts and thought, “We probably don't deserve it, there are way better pharmacies out there than us.”

But this year, we thought, “We've really just put ourselves out there.” Our staff has just been incredible throughout the last couple of years, just putting in all kinds of overtime and doing whatever it took to get the job done every day. It's not just special to me and my family, but it's really something that we're proud of and can say for the whole staff that it's not 

 Pharmacy of the Year award; it’s our entire staff that deserves the recognition for even being nominated for an award like this. We're enjoying the process of going through it and hope that we're the winner—but if we're not, we're just proud to be among the top 3 that got nominated.

 Best of luck to you! To close out our conversation, what are some of your main goals for the year ahead? What keeps you up at night and what are you most excited about?

 I think that as far as goals, in a lot of ways it's still surviving COVID-19; it's getting out boosters, and we're still spending a lot of time doing that. I think the last couple of years have taught us a lot as far as which goals should be prioritized, and how do you want to spend your time on those? We're wanting to make sure that our patients are taking care of in the most meaningful ways, and any goal we have in the future is going to align with that.

As far as what keeps me up at night, regulation and insurance practices—both in my career and before that—has been the most troubling thing. The complexity of just being a pharmacy and adhering to not only state and federal regulations, but then these provider manuals from [pharmacy benefit managers] and still having time to engage with patients [in ways that are] actually helpful to them... That's what I spend the most time talking about with my wife at night, and what would keep me up.

I hope that the industry, within community pharmacy and how it relates and interfaces with regulatory bodies and PBMs and insurers, can find a way where everyone can win. And we can evolve our relationship at the pharmacy back to being less about explaining insurance benefits and deductibles and copays and prior authorizations, and more back to medication therapy for patients and really being able to prioritize that and everything we do, and worry less about the financial side of it. That would be my hope for the future. I'm hoping to be a part of that change in whatever way I can.

Micah Lansford, owner and pharmacist at Roden-Smith Pharmacy, a member of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy network, joins Drug Topics to discuss the role his pharmacy plays in his Clovis, New Mexico community. 

 Front-line Leaders: Roden-Smith Pharmacy

 Hello and thank you for tuning in to today's episode of 

 in partnership with AmerisourceBergen and Good Neighbor Pharmacy. I'm Miranda Hester, editor for 

 and I'm joined today by Marisa Fader, Vice President at Bushard’s Pharmacy and Apothecary, a member of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy network. Happy to have you join us.

Bushard’s Pharmacy was recently named a Pharmacy of The Year finalist as part of Good Neighbor Pharmacy’s annual ThoughtSpot Conference and Trade Show. Each year, the award recognizes pharmacies that have gone above and beyond for their communities and displayed excellence in patient care and innovative pharmacy practice. Marisa, congratulations on this wonderful recognition. I'm looking forward to hearing about the role your pharmacy serves in your community and your approach to patient care, but first I want to give you an opportunity to share a bit more background in history on yourself and your pharmacy.

Hi, my name is Marisa. I am the Vice President of Bushard’s Pharmacy. My mom is the president. I graduated Loyola Marymount University with a business degree; when I came out of college, we were in quite a bit of a recession, so I couldn't find a job anywhere. I decided, why not, I'll work with my mom and see what happens. And over 10 years later, here I am.

Our pharmacy is located in Laguna Beach, California. My mom is the owner now, [and] my grandfather started the business in 1946. He was a pharmacist and went to [the University of Southern California]. We're on our third generation. I'm hoping that we continue that for as long as possible. We serve our little beach community, and our biggest priority is our customers and our patients. We try to do the most that we can to provide a healthy place for them.

 Can you touch on this specific community you serve in Laguna Beach, California? What is your community like, and what are they looking for from their pharmacy?

For the most part, we have a pretty healthy population. There's a lot of older, retired people, but there's also a lot of new, young families who have moved to this beach community so that they can enjoy it. We also have a lot of people that travel here on vacation, so we do serve a lot of traveling people when they run out of their medication or need something transferred, or forgot [a medication], or need help because they're not home. We also provide that service to that community.

You mentioned the family-owned aspect of your pharmacy; what does being a family-owned pharmacy mean to you, and what influence has it had on how you run your business and serve your patients?

Well, I think when your name is on the front door, there's definitely much more of a pride of ownership in the business. There's a personal responsibility to our customers and our patients. And for us, it's very important to know their name, know their kid's name, know their dog's name, know that they just went on vacation, and know what's going on in their lives. We treat our patients like our family because we are still family-owned, and to me, that's the most important part.

It's been made clear that pharmacists play a massive role in patient care, drive value for broader for the broader healthcare system and will continue to expand their roles in the years to come. Can you discuss how your pharmacy has evolved and expanded its services and offerings over the years to meet patient's evolving needs and expectations?

 We have tried to make the process of refilling and transferring your prescriptions as easy as possible. Obviously, we still accept phone calls all of the time, but we've implemented an app and we've put something on our website to refill your prescriptions. We try to offer as many immunizations and vaccinations as we can, because everybody doesn't always want to make an appointment [with their physician]. And if they're here already, it's easy to just get what they need.

We try to synchronize as many medications for our patients as possible. We do that through consultations with the pharmacist so that they're adherent to their medication and taking it when they're supposed to and know what [it is] and why they're taking it. We've offered delivery for a long time so we're going to continue to do that. We do have a little back Dutch door that has become kind of a curbside pickup, which is fun because people just drive by, and we hand their prescription out the window to them. Then as far as the front end of the store, the products that we provide to our patients are always adapting and changing, and we take their interests and their recommendations into consideration and try and always keep an updated front end.

 Thinking about the onset and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, what changes were made to your pharmacy to continue delivering critical patient care during this time? I see that Bushard’s opened a COVID-19 vaccination site during April 2021. Can you talk me through that service and how it allows you to step up as a community health care destination?

Once the quarantine was sanctioned in California, we decided to offer free delivery because everybody was at home and didn't want to venture outside. Most of the time, we delivered toothpaste with somebody's prescription as well, so we're offering whatever type of medication [the patient needed] or over the counter items needed to feel safe and stay at home; we wanted to provide that free delivery.

And then, as the pandemic continued, we realized that we needed to be able to provide the COVID-19 vaccine for our customers and our patients. Like I said, we do have an elderly, retired population here who is somewhat homebound, and they can't travel hours to go get their vaccine. I worked with the city of Laguna Beach to be able to utilize a large empty building that's actually right across from our retail location. We were able to open up a big, safe space for people to come and get their vaccine. With the city's help, it was very easy to set up this clinic. And we were able to provide that service for our patients so that they didn't have to travel too far outside of their homes.

 Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, how has being a part of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy network advanced your pharmacy and help set you apart from competitors? What areas of support proved most useful to your business and staff members?

Marisa Fader, Vice President of Bushard's Pharmacy and Apothecary, a member of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy network, joins Drug Topics.