Reimagining How Pharmacies Deliver Health Care for Patients

Jake Galdo, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, BCGP, managing network facilitator of CPESN Community Health, and Tripp Logan, PharmD, vice president of Semo Rx Pharmacies, challenged the conventional wisdom that "all pharmacies are the same," presenting a comprehensive argument for recognizing the unique value and potential of community pharmacies. At the Total Pharmacy Solutions Summit, held in fall 2025, they delved into the critical need for a more nuanced understanding of pharmacy services, highlighting how different pharmacies can dramatically impact patient care and community health.

By challenging the notion that all pharmacies are identical, they offered a compelling vision of community pharmacies as dynamic, patient-centered health care providers. They go beyond academic theory, providing practical insights into how pharmacies can stand apart from each other, emphasizing that true differentiation comes from understanding and addressing individual patient needs, investing in staff, adopting innovative care models, and continuously seeking ways to provide compassionate health care. As health care continues to evolve, their perspective offers a promising path forward—one where pharmacies are recognized not just as medication dispensers, but as critical, integrated health care partners committed to improving patient outcomes and community health.

“There's a big difference between what's going on in the pharmacies, and we all know that all pharmacies are not the same. All those pharmacies are not equal, but in the EHR [electronic health records], they appear that way,” Logan said.

Key Takeaways From Galdo and Logan's Presentation

• Drawing parallels with other service industries, Galdo and Logan demonstrated how pharmacies should be evaluated similarly to hotels, restaurants, and ride-sharing services. Just as consumers choose hotels based on ratings and quality, pharmacies should be assessed on more than just basic licensing requirements. They emphasized that meaningful measures and consumer feedback are crucial in driving quality and innovation across service industries.
• They also highlight significant gaps in how pharmacies are currently measured. Existing evaluation methods primarily focus on product volume, generic compliance, and basic business metrics, rather than the quality of patient care. They argued that this approach fails to capture the true value pharmacies provide, especially in managing chronic conditions and addressing social determinants of health.
• A powerful case study illustrated the potential of community pharmacies to provide personalized care. The example of an 80-year-old patient in Glen Rose, Texas, showcased how a pharmacy went beyond medication dispensing. The pharmacists conducted asthma screenings, worked with community health workers, established a delivery route, and intervened with local authorities to improve the patient's living conditions, demonstrating care that extends far beyond traditional pharmaceutical services.
• Galdo and Logan proposed a revolutionary approach to pharmacy contracting. Their model suggests aligning medical insurance and pharmacy payments to incentivize high-quality care. This would mean pharmacies with superior patient outcomes would receive higher insurance payments and offer lower patient co-pays, creating an economic model that rewards exceptional service.
• They also highlighted that medical care represents only 20% of a patient's overall health, with social determinants accounting for the remaining 80%. Community pharmacies are uniquely positioned to address these nonmedical factors, operating in the spaces where people are born, grow, work, live, and age.
• Galdo and Logan shared concrete examples of their network's impact, including a Missouri vaccine gap closure program that facilitated over 80,000 vaccine hesitancy interventions and closed 12,000 care gaps in just 9 months. Similar programs in Kansas achieved a remarkable 50% gap closure rate.
• A key recommendation was to change how pharmacies describe their services. Instead of "appointment-based" or "medication synchronization," they suggested using terms like "care coordination." Rather than "delivery services," pharmacies should frame their work as "ensuring access to care." This linguistic shift can help reposition pharmacies as critical health care providers.
• Finally, Galdo and Logan discussed a vision of pharmacy networks that are clinically integrated, focusing on bundled product and service contracts. This approach would align pharmacy, medical insurance, and pharmacy benefit manager interests, moving beyond the current fragmented system.

“Medication is the least expensive thing that we could do in order to help patients with chronic conditions, but also, the reality is [that] life gets in the way of taking medications for chronic disease," Logan said. "And if the pharmacy's job is just to operate based on the minimum standards to be a pharmacy…all you're doing is dispensing the drug.”