You don’t have to look far to uncover the power pharmacists have to make their patients’ lives better.
Not long ago, I was in an airport waiting for my flight when I struck up a conversation with a gentleman who, upon finding out I was a pharmacist, told me that his wife takes a specialty medication that's on allocation. He explained that, in their small hometown, there were only two pharmacists in the whole area. Despite working for different businesses in entirely different sectors of pharmacy, these pharmacists remained in constant touch, not only with him and his wife but with each other, to make sure they could always get her the quantity of drugs she needed for that month.
Those two pharmacists changed that patient’s – and her family’s – life.
Maybe this sounds like a rare case of pharmacists going above and beyond to help a patient. But to many pharmacists, prioritizing this sort of holistic treatment is simply part of their everyday approach to providing patient care. For community retail pharmacists, becoming more involved in their patients’ preventive care and medication counseling means also becoming more connected with other providers and healthcare organizations, finding ways to break through information silos to help create a community of care for their patients.
The power of retail pharmacists on the care team
In recent years, retail pharmacies have expanded beyond medication transactions to become a “one-stop-shop” for health and wellness services, such as providing immunizations and screenings and supporting chronic disease management. Since pharmacies already have footprints within communities, they have the opportunity to continue to expand their role in their patients’ healthcare journeys by becoming more engaged with local community resources and providers.
Both the need and the desire for pharmacist caregivers is there:
- According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the United States could face a physician shortage of up to 86,000 by 2036, including a shortage of 20,200–40,400 primary care physicians and 10,100–19,900 physicians in surgical specialties. This will increase the difficulty in accessing appropriate or timely health system-based care for many patients.
- Approximately 30 million people in the continental U.S. live in healthcare deserts without close or consistent access to health systems, clinics, or medical offices, requiring them to rely on telehealth or their local pharmacy for non-emergent care.
- According to the Wolters Kluwer Pharmacy Next survey, 58% of Americans are likely to visit a local pharmacy as a first step when faced with a non-emergency medical issue, and up to 81% say they trust a pharmacist to diagnose minor illnesses and prescribe medications to treat them.
- That trust is higher in younger generations: More than half of Gen Z and Millennials (56% and 54%, respectively) have visited a local pharmacy to receive care in the past year, compared to 40% of Gen X and 35% of Boomers.
- 79% of Americans say they trust their local pharmacy to provide care more than clinic staff at department stores.
Community retail pharmacies have the opportunity and the expertise to impact the health and wellness of consumer populations that are eager and in need of their services. However, challenges arise in how to ensure care remains consistent and coordinated with the rest of a patient’s providers and team.
