In discussions about the evolution of the pharmacy sector, the role of specialty pharmacies in patient care is taking center stage. Major areas of focus include patient follow-up, care transitions and engagement.
This focus on the role of specialty pharmacies was a major theme during an executive roundtable at Becker's 14th Annual Meeting led by Karen Thomas-Smith, senior vice president of sales and marketing at BD Parata.
Four key takeaways were:
- Health systems are exploring innovative strategies to address labor shortages and retain staff. These strategies include creating professional ladders for pharmacists so they can grow their careers within the organization, while working at the top of their license. Other strategies include building an early pipeline and an internal float pool of new pharmacy technicians. "We're exploring the idea of starting a pharmacy technician program where we go into high schools to start developing [young people], bringing them in for internships and training," Ms. Thomas-Smith said.
- Leveraging technology can help retain staff and improve workflow efficiency. Inspired by the work-from-home momentum of the COVID era, some health systems are offering pharmacists 10-hour shifts for four days a week instead of 8-hour daily shifts. They have also authorized pharmacists to make clinical calls from home and to use technology such as Microsoft Teams for meetings. "We leveraged technology, worked with Teams and offered work-from-home shifts for pharmacists, which helped retain staff and provided greater work-life balance," Ms. Thomas-Smith said.
- Health systems are expanding residency programs to train specialized talents and improve retention rates. Some organizations are partnering with schools of pharmacy to establish training programs for pharmacy technicians; others are sending out staff pharmacists to give presentations at colleges to promote the benefits of a pharmacy career.
"We expanded our residency programs significantly and have a better retention rate with our [internally trained] pharmacy residents than with hired pharmacists," Ms. Thomas-Smith said.
- Health systems are exploring ways to improve outpatient and retail services, such as central fulfillment and mail order. However, some organizations are having difficulties getting buy-in from financial leadership, considering the high costs of renting the type of large spaces a centralized facility requires in an environment of decreasing reimbursements. "We have ambulatory retail locations and are exploring centralized outpatient fulfillment services," Ms. Thomas-Smith said. "The challenge is setting up our own mail order or retail locations."
Despite staffing, financial and other challenges, the potential of specialty pharmacies to improve healthcare delivery from within is huge. Insourcing, direct negotiations with drug manufacturers and better formulary management are possible solutions that can help health systems fortify their pharmacy function.