Walgreens' vice president of pharmacy of the future, Rina Shah, PharmD, told Politico federal laws are needed to further meld pharmacists into other healthcare roles.
"The silver lining around COVID was that the federal government removed some of those administrative restrictions and really allowed us to be able to administer millions of life-saving vaccinations and testing services," Dr. Shah said. "However, when that all peels back, the scope does vary by state."
She said the retail pharmacy chain is working to ensure pharmacists are nationally and locally recognized as healthcare providers.
Pharmacy workers have the training to do more, Dr. Shah said, which is a sentiment shared by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and CVS.
"At pharmacy school, you're on rotations with physicians, with nurses, with the entire care team to care for a patient," Dr. Shah told Politico. "A patient visits a pharmacy three to four times more than they do their physician or other care providers."