How community-based pharmacy services improve outcomes and reduce hospital costs | Viewpoint

The rise of pharmacy deserts happening alongside large national chains including CVS, RiteAid, and Walgreens closing numerous locations is driving new urgency for hospital executives to address gaps in community access to pharmacies.

As a career pharmacist and pharmacy executive, I’m keenly aware of the widespread negative impact pharmacy closures are making on our industry. The journal Health Affairs, in fact, published data illustrating that “of the 88,930 retail pharmacies operating during 2010–20, 29.4 percent had closed by 2021.”

How stark is the reality caused by widespread pharmacy closures?

Among the results of ongoing pharmacy closures: 17.7% of people in the U.S. live in a pharmacy desert, Yale School of Medicine researchers found, and another 9% live in an area served by only a single pharmacy. What’s more, in 18 states more than 20% of the population resides in a pharmacy desert, and 5 states are currently surpassing 25%.

Not surprisingly, pharmacy closures hit hardest in rural, low-income, and underserved communities. That creates new gaps in access to pharmacy services because those regions often lack other means of accessing health care. But the impact is substantive across various geographies.

“Pharmacy closures have far-reaching consequences that extend beyond access to medications, affecting the social and economic fabric of communities and the overall well-being of both pharmacy staff and patients,” according to a study featured in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.

Despite the havoc so many closures are wreaking across the U.S., the value of community-focused pharmacies remains clear.

“Community pharmacists provide direct patient care, advance team-based care, manage patient-centered clinical services, and serve as leaders within their communities and health systems,” the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) explained in a statement. “Community pharmacists lead, manage, and contribute to innovative practices and operations that advance pharmacy practice and contribute to financial sustainability.”

What pharmacy transformation achieves for executives and the communities they serve

As healthcare executives develop strategies to embrace the opportunities associated with expanding pharmacy services, research conducted by healthcare advisory firm Sage Growth Partners found that fewer than 1 in 5 leaders say they are “very confident” their health system can meet pharmacy demand over the next three to five years — largely because only 10% are operating with full visibility driven by real-time data and insights and only 21% have a defined pharmacy strategy aligned with broader financial goals.

To confidently build new pharmacy offerings and expand upon existing services, in fact, hospitals and health systems need full visibility and insights informed by their data. Without such actionable information, healthcare executives cannot comprehensively understand their financial challenges in real-time. That understanding is the bedrock necessary to strategically transform pharmacies from cost-centers into robust revenue streams.

Because hospitals are uniquely positioned as the center of health care in their community, adding pharmacy services can support patient care and drive financial value. Pharmacy services expansion is also critical to improving health outcomes because frontline pharmacists offer a range of services, including vaccines, screenings, chronic-disease counseling, and overall medication management, to name just a few. Further, expanding community-focused pharmacy services has the benefit of adding new jobs to the community, keeping associated revenue local, and customizing programs to serve patients.

The new revenue from expanded pharmacy services can also be leveraged to keep other critical care services operating, such as the emergency department or a cancer center. That money can also be reinvested back into the community.

One county health system I’ve become familiar with, for instance, turned $20 million annual losses into $10 million in gains after the first year by correcting $6 million in inaccurate billing, reducing prescription turnaround times from three hours to less than one hour, and driving patient satisfaction scores up to 92%.

The health system has been able to reallocate some of that money into critical patient care programs such as on-site school clinics and mobile health units serving people experiencing homelessness — initiatives that both improve health outcomes in that particular community and help the hospital further bolster its own financial performance.

That’s just one of many similar examples I’ve encountered that highlight the unique role hospital pharmacies play in their communities.

“Community pharmacies and the professionals they employ are well-positioned to deliver balanced, individualized clinical services, with a focus on the whole person,” according to an article published in the journal Pharmacy. “Because they have deep roots and presence in the community, especially in under-resourced neighborhoods, community pharmacies represent local entities that community members recognize and trust.”

Joel Wright is president of pharmacy services, VytlOne.