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Asembia AXS25: Community Pharmacists Can Optimize Specialty Pharmacy Care
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Key Takeaways
- Pharmacists' integration into specialty care at the community level can transform healthcare delivery, improving clinical outcomes and offering personalized care.
- Walmart's specialty pharmacy pilot program exemplifies successful integration, providing services for HIV and autoimmune diseases and serving as a model for other health systems.
Integrating community pharmacists into specialty pharmacy care can enhance patient access, address physician shortages, and expand pharmacists' roles in delivering high-quality clinical services, according to experts at Asembia’s AXS25 Summit.
Pharmacists are increasingly being positioned to deliver specialty care at the community level, a shift that could transform the landscape of health care, according to a panel discussion held during a business session titled “Specialty Pharmacy Access in the Community” at Asembia’s AXS25 Summit, which takes place April 27 through May 1 in Las Vegas, Nevada.1
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“Pharmacists’ education that they received, and their experience, enables them to take on this responsibility,” Kassem Elhelou, market director, Walmart, said during the discussion. “Pharmacists have a proven track record of elevating their scope when it matters most.”1
An expert panel comprised of representatives from Walmart Specialty Pharmacy led the discussion. The panelists included Elhelou; Rod Thornton, director, health policy and strategy, Johnson & Johnson; Lisa Thornton, senior director, health and wellness operations for Region 42, Walmart; and moderator Kevin Barton, senior director, Walmart health and wellness merchandising strategy.1
Importance of Community Pharmacy
Community pharmacists have a unique expertise that can allow them to help optimize care across disciplines. By working with physicians, community pharmacists assist patients on a host of outcomes and have been shown to ultimately aid in improving hemoglobin A1c, systolic blood pressure, vaccination rates, and other important clinical markers. By integrating community pharmacists into specialty care, patients can experience care that is truly targeted and personalized. The panelists spoke to how Walmart is evaluating such integration through its specialty pharmacy pilot program, which has provided community services for HIV and autoimmune diseases and looks to expand in the future.1-3
Adding specialty services into community settings is simply adding another hat to the many that community pharmacists wear, according to Lisa Thornton. Overall, their role continues to evolve, and “there is an incredibly broad appeal to what pharmacists can do as we offer increased access to additional services for patients,” she explained. Noting the proximity of Walmart to Americans—90% of citizens have a Walmart within 10 miles of their home—Lisa Thornton discussed how community pharmacy teams can be empowered to extend their services and further educate themselves to help overcome patient barriers.1
“There’s a lot of benefit to thinking about how a patient can access specialty care that feels part of their normal journey,” Lisa Thornton said.1
Promoting Pharmacy
The fact that community pharmacists can provide enormous benefit to specialty disease treatment is undeniable. But promoting the incredible feats of pharmacists can sometimes be difficult and requires unique campaigns to ensure their achievements are recognized. Elhelou and Rod Thornton highlighted initiatives from their respective organizations; at Walmart, Elhelou explained that stakeholders advocate at the state and federal levels for the pharmacy profession while pharmacists fulfill their responsibilities at home, and Rod Thornton showcased Johnson & Johnson’s partnership with the American Pharmacists’ Association (APhA) to better connect pharmacists with their communities.1
Particularly, Rod Thornton highlighted the #Indispensable campaign on social media organized in conjunction with APhA to highlight the indispensable nature of pharmacists in their communities. According to Rod Thornton, the campaign has highlighted millions of impressions on various platforms, and he believes that more initiatives such as these can help shed light on the important work of pharmacists in practices across the country.
“Pharmacists are truly indispensable in terms of the work they do,” Rod Thornton explained, providing a pertinent example in noting that pharmacists helped provide two-thirds of COVID-19 vaccinations upon the availability of vaccines early in the pandemic.1
Trust Through Relationships
Above all, building trust in the community is paramount to any effective pharmacy practice, according to Lisa Thornton. Successful programs such as test and treat, which has been implemented in countless community pharmacies and allows for patients to receive fast diagnoses and medications, indicate that patients are receptive to their local pharmacists taking on new roles. Ultimately, as pharmacists take on new roles in the specialty space, more trust and rapport can be built with the patient.1
“It’s about building trust with many stakeholders that pharmacists in the community setting can execute these types of services with quality,” Lisa Thornton discussed.1
Integrating community pharmacists into specialty practices won’t be an easy task, but Walmart’s specialty pharmacy pilot program can serve as a blueprint for other health systems looking to expand care options for patients. Rod Thornton explains how integral specialty pharmacy is at every level of a patient’s journey and advocates for wraparound treatment that provides holistic patient care, especially for patients in regions that may have less access than others.1
“It’s going to take a full army to get all of this right,” Barton said during the presentation, noting the work that remains in prior authorization and formulary reform. “It’s going to take everyone at this conference to continue to drive the value of the pharmacist.”1
