Dear Colleague,
We all know that crucial scene in the movie. There's a crisis. Chaos ensues. All of a sudden, a masked hero in a cape swoops in, and calm is restored.
You've already got the mask, but you might want to find a cape.
Maybe I'm exaggerating (a little) but independent pharmacists are shaping up to be true heroes in the COVID-19 era. For all of 2020, we continued to serve our patients in the midst of a pandemic. Independent pharmacies were masters of ingenuity and innovation, all in the name of helping our patients.
Now come the COVID-19 vaccines, and community pharmacy is stepping up once again.
Earlier this week, you might have seen in NCPA's qAM the CBS News story about Steve Hoffart, the Texas pharmacist and member of the NCPA National Legislative Steering Committee, who is administering 50 COVID-19 vaccinations a day. He says he'll keep up the pace until he runs out of vaccine. He's brought in pharmacy students certified in vaccine administration (including his son, Ryan, a pharmacy student at the University of Texas). Hoffart's Magnolia Pharmacy is about 45 miles north of Houston, where there are big-box pharmacies on every corner, yet it's his pharmacy that is saving the day for hundreds of Texans. In his town of 2,000 residents, within eight hours of opening up for appointments, he'd booked all 500 available slots. He's been giving advice and answering questions about the coronavirus for almost a year. In communities across America, you better believe independent pharmacists are heroes.
I spoke to Steve a few days ago and he had advice for others who are starting to give the vaccine. "Pharmacists are poised to look like rock stars," he told me. "The day of vaccine access is coming, but we gotta be ready. If a pharmacy owner treats it like a walk-in flu clinic, it is doomed to fail." Steve says a plan is essential "to control the chaos." He recommends setting up a system to make appointments, setting up a billing system, and having a designated space for patients to wait for 15 minutes after they get the shot to make sure there's not a bad reaction.
There are a lot of stories out there like Steve's. Every time I hear one, I'm more convinced than ever that community pharmacy's time has come. This is the opportunity for which the pharmacy profession has been positioning itself for a couple of generations.
(We'd love to hear your story, too. Please send us an email and share what you're doing in your own community.)
NCPA has been working with government agencies for months to make sure that independent pharmacies are part of their vaccine plans. NCPA's message to a big government with a big bureaucracy is that big-boxes alone are not in the best interest of patients. NCPA also reached out to all of the governors and state Medicaid directors to let them know independent pharmacies are ready, willing and able (and need to be paid fairly) for administering the vaccines.
What do you need to do to get ready? Start by making sure your pharmacy is listed on HealthMap Vaccine Finder. It's a free, searchable database. This is not just a "nice to do." This is a must. Vaccine Finder puts your pharmacy on the map of those trying to figure out who can help get more shots in arms. Think of it as the Google of pharmacy vaccinators or, if you want to go old school, the Yellow Pages of vaccinators. The NCPA "Testing and Vaccine Squad" has compiled lots of tips and information that help pharmacy owners and their staff effectively schedule appointments, report, and bill for the vaccines. You'll find it here.
Also, take advantage of our webinar archive. We've done a couple of helpful webinars in the past month, including Need-to-Knows for Administering COVID-19 Vaccines and Creating Confidence in COVID-19 Vaccines.
After you've done all this, adjust your mask, dust off your cape, and get ready to swoop. It's your time to shine.
Best,
Douglas Hoey, Pharmacist, MBA
NCPA CEO
