Dear Colleague,
"Wish you were here!" (WYWH, in text-speak.) I was reminded of that tourist postcard message while at NCPA's Multiple Locations Conference in Clearwater, Fla. Usually, a WYWH thought in Florida would include sun and sand, but in this case, my thoughts were coming from a hotel conference room.
One way I gauge audience engagement is to scan the room for pens scribbling and keyboards tapping as the speaker shares key business tips.
Dan Strause, president and CEO, Hometown Pharmacies in Wisconsin, talked about how he moved his employee's health insurance to a self-insured model. But wait you say, don't you need 100 or more employees to self-insure? Not necessarily these days, and Dan described how it worked for his company. Scribble-scribble.
Mark Ey, VP Operations Care Pharmacies, talked about "specialty-lite." More than half of all prescription dollars in the U.S.—53 percent to be exact—are spent on specialty and biologic prescriptions. Most of those dollars never see the inside of an independent pharmacy. Mark talked about how his group of pharmacies is able to help patients choose their pharmacy versus being steered into mail order. Sonia Oskouei, VP Biosimilars from Cardinal Health, gave an eye-opening overview of the number of new specialty drugs being approved by the FDA (the majority of all new drug approvals) and previewed the market potential for biosimilars to heat up and open up new opportunities for independent pharmacies. Tap-tap-tap.
Anne and Scott Pace, owners of Kavanaugh Pharmacy in Arkansas, did an informative (and entertaining) overview of the processes they used to test patients for COVID-19 and vaccinate nearly 50,000 people. David Figg, CEO Rice's Pharmacy Kentucky, and Troy Trygstad, Executive Director, CPESN® USA, talked about rethinking pharmacy personnel roles of (pharmacists, technicians, clerks) by expanding responsibilities and offering a career ladder that motivates employees and makes the pharmacies more productive and profitable. Scribble-scratch-scribble
There were other excellent speakers like Tripp Logan from Missouri talking about the value of community health workers; Melody Savley from Missouri talking about engaging with her county's senior services for grant funding that allowed her pharmacies to take care of even more people. Troy Simons from Oklahoma talked about the value of creating a new operations position to take a load off the owner and make his pharmacy operations more efficient. Ken Thai of California explained how a simple employee suggestion box led to increased employee engagement. John Coster, director of pharmacy for CMS's Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, took audience questions on where Medicaid is headed. NCPA's Ronna Hauser, SVP Policy and Pharmacy Affairs, and I also presented and took questions. Tap-bang-tap
There were other excellent speakers, but you get the idea.
If you missed it, don't despair. Some of these speakers will be featured in America's Pharmacist® and some can be seen again in NCPA Educational programs later this year. And, in addition to those, next year's Multiple Location Conference, is Feb 22-25 in Clearwater.
Best,
B. Douglas Hoey, Pharmacist, MBA
NCPA CEO
P.S. Last month, the Virginia Pharmacists Association asked me to give the Rooke Lecture, named after Reggie Rooke, the 1959-60 president of NCPA (then NARD) and a Virginia native. In researching Mr. Rooke, I found this passage from his speech at the 1960 NARD Annual Convention. I found it especially relevant, given the events of the past week:
"The leaders of the country carry vast responsibilities. They must realize that it is vital to be gentle in relations with the weak and bewildered peoples and in dealings with aggressor nations to be steadfast in defense of liberty in order that the peoples of the whole world may know and understand that we are and intend to remain free ... unafraid ... determined to resist the forces of tyranny."
Spoken 62 years ago and still relevant today.
