Flip the Pharmacy Announces Pharmacy of the Year Award Winner

Many community-based pharmacies brag about a familiarity with their patients and a focus on the patient’s short and long-term health. Norland Avenue Pharmacy in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania stands out for their staff-wide focus on practice transformation and patient care initiatives. Norland Avenue Pharmacy was recently recognized with the Flip the Pharmacy program’s Pharmacy of the Year Award.

The Flip the Pharmacy Pharmacy of the Year Award is given to a participating pharmacy that exhibits an exemplary commitment to transforming their practice model and to supporting the overall purpose of Flip the Pharmacy. Flip the Pharmacy is a five-year pharmacy transformation program aiming to re-work community-based pharmacy practice beyond filling prescriptions and toward an ongoing focus on a patient's health.

“Congratulations to Norland Avenue Pharmacy for being selected as this year’s Pharmacy of the Year,” announced Randy McDonough, PharmD, MS, BCGP, BCPS, FAPhA, Director of Practice Transformation for the Flip the Pharmacy program. “We had dozens of nominations, but the effort by the staff of Norland Avenue Pharmacy was significant and worthy our recognition.”

"We are so excited to win the first-ever Flip the Pharmacy Pharmacy of the Year Award! Our pharmacy staff has been working extremely hard to transform to a pharmacy that is truly focused on our patients and their health. This award recognizes that effort,” said Dr. Wayne

Myers, owner of Norland Avenue Pharmacy. “Deb Page was instrumental in getting our program started even as she was planning her retirement. She did an excellent job in transitioning the lead role to Ashli Yoder and Ashli has taken the reigns and run with them. Yet, our success is due to the entire staff getting onboard. We are extremely blessed by God to be honored with this award."

Using monthly change packages, Flip the Pharmacy coaches work with local pharmacy teams to implement the six key transformation domains.

Ashli pointed to Deb Page’s "can do" positive attitude and diligence in implementing the initial change packages as a key to the pharmacy’s success early in the program. Ashli said, “Deb has incredible vision and knew that Flip the Pharmacy would take us to a new next level in patient care. And she was right.”

Ongoing success has been achieved by building on the early foundation established by Deb and Ashli.

“Over this past year, we have continued to build upon the foundations from the first year in the Flip the Pharmacy program. We have worked hard on the change packages each month and on submitting more eCare Plans with every new service we provided,” added Ashli. “We also have involved more of our pharmacy staff which has been incredible. We are able to brainstorm and bounce ideas off of each other to get the most out of each month's goal.”

Ashli said that her Flip the Pharmacy coaches have also been vitally important. “Our coaches, Margie and Ashley, have also been instrumental to our success. They have been a great resource to answer our questions, alert us of new opportunities, and keep us on track with our monthly meetings.”

The Flip the Pharmacy program hopes to directly support 1,000 pharmacies with direct coaching and implementation support and impact thousands more. To date, over 800 pharmacies and over 40 different Flip the Pharmacy teams are participating in the initiative.

Ashli firmly believes that the Flip the Pharmacy program has changed the way the Norland Avenue Pharmacy practices and provides patient care.

“We were able to shift our mindset from a product-centered approach to a more patient-centered approach,” shared Ashli. “Over the past year and a half, we have taken blood pressure readings, given many vaccinations, grown our medication synchronization program, completed MTMs, and implemented an opioid safety pledge program – all of which we would not have been able to do without Flip the Pharmacy. We are extremely grateful for this program and everything it has done to help our pharmacy and help our patients.”

Learn more about Flip the Pharmacy at www.flipthepharmacy.com and access the publicly available change packages.