Industry Trend Report in Pharmacy Quality Assesses Consumer Perspectives, Efforts by Health Plans and Pharmacies to Foster Quality

The 2022 Industry Trend Report in Pharmacy Quality, sponsored by Pharmacy Quality Solutions (PQS), delves into consumer perspectives and industry efforts to promote quality.

While the report can be accessed by a wide range of health care industry organizations, the Trend Report is primarily produced to inform health care payers, pharmacy providers, and life science organizations on trends and changes industry stakeholders are making to improve quality. The report also serves as a resource for organizations developing their quality improvement strategies.

The survey-based report details: 1) consumers’ pharmacy utilization and perception of pharmacy services, 2) community pharmacies’ readiness for, and efforts to participate in, outcomes-based measurements, and 3) the challenges and opportunities with performance improvement that payers are facing. Now with 3 years of survey results, the 2022 report shows trends over time against various facets of quality.

One takeaway from the consumer survey highlights the opportunities that remain to increase pharmacy utilization.

As PQS CEO Todd Sega wrote in the opening letter of the report, “While the level of trust and comfort patients have with pharmacists remains very high, opportunities still exist to educate the public about pharmacists’ training and expertise in healthcare delivery…Putting a focus on educating patients of what pharmacy could deliver may result in a higher population of informed patients as a driver of future demand.”

One clear example of consumers expressing their comfort with utilizing pharmacy services is shown in the graph above. The majority of patients expressed that they would be likely to receive every test we asked about in the survey. When compared with the number of patients who are receiving these tests in a pharmacy setting, results indicate that pharmacies could implement more testing and have a large pool of willing participants.

Our pharmacy respondents made it clear that they are more than ready to engage with intermediate outcome and outcome-related measures, as linked to reimbursement.

This trend, along with others in the report, shed light on the changing and upcoming roles that pharmacies will play. Pharmacies have faced tremendous change and challenges since 2020, but they have told us they are gearing up for the next phase of pharmacy practice.

A greater number of payers indicated that they are very likely to contract with community pharmacies to perform testing in the pharmacy setting.

Payers also expressed an ongoing struggle to identify which interventions lead to the best outcomes, representing an opportunity for focused measurement to continue to provide additional context to assist in the allocation of resources.

For more pharmacy quality insights, please download the full report, the Industry Trend Report in Pharmacy Quality 2022, from the PQS website. https://tinyurl.com/yhuzes5k

We at PQS are always looking for new ideas to analyze and explore! We value your feedback and contributions for future reports. If you’d like to share your comments with us, please send us a note at trendreport@pharmacyquality.com.

About Pharmacy Quality Solutions, Inc. (PQS)

PQS aligns healthcare payers and pharmacies to achieve their shared goals of better patient outcomes and healthcare quality performance. As a neutral, trusted intermediary supporting the evolution of value-based care, PQS facilitates nationwide pharmacy-based care through our partners and the EQUIPP® platform. Utilizing deep clinical pharmacy knowledge and nearly a decade of performance management experience, we help clients develop strategies, implement effective programs, and optimize the quality of healthcare for their Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial populations.

For further information contact David Simoneaux at 919.767.9544 or dsimoneaux@pharmacyquality.com.

SOURCE: Pharmacy Quality Solutions, Inc