Insight: Sustainable Care Models Must Expand Role of Pharmacist, Reach Patients Where They Are

Rina Shah, SVP for pharmacy growth at Walgreens, discussed what the future of sustainable care models in the pharmaceutical industry holds as technology continues to advance and how a focus on payment reform at the federal level can improve patient's lives, in an interview with Pharmacy Times® at NACDS Total Store Expo. Shah also explained areas of community pharmacy she can envision potentially changing over the next few years.

Pharmacy Times®: What do you feel the future of sustainable care models holds in the pharmaceutical industry?

Shah: So, it kind of goes into what really, you know, I spoke about earlier, is the digitization of where pharmacy can be. At the end of the day, we need to be smarter about the talent we have. We know that there aren't going to be as many providers in the future, maybe pharmacists, nurses, you know, physicians, so on, so forth. To create a sustainable care model, we need to ensure that we're embracing an operating model that allows for that. But secondary is really having a reimbursement model that allows for that environment, and so continuing to focus on payment reform and partnering with our government affairs team as well as senators and [the] House of Representatives so that we can continue to ensure that our pharmacies and our pharmacists get paid for the incredible value that they provide.

Pharmacy Times: How have you utilized sustainable care models in your position at Walgreens?

Shah: Oh, that's been my entire career, of being able to really drive the future state of what we can do. It started off with creating new services. May it be expanding beyond what we dispense, maybe through immunizations or testing services, where we're expanding the role of the pharmacist. Secondary to that is working with our managed care partners, may it be payers or PBMs or others that are out there to allow for new reimbursement models that may have not existed before. And then being able to innovate on the model, leveraging technology in a way that we haven't in the past. So, offering solutions that are really customer-centric, may it be delivery, may it be two-way texting with your pharmacist, you know, or even just AI, so that we're smarter about how we engage and what we can do in a much more effective way.

Pharmacy Times: Is there an aspect of community pharmacy you can see significantly changing in the next few years?

Shah: I would say one of the biggest aspects is that, at the end of the day, especially where technology is going, I'd imagine that we're going to be redefining what convenience means for our patients, and that means that redefines how our pharmacists deliver care to our patients. We'll still have our community pharmacists, but they might just show up a little differently to our patients. May it be, you know, via a virtual consultation, when the patient is on their couch and that pharmacist is within their own home, and being able to provide that type of service. But really, at the end of the day, we can paint whatever picture we want; it's really about the relationship between our pharmacists and patients to deliver that best outcome.

Pharmacy Times: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Shah: You know, the one thing that we're doing at Walgreens is really re-centering what pharmacy means to our team members as well as to our patients. There is a double-down from our perspective, so that we can make sure that we continue to stay in communities that need us the most. But that means we're having to really take an aggressive stance in how we engage from a customer perspective; being able to provide digital solutions, to be able to provide solutions for our team members so that they can be able to spend time with our patients. May it be through micro-fulfillment centers where we're automating pharmacy, all the way to offering home delivery, you know, being able to offer that for patients that need it the most, for their front-end products. So, the great thing is, is that innovation and change is constant, and that just makes me being a pharmacist that much more exciting.