Thrive Subscribe Podcast

Late this week a press release from HHS announced the US government's partnership with Chain and Independent Community Pharmacies to increase public access to COVID-19 vaccines. With community-based pharmacies on the forefront of this effort, it is time to mobilize operations, plan and act quickly to prepare. We are joined by Ray Jaber and Cody Clifton who are leading the Covid-19 Vaccine efforts on behalf of CPESN. They will share with us the most up to date information regarding the Covid-19 Vaccine release process, how community pharmacies can be involved in the administration of the vaccine and the opportunities to come.

A conversation with Trista Pfeiffenberger

There are many community pharmacy owners involved in CPESN who have selflessly given their time to share best practices and lead others to payer opportunities. Join in today as we reflect on the efforts of one of those community pharmacy leaders who has dedicated the last several years supporting community pharmacies in Nebraska. Staci Hubert, Owner of Ashland Pharmacy and CPESN Luminary of the Year will share with you her insights on achieving sustainability for community pharmacy.

Owning a community pharmacy takes dedication and a passion to serve your community. With ongoing threats to this everchanging industry and the need to continually reinvent your pharmacy how is it possible to stay motivated moving forward with a growth mindset. We are joined by Bill Osborn, Immediate Past President of NCPA and President/Owner of Osborn Drug who will be sharing his insights on successfully expanding to 29 (and counting) pharmacy locations.

Community Health Workers are the link between health and social services offered in the community and can serve to facilitate access to those services for patients who may benefit from them most. Tripp Logan, pharmacist owner of L&S Pharmacy in Charleston, Missouri shares how training his staff to become community health workers has opened up financial opportunities to better serve patients in his own community.

Payer opportunities are on the rise causing community pharmacies to adjust workflows to actively participate in clinical services. New opportunities can either motivate you to change your practice or cause you to be so overwhelmed that you implement no change. Today we are joined by Cody Clifton, Workflow Innovation Specialist Flip the Pharmacy and Director of Practice Transformation, CPESN USA to talk the trends of creating change in a pharmacy practice site. Listen in to hear his insights on working with pharmacies across the nation who have been able to adjust workflows to engage in emerging payer opportunities.Show Notes: To Access Flip the Pharmacy Change Packages: Available at https://www.flipthepharmacy.com/ Rhodes, L, et al. Implementation of a Vaccine Screening Program at an Independent Community Pharmacy. J Am Pharm Assoc 2017; 57: 222-228. Available at: https://www.japha.org/article/S1544-3191(16)30867-6/abstract

Even in non-pandemic times, there is more Pharmacies can do to advocate for and administer childhood immunizations in pharmacy practice.  Start to follow the 3 A’s of Immunization: Advocate, Assess, Administer. Read more on this topic here: https://bit.ly/3kMKhmE.  Download your free tool to ensure you are ready to implement the 3 A's:  https://bit.ly/2PVPQAZ For more information on the Vaccines for Children Program, head to the CDC website: https://bit.ly/2Y1XFcE Stay up to date with CE! 2020 Immunization Update for Pharmacists https://learn.ceimpact.com/library/group/11/course/2196 2020 Immunization Update for Pharmacy Technicians https://learn.ceimpact.com/library/group/11/course/2197 Live on September, 10:  Best Practices for Pediatric Immunizations: https://learn.ceimpact.com/library/course/2272

How do I generate consistent, new ideas to market my pharmacy? What should I be thinking about when designing a campaign with a limited budget? This week we are joined by marketing expert, Sean Copley who helps us tackle these questions. In today's episode Sean shares his experiences working with community pharmacies and other business to design marketing campaigns. He also shares best practices related to social media and key principles to implement a marketing strategy. Show Notes: Contact Sean Copley at sean@plumbandpixel.com

Shifting the responsibilities of the Pharmacy Technician to meet the needs of the current pharmacy landscape is critical for continued success. Technician Product Verification is something that has been done in health systems for some time now, but it is a newer concept in community pharmacy. This Replay is part of a 2 part series. In this episode, Randy McDonough discusses the advantages of TPV with Anthony Pudlo, PharmD from the Iowa Pharmacy Association. Key learning points from the development and implementation of TPV in Iowa will be discussed as well as how TPV specifically supports practice transformation in the community setting. Part 2, airing on August 27th will discuss implementation best practices that you can take back to your pharmacy. Need education? 16 Hours of advanced, Technician-specific CE: https://bit.ly/2Y3Ucud - Patient Safety and Medication Error Prevention - Prescription Checking Process - Reviews of Common Medications, Calculations, and Dosage Forms - Critical Thinking Skills

COVID-19 vaccine(s) are on the horizon of entering the marketplace, but first we need volunteers for Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. Today we talk with vaccine expert, Dr. Jim Kublin MD, MPH from the COVID-19 Prevention Network based at Fred Hutch. He describes how Operation Warp Speed (OWS) aims to deliver 300 millions doses of a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021 and how community pharmacies are positioned to help with this unprecedented effort.

Listen in to learn more about how you can work directly with employers to provide value in their pharmacy benefit, improving both your bottom lines as well as positively impacting their medical spending.

Join in this week to hear from Flip the Pharmacy Coach, Kelci Trahms on how to build a systematic appraoch to offering enhanced services. Building a new enhanced service can be a challenging undertaking and guest Carlie Traylor shares how the NCPA Innovation Center/CPESN Pharmacy Fellowhsip is designed to help as many practices as possible transfrom workflow to offer diversified revenue generating clinical services. Show Notes: To learn more about the practice transformation programs mentioned on today’s podcast, you may visit these links. https://www.flipthepharmacy.com https://ncpa.org/fellowship

Eric Mueller, our PGY1 Community Pharmacy Resident joins Randy and Mike today to discuss the residency program, why he decided to enter a residency, what he expects to gain from it and other details of his upcoming year. During the discussion we also hit on the overall value of residency programs to pharmacies, the residents, and the profession as a whole.

Chris Antypas, President/COO of Asti’s Pharmacy and Health Director of Pharmacy Solutions, Henderson Brothers, shares how to identify local payer opportunities in your own community. He explains strategies to start the conversation with self-insured payers and how to navigate the complexities of payer program design.

Most pharmacy revenue is still predominantly linked to sale of prescription pharmaceuticals. It is important to manage and track reimbursement closely to ensure a healthy pharmacy. But as pharmacies transition to more clinical based revenue streams, it is also important to follow these. Randy and Mike talk about how this has changed with time in their pharmacies and what they are doing to prepare for new forms of pharmacy revenue.

Care Planning is an emerging workflow activity that is proving to be critical in longitudinal care delivery in Community Pharmacy. Join in today with our guest Josh Howlin, VP of Clinical Strategy PioneerRx Pharmacy Software, to discuss care planning implementation tips to incorporate in your workflow today and discover the opportunities that meaningful documentation may offer for community pharmacy in the future.

Thrive Subscribe is on Vacation this week. Randy talks with Dr. Brooke Griffin of Midwestern University College of Pharmacy and discuss some of the exciting programs they have created for students to prepare them for the evolving pharmacy landscape. For preceptors working with any of the 80 partner schools, there is a related free course with Continuing Education available. The New Normal: How to Develop and Deliver Remote Experiential Training 1hr0.1 CEU -- https://learn.ceimpact.com/library/group/16/course/2081

Joe & Ashley are joined by Community Pharmacy Owner and CPESN Florida Luminary, Eric Larson to talk through strategies for setting up a COVID testing site. Eric shares his experience of how he and his dedicated staff are conducting over 200 tests daily and why you might want to consider doing the same in your community. Eric shares his hard lessons learned from controlling traffic patterns throughout his pharmacy, positioning his pharmacy as a partner with the local Health Department and the importance of supporting Legislators on a consistent basis.

Join us today as Randy and Mike review some items from a list of emerging trends in community pharmacy that was published in late 2018. They discuss them and weigh in on how things have developed since its publication, especially as the world has pivoted during the emerging pandemic.

Join us on this week’s podcast where CPESN Iowa Luminary, Matt Osterhaus shares his best practices on time management, payer strategies and getting staff prepared for enhanced service delivery. Matt shares his goals for developing a revenue generating business model, his experiences negotiating with payers on behalf of the Iowa Network and tips for you to make in impact with your pharmacy business.

Community pharmacy change is here. Revenue models have shifted and will continue to shift. Different players are entering the marketplace. What are you doing to stand out and survive? It can be either a very exciting time for your pharmacy practice or a scary time. But you, and you alone, will dictate your approach and your survival. Join us as we speak with Anne Burns, Vice President of Professional Affairs at the American Pharmacists Association to learn first-hand about these trends and what the profession is doing to shape our future as community pharmacy practitioners.

Join us this week for a lively discussion with pharmacist, health economist and Executive Director of CPESN USA, Troy Trygstad (ttrygstad@cpesn.com). Troy discusses opportunities and challenges ahead for community pharmacy. This episode follows the release of the CPESN State of the Union as he shares highlights of established payer engagements and emerging trends impacting community pharmacies. State of the Union is now available: https://vimeo.com/433200407

Learn more about what it means to create an integrative pharmacy practice. This week, Suzanne Feeney talks with Pharmacist Lucinda Harms about how nutritional wellness can fit into your community-based practice. GameChangers CE Podcast: Vitamin D: Repletion doses and the evidence of potential toxicity https://bit.ly/3fRnEtY Lucinda Harms Nutritional Wellness lucindaharms.com

Today Ashley and Joe have a conversation with the Assistant VP of Risk Management for Pharmacist Mutual Insurance Group, Paul Samson. Paul shares things we can do to protect our patients, staff, and property to minimize our risk as owners.

Jake Galdo, PharmD, Director, Education and Program Development at Pharmacy Quality Alliance joins us to share what the community-based pharmacy needs to know right now about quality measures. We’ll address how the COVID-19 Pandemic has affected quality measures and what you need to consider related to quality for payer opportunities. Here’s the links to some additional resources discussed in this podcast: WSJ: Letting the Docs Dispense (subscription required) https://on.wsj.com/3d3a1pQ Citing patient safety value, APhA and NCPA strongly object to Wall Street Journal editorial calling pharmacists “needless middlemen”: https://bit.ly/2NczAtO Medication Use Quality Certificate: Building Expertise in Calculating Measures https://bit.ly/2YbBbqi

The utilization of telehealth has been an essential pathway to maintain access to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the setting of an ongoing pandemic, there continues to be a need to manage patients with chronic disease(s), counsel patients on prescribed medications and offer preventative health services. In this week’s podcast we are joined by Desiree Gaines, PharmD, a clinical pharmacist from Avant Health Institute of Clinicians and Metrolina Internal Medicine, to share tips for implementing and utilizing telehealth services to optimize patient interaction during COVID-19. In her discussion, she walks us through early considerations to transition to telehealth services, logistical considerations to operationalize the service and potential barriers to be prepared to address for a successful patient interaction. COVID-19 Telehealth Toolkit to Accelerate Telehealth in Medicaid and CHIP https://go.cms.gov/3hnvNYM Telehealth in Your Pharmacy Practice (APhA) https://bit.ly/2UBzAba Medicare Telemedicine Health Care Provider Fact Sheet https://go.cms.gov/3dYAINE

Staying up-to-date clinically in today's fast paced environment can be hard! Listen in for tools you can use to stay current with on new guidelines and current literature. On this episode, we talk with Randy about his process for keeping current clinically. We'll also introduce a new CE podcast that you can subscribe to for weekly clinical updates AND earn CE. Walk away with action items and some free CE after you listen in to this week's episode! Subscribe to the GameChangers: Clinical Question podcast for weekly, clinical CE on any podcast platform. For full CE information including how to claim CE credit for today's episode "Treating the Other Epidemic: buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder" click here: https://bit.ly/3cMwRlm

Hosts Ashley Branham and Joe Moose talk with Pharmacist David Pope, the chief innovation officer who leads OmniSYS’s efforts to develop innovative solutions that support the evolving role of pharmacy in healthcare delivery. This episode discusses billing for services provided in relation to COVID-19 as well as consideration for how this prepares your pharmacy to bill for services both now and post-pandemic. This episode will help you think beyond the pandemic and about shaping up your pharmacy for the future. MythBusters! Credentialing and Contracting: https://www.omnisys.com/mythbusters-credentialing-and-contracting/

As the professional medication experts, pharmacists need to take ownership of and implement Pharmacogenetics. In this episode, Brad Tice shares what you need to know to get started.

Listen in to learn more about how NCPA helps support community practice through the COVID-19 Pandemic. NCPA is monitoring information and guidance provided by CDC and other government agencies, and advocating on behalf of community pharmacies on the front lines. ncpa.org/coronavirus-information

We've all heard the term motivational interviewing, but why do you need this skill? If you don't change your counseling style, you won't get the results you need. Listen in as Nora Stelter, PharmD shares how to have impactful conversations with your patients.

Attorney Shawn Parker, joins this week's COVID-19 series to share considerations for reopening your pharmacy doors. We'll talk with him about masks, immunizations and what you need to do to follow CDC guidelines.

On this week's episode, Randy McDonough talks with Tom Balmer from Plumber Supply Company about a partnership where his company accesses pharmacy benefits directly from Towncrest Pharmacy, bypassing the PBM. Randy and Tom talk about what this looks like one year into the relationship.

Stress and anxiety relief is on the way! Pharmacy owner, Hashim Zaibak PharmD, joins this episode to share examples pharmacies can easily replicate to ensure the entire pharmacy staff is supported during COVID-19. We'll talk about how to minimize stress and anxiety, as well as simple ideas you can implement now to help your employees feel better and supported. You'll walk away with at least 3 turnkey ideas you can easily use to take care of your team's mental health.

Joe Moose from Moose Pharmacy and Attorney Shawn Parker join us this week to discuss best practices for opioid safety. Opioid stewardship should be a critical component of your pharmacy workflow. Learn how to implement a 3-tiered process to dispense Opioid prescriptions.

This week’s episode is all about marketing – how do you make sure your pharmacy stays engaged with your local communities to highlight the services you offer? Listen in for 3 steps you can take to market your pharmacy during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.depietropharmacy.com/about/#meet-tom https://www.facebook.com/DePietros/

How does specialty pharmacy fit into the community setting? Jonathan Ogurchak, PharmD, CSP Founder & CEO of STACK, a compliance management software shares steps for investigating specialty pharmacy options.

The Federal stay-at-home order has been lifted, which means something different for each of your pharmacies depending on where you practice. Learn the steps to take to prepare to open your pharmacy doors so you can keep your teams and communities safe. For more thoughts on reopening your pharmacy, check out the Thriving Pharmacist Blog: https://bit.ly/35vVAIM CDC Resources for reopening: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/pharmacies.html#Testing https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/reopen-guidance.html

Do you struggle to find time and gain knowledge needed to change your pharmacy's payment model? The way you've worked for years isn't working anymore. You know your pharmacy needs to offer services AND consistently engage with payer opportunities. Listen to this podcast so you can convert your frustration with pharmacy payment models to action.

Cash flow has been a common concern for pharmacies due to continued decline of product reimbursement. This is an even bigger issue right with the pandemic. Listen in for action steps you can take right now to maintain your business. Also, if you haven’t yet, get your PPP loan in now (more funds approved 4/23 and need to be processed asap) Examples of allowable uses of funds (HRSA.gov): https://bit.ly/3bAYopU

Pharmacy is about a lot more than drug product and cost. It is about relationships and managing drug therapy. https://bit.ly/3eJmO2D Often times the Pharmacy Technician role is thought of only to support the dispensing aspect of community pharmacy yet Pharmacy Technicians are critical to optimizing patient care in pharmacies. Learn what this looks like in practice from Pharmacy Technician, Chris Cline-Dahlman, BFA, CPhT.

Public health officials and political leaders are warning that most states are not conducting a sufficient number of COVID-19 tests to monitor how the virus is spreading and its extent in a way that would allow Americans to safely return to work. On April 8, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services issued guidance authorizing licensed pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 tests, including serology tests, that the FDA has authorized. What does this mean for your Pharmcy? Join us as we talk with Pharmacist Amina Abubakar about next steps you pharmacy can take to be prepare to offer COVID-19 tests.

Pharmacies and pharmacists are critically important to the local communities they serve. As Italy’s death toll from the novel coronavirus climbed, its doctors made a plea to other countries: Manage the pandemic in the community, not in hospitals and emergency rooms. Randy talks with Catherine Brown, an independent pharmacy owner. They will talk about what they are doing to make sure their pharmacies are prepared to take care of both their patients and their staff in this new and challenging environment. For more on the critical value of community pharmacy, read Dr. Steven Chen's April 13th article https://bit.ly/2XEh4AZ

This week we'll share best practices and examples of how pharmacy teams across the country are working within their communities to provide support. Our guest hosts, Joe Moose and Ashley Branham, address ideas like staff sharing, remote access for pharmacy management systems and even partnership examples with local car dealerships. We'll also hear from Dr. Todd Rowland - a physician who can share insights as to what pharmacy teams can do to support transitions of care.

Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS) has initiated a national program called READY, SET, PrEP. Join us to hear from Pharmacist Dena Dillon as she shares best practices for implementation. Looking for CE to prepare you for READY, SET, PrEP? CEImpact has CE on this topic specific to community practice: https://bit.ly/2JLQZYG Check out https://www.getyourprep.com/ for details on the program."

Roger Paganelli, is a third-generation pharmacist and owns Mt. Carmel Pharmacy with his two brothers in NYC. He is a leader in his state, serving on the board of the Pharmacists Society of NY. Since the COVID-19 crisis began, his pharmacy has been making special accommodations and has been in constant contact with fellow pharmacists. Today, Roger will share with us his experiences with COVID-19 and how he is keeping his team and his patients safe. Here is the NY Dept. of Health protocol Roger references https://on.ny.gov/2UUFsva

Community pharmacies are a valuable resource to both the communities they serve as well as the overall health care system and need to be included in the payment system for non-dispensing services. In this episode, APhA President and Loma Linda School of Pharmacy Dean Michael Hogue shares how community practice can be reshaped after the pandemic.

Listen in each Saturday as our guest hosts, Ashley Branham and Joe Moose, share COVID-19 best practices from pharmacies around the country. Rebecca Snead, CEO of the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, joins this episode talk about the work being done at the state and national levels to support pharmacy practice changes.

This week we have Geoff Wall, PharmD, FCCP, BCPS with us to discuss the evidence surrounding possible COVID-19 treatment options, including the use of chloroquine compounds, azithromycin and IL-6 receptor antagonists. We've also partnered with CEImpact to bring you CE for this week's episode. Claim credit here(learn.ceimpact.com). Thanks to student pharmacist Kaitlin Brueggen for joining us and supporting the literature review. CPE Details: https://bit.ly/33Mvct7

You need to know how to operate your community pharmacy during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Many of us have our doors locked while we serve our patients. Need to know how to deal with signature logs during social distancing? Want to hear more about how to split your team up to ensure they stay safe? How does putting medication in the trunk of a car protect you team? Listen in as our guest hosts, Ashley Branham and Joe Moose, share practical ways to change your workflow to protect your staff. We'll share best practices from pharmacies around the country. You can implement these best practices now away to protect your pharmacy teams

It seems like just a few days ago life was normal. Now, the pandemic is changing how pharmacies take care of their patients almost hourly. This is the first of our special edition podcasts, where over the next few weeks we will try to assimilate important information and ideas that can help your practice better and prepare to function during this crisis.