American
Pharmacists
Month
Celebrating the evolution of pharmacy by recognizing the multiple roles and accomplishments of pharmacists and showing our appreciation for their work to improve patient care.
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Specialty Practices
Health Systems
Retail Pharmacies
Evolution of pharmacy
A look back at the evolution of pharmacy
Evolution of pharmacy | Women in pharmacy | Technician recognition | Life of a pharmacist | Thank you
1727
1729
1752
Philadelphia Hospital opens the first hospital pharmacy and hires Jonathan Roberts as the first hospital pharmacist.
In 1729, the first retail pharmacy opens in Philadelphia, PA.
Elizabeth Gooking Greenleaf owned an apothecary shop. She is recognized as the first female pharmacist in America.
1816
1821
1852
The American Pharmaceutical Association is founded, now the American Pharmacists Association (APhA).
The first College of Pharmacy was the Philadelphia College. Today, there are about 138 U.S.-based pharmacy schools.
Louis Dufilho Jr. of New Orleans became American’s first licensed pharmacist in the U.S.
1942
1995
1930–60 is also known as the “Pharmaceutical Golden Era”
Only nine states allowed pharmacists to immunize. Today, pharmacists have authority to administer immunizations in all 50 states.
American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP) was founded.
2014
2015
2017
There are about pharmacists in the U.S.
309,330
There are community pharmacies in the U.S.
67,753
Forbes ranks Pharmacist no. 1 in best healthcare jobs.
from Terry Smith
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Women in pharmacy
A pharmacy leader’s success story
I started in a retail chain, working my way up to pharmacy manager. After 5 years, I realized that most of my patient interactions were transactional and I wanted to be more of a clinical decision maker, so I transitioned to a community oncology practice. As pharmacy manager at the practice, I had the opportunity to specialize and make recommendations to impact patients’ treatment plans. I had the business acumen to run a retail pharmacy, but I wanted to utilize my clinical skills to keep patients on therapy. It was this desire to utilize a business owner’s mentality while being an integral part of the clinical team that led to my current role at McKesson.
Can you describe your background in pharmacy and how you arrived at the point you are at in your career today?
Women in pharmacy actively seek to mentor and encourage other women to think outside of a standard retail dispensing path. Throughout my rotations, many preceptors were women, which allowed me to see the diversity in pharmacy roles and opportunities to excel. I had the good fortune to be mentored by several women who have challenged me to learn and grow in order to be rewarded by the profession I chose.
How have other women pharmacists influenced your career path?
Describe your role and what value it brings to community specialty practices?
Drawing on both my business experience and clinical knowledge, I consult with physician practices that operate in-house dispensaries and pharmacies to implement productivity tools and streamline operational efficiencies. I evaluate the practice’s performance against national benchmarks and focus on areas of opportunity. This may include script capture, generating revenue or engaging physicians around sticking to the formulary, managing for clinical and financial success.
Cancer patients are truly a unique segment of patients who look to you for encouragement, recommendations, and invite you to become a part of their journey. There is a heightened level of trust in which you are able to give a higher level of care. Medically integrated pharmacies in specialty practices are able to provide services in a more timely, direct and individualized way. Patients know that we’ll search all opportunities to provide a level of service that outperforms any other setting or outside pharmacy.
How has working in specialty practice pharmacies affected the impact you have on improving the patient experience and health outcomes?
McKesson pharmacy expert, Valerie Russo, shares insights to drive medically integrated dispensary and pharmacy success for optimal care delivery.
Pharmacist to Pharmacist
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Technician recognition
Celebrate National Pharmacy Technician Day by thanking yours for all they do!
What is the biggest challenge for hospital pharmacies?
How will the role of a hospital pharmacist be different five years from now?
Are there other hospital pharmacy trends to watch out for?
What new hospital pharmacy revenue opportunities do you see?
What makes that balancing act so challenging for hospital pharmacies?
As American Pharmacists Month continues,
we celebrate pharmacy technicians and their impact on specialty practice profitability and comprehensive care delivery.
4 Reasons to Thank Your Pharmacy Technician
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Life of a pharmacist
Industry insights from a pharmacy expert
What’s the biggest challenge to sustainability you hear from practices?
How can specialty practice pharmacies control spending?
How can medically integrated pharmacies increase the volume of prescriptions filled in-house and increase profitability?
What benefits do specialty practice pharmacies have on the patient experience and care delivery?
McKesson pharmacy expert, Sean Falsey, shares best practices for optimizing integrated pharmacy services and improving the patient experience.
Insights from a pharmacist
Specialty practices offer patients with complex diseases convenience with all services under one roof, which leads to comprehensive and holistic care with a dedicated pharmacist who not only knows them personally, but their disease and full treatment plan as well. As part of the practice care team, pharmacists can offer better insight into what’s going on with the patient in terms of adherence and compliance. This and gives pharmacists the ability to troubleshoot concerns around dosage or side effects on the spot.
The best way to increase prescription volume is education about how filling a prescription in the practice can benefit patients. Often, this starts with staff training and something as simple as changing workflow so pharmacy staff doesn’t go into the EMR and automatically click on a default external pharmacy without proactively discussing options with the patient.
Pharmacies should establish a formulary their practice stakeholders can stick to and use patient mix, drug utilization and reimbursement analytics to continually fine tune the formulary from both a clinical and an economic standpoint. For example, if two therapies are clinically similar, is it possible to gain consensus among the practice providers to streamline to one that all can get behind?
Reimbursement and access are at the top of the list for most pharmacies. Whether in a retail setting or as part of a specialty practice, pharmacists’ top priority is providing quality patient care. However, they must have access to payer contracts to fill prescriptions for the patients they serve and capture adequate reimbursement in order to stay in business. They also need to confirm economic viability before implementing practice dispensing capabilities and continually evaluate payer mix and employer group contracts to improve sustainability.
Thank you
Thanks to all our nation’s pharmacists for all you do!
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Evolution of pharmacy | Women in pharmacy | Technician recognition | National Pharmacy Buyer Day | Life of a pharmacist | Thank you
Success stories and advice from women leaders
The RxOwnership Women in Pharmacy Program aims to create a community of women helping other women grow and exceed expectations. Take advantage of networking events and workshops, mentoring opportunities, practical tips, and inspiring stories.
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Women in pharmacy - Own it!
“I’m passionate about my profession and I’m motivated to help change the practice. Owning your own pharmacy can be very difficult, so to enjoy the patient care aspect and being able to work in an environment that allows me to practice at the top of my licensure makes it all worth it.”
Read more about Christine
Owner of Professional Pharmacy, located in Baltimore, MD
Christine Lee-Wilson, Pharm.D.
“I look to leaders in the industry for aligning my goals with national trends and working with organizations such as McKesson, which encourage entrepreneurs and those who inspire women in business.”
Learn more about Pam
Owner of Marquess Group
Pam Marquess, Pharm.D.
“I believe men and women are equally capable of success in independent pharmacy, though it is difficult for me to compare. I live by the motto: “I’m capable of doing anything that I put my mind to.”
Read more about Vicki”
“What makes me get up every day and come to work is that I know that we can make healthcare better.”
Read more about Amy
Pharmacy Service Line Director Asante
Amy Watson, PharmD, MBA
“One thing that is always important to me is to just say yes. When somebody asks you to do something that you’ve never done before, and it seems really hard and scary, just do it.”
Read more about Bonnie
Assistant Vice President Pharmacy Services MedStar Health
Bonnie Levin, PharmD, MBA, FASHP
“I would tell women to have it all because you can. You can have work-life balance as long as you set your expectations right and give yourself a break.”
Read more about Lori
Chief Pharmacy Officer and Vice President Corporate Supply Chain Yale New Haven Health
Lorraine (Lori) Lee, MHA, BSPharm
Thank your technician for all the work they do
Terry Smith, registered pharmacist and vice president of McKesson RxO®, discusses the challenges and trends hospital pharmacies face today.
Thanks to all of our nation’s pharmacists for all you do!
First-hand success stories from woman-owned independent pharmacies
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Read more about Pam
Read more about Vicki
President, COO Good Day Pharmacy Loveland, Colorado
Vicki Einhellig, R.Ph.
As a Pharmacy Technician, Pharmacy Performance Advisor for Health Mart Atlas, experienced the challenges and rewards with this profession.
Malik Wilson,
READ HIS STORY
Industry insights from multiple pharmacy experts
“Five years from now, pharmacists will be spending most of their time on individualized patient care.”
Read more about Mark
Regional Franchise Director, Health Mart
Mark DeWoskin, Pharm.D.
“A health plan incentivizes its members to use the pharmacies in its network. But it’s up to you to maximize on that increased access.”
Read more about Robin
Robin Page, RPh.
“Your independent pharmacy must be willing to monitor its performance on an ongoing basis and make continuous improvements.”
Read more about Crystal
VP of Pharmacy Performance, Health Mart Atlas
Crystal Lennartz
Learn more about McKesson’s retail pharmacy solutions at join.healthmart.com
National Pharmacy Buyer Day
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Topics
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CT
Have a seat at the table
Helping pharmacy buyers influence leadership decisions
Powered by McKesson Buyer’s University™
- Identify areas of improvement based on data insights - Successfully communicate insights to leadership - Discover tools available to optimize drug purchasing and inventory management
Join us for a live webinar for pharmacy buyers
Thursday, October 25
