The new way of dispensing antivirals during a pandemic is largely compatible with existing pharmacy processes and procedures and will add minimal
complexity if aligned with usual distributor and pharmacy systems.
One of the major reasons the executives voiced their support for this
proposed method of antiviral dispensing was the similarity of the proposed method of antiviral distribution and dispensing with established current pharmacy practices. Several executives mentioned that this new method of antiviral distribution aligned
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with the methods efficiently used every day by their pharmacies. The executives had numerous comments about this alignment:
Every executive mentioned that the new method would work best if it
remained consistent with routine, everyday pharmacy functions as much as possible (e.g., receiving medications from their usual distributors, reordering through existing computer systems, filling prescriptions, billing patients the usual way, and counseling patients). By staying consistent with everyday practices, these executives believed that the new method of antiviral distribution would add little complexity to their
“I think that it leverages the capacity of the pharmacies to different communities and it would be a fast and efficient way of reacting to such a pandemic and being able to provide medication at the right time.”
“I think it’s very reflective of how medications are distributed for other reasons throughout the nation anyway so I like the proposed model a lot.”
“There’s distribution models that are out there today that are designed to handle just this very problem and logistics are already put into place so you might as well use them.” “I see it as among the most ‘stablest’ ways to get the product to the health care providers [referring to pharmacists] that in my opinion should probably be the ones dispensing it anyway. I see it as a very, very simple solution.”
“I think it’s very important to use what we currently have out in the communities, to use the current processes that are out there.”
“We really need to utilize the current delivery methods that we have in place because one, they’re efficient and we know that they operate well.”
“I would say significant from my standpoint is that it fits within our normal process and we don’t have to create something new. The pharmacists don’t have to think of a new
procedure to be able to get the product. It just folds into how operations work day-to-day.” “Yes, it’s totally compatible… It’s compatible because it’s really the service model that we currently have and where we bring in the product from wholesalers or wholesale
distributors and do the dispensing for the patient, so that it’s like the service model that we utilize.”
“It would not be complex at all. It’s really the way that we conduct business now.” “I’m a strong supporter of having pharmacies serve as the distributor of the antivirals to the public. This is what we do on a daily basis for our patients, so you’re actually putting the responsibility into the right ownership in my opinion.”
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operations. The participants emphasized the importance of utilizing and leveraging existing processes:
Several participants mentioned that inventory control, tracking, and reordering would be simplified if current systems were used for this new method:
Executives also mentioned that because their companies have an existing infrastructure for dispensing medications, their pharmacies could adapt to an emerging pandemic emergency and ramp up quickly to serve the public.
“I think it’s very important to use what we currently have out in the communities, to use the current processes that are out there.”
“So I see it being something that will fit in the workflow without, you know, hardly any modification at all … I think this fits in nicely and exactly with … the role and
responsibilities of a pharmacy.”
“It’s within normal distribution models so it’s not something that [staff] have to learn.” “Certainly [this method is compatible], just kind of at the fundamental level of receiving our medications from one of the large national wholesalers. We receive daily orders of medications you know, every day before we open so how we would receive [these] medications is consistent with our operations.”
“Honestly, truly, it is our normal process … The great part of putting it through a wholesaler then into a pharmacy is you already have a very well documented process that’s there, plus you have tremendous abilities of record keeping.”
“One hundred percent of the drugs that we get into our pharmacy is ordered through [a single large pharmaceutical distributor], you know, one of these large distributors out there and they have order numbers set up, our computer system is constantly monitoring on-hand inventory in the store and as soon as the inventory gets down to a certain level it places an order automatically and the next day in comes the order with the products that the pharmacy needs.”
“The pharmacists don’t have to think of a new procedure to be able to get the product. It just folds into how operations work day-to-day.”
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In particular, one executive from an independent pharmacy emphasized that smaller, independent pharmacies may be especially nimble during emergencies:
The executives mentioned that the new method of antiviral distribution and dispensing (as currently envisioned) is not expected to create a significant number of new processes for pharmacies to handle. These interviewees stated repeatedly that if the new method of antiviral distribution and dispensing aligns with the way their stores usually receive, manage, and dispense medications, their staff would probably not have to learn and adapt to multiple new processes during an emergency, and it shouldn’t add too much complexity:
“We have the ability to scale up quickly to react to a pandemic like we did for H1N1.” “… the infrastructure [of pharmacies] is better than it is anywhere else in the whole system to support the volume of patients.”
“The most significant really is the already-built framework for being in the community. So it really is the fact that we have so many sites, we’re able to process so many people for our buildings. That infrastructure is already stood up. We can react much faster than trying to figure out how to stand something up.”
“And I think our pharmacy would be a good choice and we’d do a good job because we’re accustomed to handling things that are different. We’re able to make policy at the store level. We don’t have to go through any huge rigmarole to adapt and adopt a plan to go with something that happens maybe suddenly and where we have to change our workflow or make adaptations with more help or do something differently. We’re able to do that and our employees are used to taking up a charge and going with something new.”
“This is why I think this is such a smart move. So I think it removes the complexity, it uses the current processes that are out there in place today to make the most of that.” “It really doesn’t sound complex at all. As I see it, you have the issue of your supply which is coming from your wholesaler which is normal. You have people coming into your pharmacy to fill a prescription which is normal.”
“I think it takes a lot of the complexity out of it. I think this is probably the most streamlined approach you could take.”
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