The pharmacy business has been facing mounting challenges over the years. From fierce competition and the consolidation of retail pharmacy chains to the rise of specialty pharmacies. In addition, nonadherence and drug affordability are major issues that complicate matters even further for pharmacists.
Entrepreneur Elfatih Ibrahim is the former owner of Maxwell Pharmacy Inc in New York, NY. With so many years in the business, he believes that the challenges pharmacies are facing now require courageous solutions that don’t just deal with the symptoms but rather the root of the problems. “We all know that the margins of profits in the pharmacy industry are decreasing,” he states. “It’s not just the competition. Even the strict standards regarding compounding drugs don’t help either.”
Drug Shortages
The problem of drug shortages is more complex than what appears on the surface. And the reasons behind the shortage of drugs can be either natural or man-made. Elfatih Ibrahim explains that if a hurricane hits a remote area and cuts off all travel, pharmacies will run out of drugs pretty quickly. Without a fresh supply, you have a crisis on your hands.
But it’s not just natural disasters that create a drug shortage. Pharmaceutical companies might discontinue a drug because the profit margins are too low to keep producing it. When this happens with a vital drug, both pharmacies and patients can struggle to find alternatives. That, however, isn’t always easy. And even though drug shortages have peaked around 2011 when there was a shortage in 251 drugs at one time, the problem still persists to this day.
The Provider Status
Even though many community pharmacies provide services which give them the right to be called providers, not all states recognize this right. It’s a big problem that cuts into the pharmacies’ revenue and denies them payment for their services.
Of all the 50 states, only 34 offer pharmacies this provider status. On the federal level, it’s a different story, though. The federal law doesn’t acknowledge the pharmacists’ right as providers which means they’ll have to offer associated services without expecting any form of monetary compensation.
As the former owner of Maxwell Pharmacy Inc, Elfatih Ibrahim believes that the solution to this problem lies squarely on the shoulders of lawmakers. A recent bipartisan bill has been making its way through the House and the Senate that aims to give pharmacists the status of healthcare providers. This will open up new streams of revenue, especially for independent pharmacists. But until that bill passes into law, the provider status will remain an elusive goal.
Adopting Technology
Technology and the pharmacy industry go hand in hand. There was a time when experienced pharmacists had to handle the prescription filling process themselves every step of the way. This made the process both slow and error prone.
These are problems that disappear once the pharmacy industry adopts relevant technologies. Technology helps increase quality assurance, limit human-related errors, and prevent mixing drugs that might have dangerous interactions.
Despite all these advantages, pharmacies have been slow to embrace new technologies. It’s an issue of too many technologies, each with a different role to play in the day-to-day business, which is why it’s also important to compare CRM software for life sciences. As Elfatih Ibrahim explains, with so many options, it’s hard for a pharmacy to know which ones to pick and which to leave behind. For example, automation technologies streamline the tasks of filling, dispensing, labeling, and measuring drugs. And then there are pharmacy management software solutions that handle everything from billing to supply. Not every pharmacist is even aware of many of these available technologies, let alone adopting them.
Diminished Profits
It’s no secret that people who visit a pharmacy to fill a prescription rarely make any other purchases. This means that most retail pharmacies have to rely on prescriptions as the main source of revenue. Business-wise this is a missed opportunity to increase profits, especially at a time when independent pharmacies are facing stiff competition.
One way to get over this problem and turn things around is for the pharmacy to adopt a strategy that takes the customer’s best interests at heart. By providing other products the pharmacy becomes a one-stop-shop. That way, more customers will do their shopping of beauty products, health aids, and medical supplies all in one place.
The Opioid Crisis
According to Elfatih Ibrahim, the opioid crisis is one of those challenges that the pharmacy industry has to face year after year. In the past, it was difficult for pharmacies to track patients trying to fill prescriptions at multiple pharmacies. However, with the implementation of state-wide programs that offer both prescribers and dispensers a good visibility tool of a patient’s history of prescriptions there is now a safeguard against these practices.
Rather, the opioid crisis is a problem that has more to do with providing therapy to these patients than the pharmacy’s failure to document doses. A more approachable solution would require the implementation of a state-wide system that monitors fraudulent uses and recommends best practices for drug storage and disposal as well as overdose prevention.
Nonadherence
Another challenge that the pharmacy industry has to deal with is the issue of nonadherence. It’s when a patient receives the medication but either they don’t take it or don’t feel like refilling the prescription again.
The way Elfatih Ibrahim sees it, this is either because the patient can’t afford the drug, or they don’t feel it’s helping with their symptoms. Pharmacists can help the patient understand how the drug works and adjust its side effects with their daily lives. When the patient takes the medication at the stipulated times and in the right doses, this will help them get better.
Elfatih Ibrahim concludes that the pharmacy industry is a massive industry in America and while there are some problems, he is confident that they have the brilliant minds required to figure out the solutions.
