Building Wisdom in Community Pharmacy with Patient Care
I always thought as you got older, you became wiser. That wisdom came with age. Now that I’m old, I understand that the only thing that comes with age is arthritis. Wisdom is not something that is granted simply because of longevity.
Wisdom comes with screw-ups. As you march through life, you try things. Some are immediately successful. Most are not. Life is measured, not so much in years, but in time between screw-ups.
Don’t get me wrong. Screwing up is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s also not linear. Sometimes when you first try something, it seems successful. But after a while, occasionally through no fault of your own, it turns into a screw-up.
Understanding How Wisdom is Developed
Wisdom comes from lessons learned from unscrewing screw-ups. Once you have something royally screwed up, it takes work to fix it. That usually takes planning, money, time, and lots of effort. Enough hard work that you probably won’t want to repeat the process of screwing it up again, nor do it again inadvertently.
Wisdom grows by learning from mistakes
Therein lies the accumulation of wisdom. Learning from and not repeating screw-ups is inherently wise.
However, in order to accumulate wisdom, one must be able to recognize the screw-ups. Without that skill, developing wisdom ultimately becomes elusive.
After repairing many screw-ups, self-inflicted wounds, and digging myself in and out of lots of deep holes, I gained the wisdom of realization. I realized I made a lot of stupid mistakes, but many were the same ones others were making. Most were caused by focusing on the status quo, viewing pharmacy colleagues as competitors, and not looking toward the future.
The Wise Community Pharmacist with an Evolved Business Model
Community practice pharmacists cannot focus solely on the prescription counter in front of them. They must also view the horizon that is the future of pharmacy practice. This includes being willing to adapt to changing conditions.
The rise of the PBM taught us many lessons. First and foremost, it taught us that, in that environment, we are not in control of our destinies. The time to adapt, including changing practice and payment models, has arrived. Without change, the current independent pharmacy business model will collapse.
Fortunately, there are people and organizations working hard to develop and implement alternate payment models based around pharmacists providing direct patient care. Pilot projects have been successful in providing evidence of quality of care improvements, reduced healthcare spending, and patient health benefits from paying pharmacists to provide care.
Payers are listening. Payers are watching. Payers are willing to contract for improved care that reduces cost and improves health.
The patient care train is one community pharmacists need to be on, and it has already left the station with many already on board. Those wanting to continue doing tomorrow what they did today simply need to prepare for obsolescence.
Most independent pharmacists want to flourish, expand their professional satisfaction, and provide better care to patients into the future. If so, it’s time to start unscrewing the screw-up that has become the PBM-era drug-dispensing business model and gain wisdom.
Look around, see what fellow pharmacy colleagues are doing. Don’t look at them as competitors. Instead, join them. Advance patient care. Change an increasingly obsolete community pharmacy practice model. Get on the train before it’s too late!
