Pharmacist opens up about the year that was and challenges to come

Pharmacists are adapting well to the implementation of e-Scripts but there’s still a lot of work to do in educating consumers about their availability, Carolyn Clementson a Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse Practice Manager told MedAdvisor recently. 

Dani Li, MedAdvisor's partnership manager recently caught up with Clementson on one of our recent webinars (we’re running them every Wednesday - come join us!) 

A community pharmacist and pharmacy owner, Clementson spends most of her time working at Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse Head Office as a pharmacy practice manager - so she gets to see what happens across the whole group. 

When it comes to the adoption of e-Scripts she said it’s been a slow but progressive uptake so far and adoption is largely being driven by the prescribers rather than the pharmacists. 

“Consumer education is going to be key when it comes to e-script adoption,” she said, adding that pharmacists do need to play a bigger role in e-Script uptake, like for example, talking to patients about the benefits of e-Scripts, nudging them to ask their Doctor for the option next time they get a repeat, explaining that e-Scripts make it easier to manage and reduce your risk of losing them. 

As for pharmacies that are yet to receive e-Script capability, Clementson says it’s time to gear up and get ready. 

“Make sure that you know what's happening and get your systems in place - ensure you have the right software, the right hardware and test it. Train your team so your people understand the workflow and know that it works,” she said, adding “you'll need to be able to adapt quickly and be quite agile,” she said. 

It’s been a year of volatility, navigating the unknown with COVID-19. Something pharmacists have been on the frontline of - keeping their shopfronts open when many others were shuttering, all while balancing a move to meet consumer demands with online availability and medication delivery. 

“We never would have thought that the last 12 months would have panned out the way that they have, but I think community pharmacy has done an amazing job. We really have just all stood up. To thrive, we need to make sure that we're remaining current, that we know what's changing and are ready to stand up. So digital technology obviously is huge,” she said.  

As for what’s next, it’s expected pharmacists will continue to play a vital role in community health - particularly if a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available. 

“We will need all hands on deck to vaccinate the population as quickly as possible. So that will be a huge opportunity for us,” she said. 

But it doesn’t come without its challenges. 

“We don't know where things are heading and so we'll have to continue to manage that. There is constant legislative change and I think we've seen so much of that this year, and that's difficult to stay on top of,” she said. 

Visit our Resource page to watch the full interview with Carolyn and all our other webinars.

Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse is one of the fastest growing pharmacy brands with 45 stores across Australia. And this year, it took out the top spot for Canstar Blue's ratings for pharmacy.