The May 29-30 workshop, Innovations in Pharmacy Training and Practice To Advance Patient Care, brought together pharmacy practice and education experts to envision a sustainable future that better serves our patients and the pharmacy workforce. ASHP extends a special thanks to our Board of Directors member Marie Chisholm-Burns, who was on the workshop planning committee.

During the workshop, I joined several other CEO sponsors for an expert panel discussion, during which we shared what our organizations are doing to support the forum’s objectives. We explored a range of pressing issues in contemporary practice, including how to eliminate pharmacy deserts, make pharmacy practice financially sustainable, ensure the well-being of the pharmacy workforce, and rethink pharmacy education to support the needs of today’s patients and practitioners.

While the workshop involved all sectors of the profession, there was a special emphasis on community pharmacy practice.

To reduce pharmacy deserts, we need more community pharmacies in rural and urban areas that lack access to these essential care sites. ASHP’s News Center recently reported on how health systems are tackling this problem by opening pharmacies and expanding services to fill gaps left by the closure of chain pharmacies in underserved communities.

This is important work, but much more needs to be done. Workshop participants emphasized that the dispensing-based business model for community pharmacy is unsustainable and does not take full advantage of pharmacists as patient care providers. Instead, we need a business model in which community and ambulatory care pharmacists routinely provide clinical services and are appropriately reimbursed for that care.

ASHP remains at the forefront of federal advocacy to secure provider status for pharmacists and equitable payment for our services under Medicare Part B. This will help to secure a sustainable future for all practice areas within the profession, including community and ambulatory care pharmacy.

Yet, federal progress alone won’t carry us forward. Throughout the workshop, participants echoed the words of session presenter Tom Kraus, ASHP’s vice president of government relations, about the need to prioritize state-level advocacy.

Thanks to the efforts of ASHP, our state affiliates, and other stakeholders, most state legislatures have now passed laws that, in some form, designate pharmacists as clinical practitioners who can bill for their services under Medicaid or commercial plans. We need to build on these successes and make equitable reimbursement for our clinical services the norm — as it is for other healthcare professions.

We also discussed how vital it is to actively recruit the next generation of pharmacists — a concern that pharmacy deans and healthcare leaders have expressed during their annual ASHP-facilitated meetings at the Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition.

Too many people only see that pharmacists fill prescriptions. That perception influences the decisions of prospective students who might have pursued and excelled in the profession if they knew the full extent of care that pharmacists provide for patients.

For the past year, ASHP’s ongoing We’re Your Pharmacist public awareness campaign has highlighted inspirational stories about what you do each day to make your patients’ lives better. We’re sharing these stories with the public, including people who are just starting to explore career possibilities.

The NASEM workshop also emphasized the importance of supporting the well-being of our workforce, including students and residents, our colleagues, and ourselves. We were an early partner in several National Academy of Medicine projects on healthcare workforce well-being. We’ve also developed a wealth of well-being resources for our members and their colleagues, and we will continue to prioritize your resiliency and well-being.

ASHP is eager to review the workshop committee’s upcoming summary and evaluate and act on recommendations that address our members’ key concerns. We’ll keep you informed as the process moves forward.

Thank you for all you do for your patients and our profession.

Sincerely,

Paul

Posted on June 17, 2025