COMMUNITY pharmacies of the future will have a greater focus on services for the safe administration and management of medicines as they become more complex and are customised for patients, a major research project undertaken by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia has concluded.
This medication management will be underpinned by a workforce trained and skilled in the delivery of these services and in providing value to patients and to the community pharmacy sector itself.
But the research also warns that failure to prepare for the changes and adapt the model of community pharmacy to the new environment could result in loss of relevance and revenue, and an increased trend towards deregulation of the sector.
The Pharmacy Guild initiated the research project, Community Pharmacy 2025 (CP2025), to determine what Australian community pharmacies will look like in 2025 and beyond.
Project findings have been made available to Guild members.
The CP2025 report has found management of medicines, as they increase in complexity and become customised for patients, will assume an increasingly important role for pharmacies.
Coupled with this, patient health literacy will become a core specialty for community pharmacies.
The report also suggests there will be a move to pharmacies becoming centralised health hubs.
"Understanding of other healthcare providers' practices through a central location will allow better management of, and care for, patients by pharmacists," the report said.
"Complex medicines (eg immunotherapy) are dangerous without a patient's health history, current medications, and, as DNA technology advances, genetic makeup.
"Pharmacy can become the central hub where all of this data is utilised in any patient's medicines regime."
Key to the success of all this vision will be "a skilled and highly trained workforce".
The research identified nine pathways that represent the best opportunities for community pharmacies to make the most of the changing operating environment: online services and processes, health service on a broad brush level, community-based health hub, business operations, automation via technological advances, new products, brand leveraging, in-home services along with coordination, accreditation and partnerships with other health-related services and Government.
The Guild said it has identified the first four of these pathways as representing the highest priorities for community pharmacy.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 27 Jun 18
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 27 Jun 18
