Community pharmacists’ contributions to disease management during the COVID-19 pandemic

Despite the challenges brought by COVID-19, community pharmacists have not faltered in providing critical health services to the public, write professors of pharmacy at three universities. Joined by the head of a state pharmacy board, they note in CDC’s Preventing Chronic Disease that these professionals are uniquely positioned to deliver priority pandemic responses such as vaccinations, specimen collection, and COVID-19 testing. Not only that, the authors add, this pandemic and others before it underscore the value of chronic disease prevention and management through community pharmacy. Many health care organizations had to limit patient access to noncritical services in the initial phases of the outbreak, but pharmacies quickly adopted social distancing and took other precautions to remain open. Subsequently, medication management, dispensing of drugs for chronic and acute conditions, and OTC advice continued with little interruption, along with routine pharmacy operations. The temporal and geographic accessibility of pharmacists amid nationwide lockdowns is especially important as it relates to at-risk populations, the authors continue. The pandemic exposed health care disparities along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines, with certain populations suffering a disproportionate burden of mortality within the context of COVID-19. Because community pharmacists are accessible to these populations, the authors argue, their contributions must be considered going forward. “As the role of the community pharmacist during the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, pharmacy’s impact on improving patient and population health outcomes should be evaluated,” they conclude. “The COVID-19 pandemic will likely reveal new roles that community pharmacists can play during a pandemic and beyond.”