Good Day Pharmacy Clinical Specialist Speaks at National Community Pharmacists Association Conference

In February, Kelsey Schwander, PharmD, and Clinical Specialist for Good Day Pharmacy, joined several other knowledgeable pharmacist and healthcare speakers at the Multiple Location Conference hosted by the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA). The event is the premier gathering of community pharmacy multi-store owners and was held in Fort Myers, Florida. Session topics were formulated to educate and sharpen skills on managing the complex business of multiple store ownership, and how to discover new service and business growth opportunities.

Since Dr. Schwander and four Good Day Pharmacy locations are participating in a national independent pharmacy movement called “Flip the Pharmacy,” Kelsey was asked to speak about how to implement enhanced patient care services (for example: travel health, hormonal contraception prescribing, smoking cessation prescribing, naloxone, strep and flu testing) that will transform pharmacies into a more patient care focus, instead of a prescription dispensing only model. The goal of Flip the Pharmacy is to “move beyond filling prescriptions at a moment in time, to caring for patients over time.”

Dr. Schwander’s presentation, From Prescriptions to Patients: Assessing and Addressing Operations From the Outside In, discussed the difficulty of assessing and addressing business operations during most whirlwind days. She led a discussion on how Flip the Pharmacy coaches across the country are helping community pharmacies move from a transaction-based “in the moment” business to a practice of longitudinal care. Further insight was provided on how to get staff buy-in, streamline workflows, and transform pharmacy practices.

In her current role, Dr. Schwander serves as Good Day Pharmacy’s lead clinical specialist where she works across Good Day’s multiple locations creating programs, developing resources, and training staff for the implementation of new service programs. She also serves as a Flip the Pharmacy coach, supporting both her pharmacies and others in Colorado through the transformative, multi-year approach of engaging pharmacies to become longitudinal care sites.

The creator and coordinating center for Flip the Pharmacy is CPESN (Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network), a network of community pharmacy networks. CPESN and its Flip the Pharmacy initiative have gained the support of NCPA and many other organizations. Kelsey is involved with CPESN, NCPA and Flip the Pharmacy through her own and Good Day’s long-standing membership of NCPA, a national organization that is the voice for independent pharmacy, representing 21,000 pharmacies and employing more than 250,000 individuals nationwide. “Community pharmacists are local health care problem-solvers who can customize solutions to local health challenges. They are rooted in the communities where they are located and are America’s most accessible health care providers.” (NCPA, 2020)

Good Day Pharmacy is an independent, family-owned company operating under the Health Mart umbrella and employs more than 140 Colorado residents at eleven Colorado locations. Principals are David Lamb, Vicki Einhellig, and Nancy Lamb. Collaboratively, all three owners serve on several boards: Rx Plus Pharmacies, Independent Pharmacy Cooperative, and NCPA Steering Committees and Advisory Board. Good Day hosts internship programs, student rotations for pharmacy students, and offers a pharmacist residency program. Based in Loveland, CO, the company has been in business since 1985, providing community pharmacies and personal, face-to-face service for residents of Colorado.