Welcome to the 2018 NACDS Total Store Expo! This year’s event will be unlike anything else before it, because that is the nature of the transformation in which the industry is engaged. You will see the scope and magnitude of change in the content of each and every meeting between retailers and suppliers, as well as in the nature of the official conference programming.
During the commemoration of National Immunization Awareness Month in August, NACDS will be promoting a host of story lines of importance to public health and to pharmacy’s role as the face of neighborhood healthcare.
Discussion topics included enhancing pharmacists’ scope-of-practice; accountable care organizations; the role of pharmacy technicians in optimizing patient care; advancing medication therapy management; and more.
Dr. Dan Carey, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources, spoke about opioid issues during the NACDS Retail Advisory Market Immersion in Richmond.
Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams has a motto: “Better Health through Better Partnerships.” We stand with him in pursuit of that vision.
In a January 2018 national survey conducted by Morning Consult, and commissioned by NACDS, 76% supported rules that all prescriptions must be handled electronically, rather than by paper or fax.
For the first time in the event's 10-year history, the 2018 NACDS RxIMPACT Day on Capitol Hill will feature pharmacy advocates from all 50 states. The fly-in, which reaches 90 percent of Congressional offices, will be held March 7-8.
The year 2018 is here—and, with it, the 85th Anniversary of NACDS. Our goal is to assure that the celebration of this milestone proves to be a call to action for the future—even as we honor the industry's heritage.
"First in our hearts and minds are those who have seen their lives turned on end by Hurricane Harvey, and those who are working right now to assist them."
You may have seen the news this week about an interim report of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. The Commission – chaired by Governor Chris Christie – included among its initial recommendations one that it describes as “first and most urgent”: declaring a national emergency on this issue. The Commission explained that bringing this type of intensity to the effort would have specific ramifications for funding and resource allocation, as well as awakening every American to the risks associated with drug abuse and addiction.
Pharmacy – including actions of NACDS specifically – maintains a long-standing commitment to developing and implementing solutions on this extremely challenging topic. In July, NACDS submitted comments to the Commission that describe this commitment, as well as specific views on new opportunities to improve the nation’s approach to addiction, abuse and diversion.
This is a topic on which NACDS has been engaged for a long time, and with tremendous concern for patients and for the pharmacy teams who serve them in every neighborhood across the country. There is often talk of the moment of truth that occurs at a pharmacy, when an individual arrives to have a prescription filled for a controlled substance. At that moment of truth, pharmacies and pharmacists often are caught in the middle of highly complex issues related to patient care, healthcare access, addiction, abuse, diversion.
In May 2015, an NACDS op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times put it this way: “The pharmacy counter … is where the patient ultimately is receiving either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ as to whether the prescription will be filled. However, pursuing a zero tolerance for drug abuse and a 100-percent commitment to patient care — at the same time — requires collaboration that reaches far beyond that interaction between a patient and a pharmacist.”
Whatever policy changes are ultimately made – with the active engagement of the pharmacy community and with diverse stakeholders – we are urging that they be pursued with a new level of national curiosity that gets to the essence of these complex issues like never before. It has been said that one needs to ask [ READ MORE ]
