Q&A: Expert Discusses Trust Building in Community Pharmacy During COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Prescription Shoppe, a Black-owned pharmacy in Williamsburg, Virginia, demonstrated resilience and community leadership. The pharmacy, not only survived its challenging first years, but became a critical healthcare resource, hosting the first drive-through COVID vaccine clinic in their area and serving approximately 300 patients. By building trust within the Black and brown communities, providing personalized care, and adapting quickly to new challenges like increased delivery services, the pharmacy transformed potential pandemic obstacles into opportunities for growth. Jade Ranger, PharmD, co-owner and pharmacist at the Prescription Shoppe, highlighted the vital role of independent pharmacies in health care, showing how personal relationships and representation can significantly improve patient outcomes and community trust.

Jade Ranger, PharmD, co-owner and pharmacist at the Prescription Shoppe, discussed administering vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Image Credit: bizoo_n | stock.adobe.com

Drug Topics: Looking back over the past 5 years, what would you say was the single biggest challenge the pandemic posed to your pharmacy, and how did you overcome it?

Jade Ranger, PharmD: I think just, having to adapt, right? There was a lot of adaptation that had to happen during that time frame, whether it was increase of deliveries, whether it was curbside pickup. We saw that kind of go through the roof, and so that was kind of a change that we were not necessarily right away prepared for. So, we had to hire a delivery driver to help with that, where before, my husband was just doing the deliveries after the store closed. So there was a lot of shifts that we had to make, but I think overall, it was one of those things where it really helped us kind of see what we were made of. We were able to make the pivots as necessary, add additional team members, and we had been so blessed that even though, when the pandemic first hit, we had just celebrated our 1-year anniversary of opening the Prescription Shoppe, literally the weekend before the world closed down. So the fact that we're now getting ready to be celebrating 6 years in March is amazing, because at that time we wondered if we would even still make it.

Drug Topics: What are you most proud of in terms of your pharmacy's response to the pandemic?

Ranger: I would say, for sure, the community impact. We went above and beyond, as many community independent pharmacies did. As you know, as community independent pharmacies, we were really the driving force between the community and getting those COVID vaccines out, and so we actually hosted the first drive-through COVID vaccine clinic here on the peninsula where we're located, in the Williamsburg, Virginia area, in which we saw about 300 patients that came through. All of the vaccines that we were doing in churches, at schools, just throughout our community, and that outreach, we came up with a full-force effort where we had other people who were working with us. We had pharmacy students that were helping us facilitate, and really just going above and beyond, but the other piece of that, specifically, as the first Black-owned pharmacy here in Williamsburg, Virginia, we knew that there was a lot of education that had to happen because you had some patient populations who were very proactive, wanted to get the vaccine. They were beating down our doors to get the vaccine, but then you had others that were way more hesitant, were concerned, wanting to understand the science behind it, wanting to make sure that they were not going to be harmed in any way. So, we had a significant amount of Black and brown patients that came specifically to the Prescription Shoppe because they felt more comfortable receiving the vaccine from us, and it wasn't like we had different COVID shots, obviously, than the CVS or the Walgreens, but because we had built that relationship, and because we had that trust, I think we had a lot of patients who specifically sought us out. I think that's also the importance of representation mattering, right? We know that patient outcomes are significantly improved when we have practitioners who look like patient populations, who also are able to, have that true relationship than the understanding of their life experience, and I think that makes a big difference.

Drug Topics: How has the pandemic changed the way you operate your pharmacy, both in terms of daily workflow and long-term strategic planning?

Ranger: I would say that, we understand now the importance of being able to kind of pivot and make adjustments as necessary. We have also kind of just put some things into place from an SOP or standard procedure operation, as it relates to how we handle our day-to-day, whether that is patients, like I said, with the increased delivery, some of that has kind of actually stayed to the point where we've had to have another delivery driver. We know that that was a very convenient thing, that we saw how beneficial it was in the pandemic, and now that is something that has continued on. So that would be the first thing that comes to mind, but I would say it is one of those things where it showed us that you have to be ready for unexpected, and even as that relates to DIR fees, and I'm sure you've had all the conversations about PBMs and things like that, you have to be able to be resilient. This is not easy work. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. So you have to be able to, in challenging circumstances, make the pivots that are necessary to that.

Drug Topics: What lessons from the pandemic do you think will be most valuable for independent pharmacies moving forward?

Ranger: I would say, probably, the value that we brought. I think a lot of times people think of community independent pharmacy. They think of it as a dying breed, and I think it's one of those things where a lot of people had kind of forgotten about the integral role that we play in our communities, and I feel like COVID really kind of put that back on the map and back on the forefront, and it has really reminded a lot of patients like, 'Hey, we are the cornerstone of our pharmacies, of our communities. We're the most successful health care providers.' People come in the Prescription Shoppe, because we know them by name. When they come in, we know what's going on in their lives, whether someone has had a birthday or passed unfortunately, whatever the case may be. So, I think because of that, it is almost brought back this influx of patients into our pharmacy, where they're like, through that experience, through the way they saw us handle the challenges that came along with the pandemic, it has made them be reminded that, 'hey, I think actually I would prefer this experience, and so through COVID, we actually have had a ton of patients that have transferred in from the CVS and the Walgreens of the world because they realize that they actually prefer this more personalized experience.

Drug Topics: How did you address the increased demand for vaccinations and testing, and what were some of the logistical hurdles you faced?

Ranger: The logistical hurdles were that we were one of the first pharmacies in Williamsburg to receive the COVID vaccines. Patients knew that, and so what happened was everyone wanted a COVID vaccine, right? And so everyone had a reason as to why they should be first on line, in the line, and whether that was 'I have congestive heart failure' or 'I'm on chemotherapy,' everyone has a reason. 'Oh, I'm elderly. I'm 94. I need this vaccine.' And so that created a lot of challenges because while, yes, we had the vaccine, initially, we had it in lower numbers. So it was kind of one of these things where we were having to try to figure out how we were going to roll it out, and so we were literally trying to do it on a first-come, first-serve. We kind of had a back phone that we were using. We sent out information on our social media, also in local magazines and newspapers, about what our process was going to be ahead of time, like a few weeks leading up to us actually receiving the vaccine. So at 8 a.m. on a certain day in January, I think was January 25 if I'm not mistaken, the phone line opened, and you had to text your information to this phone line. Basically, that's how we developed our the order of who we decided to go with, and so, even though all of the directions were clear, we wind up getting like 7000 text messages to that phone. It was crazy trying to go through and figure all that out. You had a lot of patients who, at the same time, was very disgruntled, and they were upset because, they might not have been the first round of patients that we were going through, and they were frustrated, and everyone wanted the vaccine, so we had to kind of filter through, helping people understand. We know that everyone wants the vaccine; we understand that there are several people that are high risk, but we still have to follow the process so that we can make sure that we're not overwhelmed and we're actually able to provide the vaccine in an orderly fashion. So that was, by far, I think, the most challenging aspect of it when we were actually rolling out the vaccines.