Q&A: How Independent Pharmacists Navigated the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, independent pharmacies found themselves on the front lines of community health care, facing unprecedented challenges with remarkable resilience and creativity. These local health care providers were forced to rapidly transform their operations, reimagine service delivery, and become critical resources for their communities during a time of extreme uncertainty and fear.

The story of one independent pharmacy reveals the extraordinary lengths pharmacists went to in order to serve their patients and protect public health. From developing innovative curbside service models to advocating for vaccine distribution and conducting mass vaccination clinics, these health care professionals demonstrated extraordinary adaptability and commitment. Tom DePietro, PharmD, owner of DePietro's Pharmacy, highlights not just the technical challenges of managing a pharmacy during a global health crisis but also the deep community connections that enabled them to respond effectively when traditional health care systems were overwhelmed.

Tom DePietro, PharmD, owner of DePietro's Pharmacy, highlights the deep community connections that enabled the pharmacy to respond effectively to the pandemic. Image Credit: Alex Photo | 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?

Tom DePietro, PharmD: This is a difficult question. I think looking back to the COVID era, there were so many tough, critical decisions to make, but reflecting on the question, I would have to say the most difficult was the judgment call to shut our doors. So, during this time, pharmacists were not only trying to digest information for their community and for their staff, but then we were, obviously, trying to keep our loved ones at home safe. So, we don't have a drive-through at our location. Immediately I just thought of like old-fashioned diners where they would like bring out food to car side. We're active in our community. So I was like, 'how am I going to pull this off?' And I immediately thought, let me call the high school football coach and ask him if any of his players can come over and help. So, it was at that time we basically went curbside only. We would have the a couple of the football players outside taking orders coming into the pharmacy. So I think obtaining vaccines was difficult, educating the public was difficult, keeping operations was difficult, but I'd say, like if I had to choose one, I would pick shutting the doors during COVID.

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

DePietro: I would say the deployment of vaccine into the community. So really early on, I became like an advocate for getting the vaccine. All pharmacies wanted it; all areas wanted it, but the distribution early on was tough, so we were advocating our local elected officials to make sure we were included because, if I remember correctly, we were all included, then they kind of whittled us down into a smaller group. So I recall having some of our patients write letters to advocate for us. So, really working hard and fighting to get the vaccine and then getting it out into the community. So, my staff and I, no matter what time of day it was, if it was a Sunday, if it was a Friday night, if I said, 'Hey, we're going to do a vaccine clinic,' I had my staff support, and they were just all dedicated to getting our community vaccinated. We went into high-rise facilities. We serviced as little as 5 people to as most as 600 in the local YMCA. So I think seeing us advocate for the vaccine, procuring the vaccine, and then administering it into arms was really my proudest moment during that time.

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

DePietro: I think it gave us the confidence to realize that everything in pharmacy is always ever-changing. So, I guess the operation, like, mentally, I just tell myself to be agile in planning because the perfect plan or scenario isn't going to happen. You just have to be able to adapt and change to it. I think being staffed appropriately as an independent pharmacy allows us to pivot or adapt to something like the COVID pandemic quicker. I noticed some of the larger chains were—they had a ramp-up to recruit pharmacists to then go out into the community. So, we were positioned a little different, but I think it just goes to show you that you could do all of the long-term strategic planning as you wish, and something might just come and sucker punch you out of left field. So, I think in hindsight, just being acceptable of the fact that things are going to change quickly and health care is always constant.

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

DePietro: I think the general public has never really been too much exposed of what pharmacists or what independent pharmacies do for their community. Generally, they'll see us on a t-shirt for a bitty basketball, T-ball team. Maybe they'll see our car around town or an ad in the newspaper, but I think what the COVID pandemic did is it really gave us the opportunity to shine and really show what we do on a daily basis. So, we are always rising to the top for our community, like many independent pharmacies across the country. So, I just think COVID gave us the ability to truly show the communities what we do for our customers in our area. So, I think and I hope that that would be a turning point for pharmacists to be a little bit more appreciated or understood in what we do on a daily basis.

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

DePietro: We talked a little bit about it early on, but getting access to the vaccines was a challenge early on; as I mentioned, it was a bit political. You had to get selected to be one of the groups that were allowed to order [it]. Once you were selected, the logistics of ordering was all out of sorts, too. At one point we were just submitting like a JotForm for orders, then we had to submit it more formally. So there was a constant flow of information changing on how to order the vaccine. And then, once we were able to overcome the hurdles of getting the vaccine and procuring it, then it was, how do we serve the amount of people that we need to serve outside of the confines of our building because our building is not huge? So, we established a working relationship with our borough. We use their community building 3 days a week; we would have part of our staff leave the pharmacy and go down to the community center to have standing vaccine clinics. We hosted a large vaccine clinic at the local YMCA. I also mentioned we went to high-rises senior-living facilities, and we also partnered with some local businesses that had factories, so to speak, manufacturing facilities that wanted to remain open. So we kind of just leveraged the relationships that we had in the community to really serve the community, and it was—looking back, I mean—just trying to even obtain hard-to-find items, masks, hand sanitizers, thermometers. We really turned into just a whole one-stop shop resource for our community during such a challenging time.