How Kinney Drugs Engages Patients in EQUIPP

The PQS by Innovaccer Quality Corner Show talks with Natalie K. Powers, PharmD, R.Ph., BCMTMS, and Supervisor of MTM & Clinical Operations at Kinney Drugs about transforming care and engaging patients with EQUIPP.

Quality Corner Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, asks Natalie what her pharmacy team is doing to be successful in 2024, how EQUIPP is helping operations, and the impact Enhanced Services is having on patient care and medication adherence.

Chapters

• 0:42 Introduction
• 4:28 Kinney Drugs Pharmacy Team at Work
• 7:24 Using EQUIPP
• 9:35 EQUIPP Enhanced Services
• 13:59 Expanding Pharmacy
• 16:50 Why Health Plans Should Partner with Pharmacy
• 18:38 Closing

Transcript

Natalie Powers

When I first saw EQUIPP. I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit overwhelmed at the data. And how do I digest all of this data? But then I feel like, you know, I

you guys have great video resources. I watched all those. I learned what what like what EQUIPP is, what they do, how they're successful. And, it became a little bit of like an addiction, you know, like, I want to see my PDC scores go up.

I want to meet our goals and, my team feels the same way. 

00:00:32:12 - 00:00:33:16

Intro

Welcome to the Pharmacy Quality Solutions Quality Corner Show. Buckle up and put your thinking cap on. The Quality Corner Show starts now.

00:00:42:23 - 00:00:45:24

Nick Dorich

Hello, Quality Corner Show listeners or actually viewers, if you're watching us on YouTube here, welcome to the PQS by Innovaccer podcast where we focus on medication use, quality improvement and how we can utilize pharmacists to improve patient health outcomes. I'm your host, Nick Dorich.

I am joined today for this very special episode with Natalie Powers from Kinney Drugs.

And Natalie is the supervisor of MTM and clinical services at Kinney. Natalie, how are you today? How are you doing?

00:01:11:09 - 00:01:13:17

Natalie Powers

I'm great. Nick, I'm really happy to be here. So thank you so much for inviting me on

and, giving us this opportunity to chat.

00:01:18:24 - 00:01:19:19

Nick Dorich

Yeah, absolutely. We've been trying to get this one worked out for a little while. I'm excited to have you here today.

We're going to talk about some of the great things that Kinney Drugs is doing as it relates to clinical services utilizing their pharmacy team. And with that ultimate goal of improving

patient health outcomes and really expanding the role and the opportunities for their pharmacy team members, that may be pharmacists that may also get into pharmacy technicians as well. Natalie, before we do that,

and before we get into that exciting conversation, let's give an introduction for you.

Can you tell us a little bit about, you know, your career path

and then you know what? What do you do? What is your role? What does that title actually mean in your current operations at Kinney Drugs?

00:01:55:21 - 00:01:56:13

Natalie Powers

Absolutely. I really love sharing my little hometown Kinney Drug story. So when I was in high school, I thought that I wanted to become a pharmacist. So it just so happened that there was a little career fair set up in our high school gymnasium.

So I was a shy little 16 year old girl. I walked up to the Kinney Drugs table, and I told them that I, you know, I kind of was thinking about going into pharmacy and, he hired me on the spot in my high school gym.

He said, I need somebody to work on Thursday nights from 5 to 9. So I was like, okay.

So he was, a great role model for me. He took me under his wing

and really just taught me the type of pharmacist that I wanted to be.

00:02:35:04 - 00:02:37:11

So, believe it or not,if you can do the math. I've been with Kinney's for 18 years now, and I've worn many different hats throughout my career here at Kinney's,

and it's been just such a joy. I think that, so I started as a student in high school, and then I went to pharmacy school, and I was an intern, and then I became a floating pharmacist for Kinney for a couple of years.

00:02:55:10 - 00:02:59:14

I took a staff pharmacist position, and then I was a supervising pharmacist for about seven years, at one of our local Alexandria Bay, New York locations.

and it's just been really great to watch pharmacy evolve over that time. You know, like when I was 16 versus when I'm 34, pharmacy is just a whole different place.

00:03:18:04 - 00:03:21:15

And I really been able to enjoy and be such a part of the evolution of what the pharmacy is today. So I've been in this current role for a little over two years now.

So I am a supervisor of medication therapy management and clinical programs here at Kinney.

And, I work on a centralized team with two other pharmacists, and we just do everything that we possibly can to take advantage of all of these new opportunities.

00:03:45:08 - 00:03:46:05

Nick Dorich

Excellent. Natalie, before we continue on, do you do you mind giving a shout out or a name?

Actually, for for your, first pharmacist?

Natalie Powers

Yeah.

00:03:55:02 - 00:03:57:03

I got you into this. I think this is a great story. I have a similar experience, myself

being a pharmacist at a high school career fair, I think when I was 15. But close enough.

And I know just how important that pharmacist is to me.

00:04:05:02 - 00:04:08:02

Nick Dorich

So before we continue on, do you want to give a shout out for that individual?

00:04:08:09 - 00:04:09:03

Natalie Powers

I would love to. So, that is Dave Adsit  and Dave Adsit has worn so many different hats as well. So Kinney Drugs is part of a larger organization. We've diversified throughout the

the last several years. So we have a long term care pharmacy called Health Direct.

So Dave is the president at Health Direct.

00:04:27:14 - 00:04:28:19

Nick Dorich 

Great. Good stuff. All right. We're going to go ahead now

and get into our questions for today. And specifically what we're going to be talking about is, you know what is what is Kinney doing? How is Kinney utilizing some of this information

to really kind of transform care, in their engagement, how they're, they're utilizing EQUIPP

with some of these opportunities.

So, Natalie, we're going to go ahead and get started into into this conversation.

I want to start off, first and foremost, the big important question,

when it comes to your pharmacy, when it comes to the work

that your pharmacy team is doing here in we're recording in the summer of 2024.

00:05:01:09 - 00:05:04:22

So this conversation is going to be focused on a point, a point in time. You already mentioned that pharmacy changes and evolves so quickly, but for you and your team, what makes for a successful and innovative pharmacy practice in 2024?

00:05:15:13 - 00:05:16:04

Natalie Powers

Absolutely. So like I just said, I just, I'm really in awe of how our pharmacy has come, but I feel like you do have to be successful and innovative to continue your success. so when I started my career in pharmacy, I felt like Kinney Drugs was a destination for your medicines.

00:05:32:18 - 00:05:35:16

You came to our pharmacy to pick up your medicines, and now I feel like we're becoming a destination for health care services. So you can come to the pharmacy. But it's not just for your medication anymore. We can provide so many other beneficial services, and pharmacies are just the most accessible health care provider that you can find. So, I feel that it's really moving in that direction, especially since Covid when we've really proven to the country, you know, how beneficial we really can be.

So, I think that being said, I really think that successful and innovative community pharmacies have to operationalize initiatives quickly.

00:06:12:20 - 00:06:15:18

So I think that's always something we're striving to do. And when you look way back at 2008, we were one of the first pharmacies to vaccinate.

00:06:22:19 - 00:06:26:19

So we just, as soon as we find out that there's a possibility we can do something, we are trying to hurry up and make a plan and make sure that not only we can be successful at that plan, but that our whole team is on board. Our whole team is trained. We're all ready as an organization to go ahead and dive headfirst into that.

00:06:40:05 - 00:06:42:09

And we can say that about so many things. You know, like in 2017, we invested in a

state of the art central fill facility to, create significant efficiencies and cost savings across the organization. Any time we have a prescription to over-the-counter switch, we try to be the first to market.

00:06:57:12 - 00:07:01:13

And most recently, with EQUIPP, we have been able to just really take some of these new programs and new opportunities that have been offered to Kinney as an organization and just try to crush them, try to work as a team and come up with a plan and figure out how we can be, you know, just make these wonderful, for EQUIPP, for our health care payers and for our, for our Kinney Drugs here.

00:07:24:06 - 00:07:24:12

Nick Dorich

Yeah. So, Kinney, he's always been somewhat of a a thought leader, an early to market, we'll say, when it comes to pharmacist or or services that can be provided in a pharmacy.

And I'm learning to kind of change some of my words on these sort of things, because even items like immunizations or blood pressure readings, it doesn't necessarily need to be a pharmacist.

It could be a pharmacy technician doing these things as well.

But does your team, you know, maybe it's in the corporate office or some of the regional offices, but even down to the pharmacies, is there a sort of, or a sense of pride that comes from being an early adopter?

00:07:55:08 - 00:07:58:09

And is it something that helps to drive the team and keep your team engaged?

Because it is more than simply being a place to pick up medication? How does the team, how does the organization feel about that?

00:08:04:02 - 00:08:04:19

Natalie Powers

Absolutely. It's one of my favorite things when I have somebody that joins our team, even an intern that's just coming in to see us for six weeks, my hope is that I can motivate them the way that I truly feel motivated.

00:08:14:24 - 00:08:18:24

So I get an email from EQUIPP saying that the dashboard updated, and sometimes I literally run to my computer to see what our stats are in my, to my pharmacist and my team.

My team does the same thing. Like we cannot chat with each other fast enough about what our numbers look like, and I feel like that's that's the number one thing that you have to have.

When you're creating these programs, you have to have the motivation and the drive to be successful. And so yes, so we are very competitive.

We love to be, you know, top three. And even in number three, we're disappointed that we're not number two. But that's what that's what we do. We're very, very motivated.

00:08:53:03 - 00:08:56:23

And we work just really seamlessly together to make sure that these programs can come to fruition.

It, it makes me when I first saw EQUIPP, I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit overwhelmed at the data.

00:09:08:02 - 00:09:10:23

And how do I digest all of this data? But then I feel like,

you know, you guys have great video resources. I watched all those. I learned what what like what EQUIPP is, what they do, how they're successful. And, it became a little bit of like an addiction, you know, like I want to see my PDC scores go up. I want to meet our goals. And, my team feels the same way.

00:09:32:04 - 00:09:35:04

So it's nice to have that competitive edge.

00:09:35:08 - 00:09:36:07

Nick Dorich

Yeah. not a shock to have, people in an organization that's based in the northeast

New England area, that are competitive. Definitely not a shocker surprise there.

But now let's let's delve in a little bit further. So you've brought up some of the EQUIPP information and how your team is, you know, regularly and routinely using this information.

and I would say even prioritizing how this drives or how this changes what your team is doing from an operations and workflow standpoint. 

00:10:00:23 - 00:10:03:03

So with that being the case, what benefits have you seen and what benefits have you seen for your pharmacy when it comes to engaging with EQUIPP Enhance Services specifically?

And I'll explain that a little bit for folks that may not be familiar with, Enhanced Services as a new item that they can have with, with EQUIPP.

And those are specifically, specifically opportunities where health plans are partnering

with EQUIPP to provide opportunities for pharmacies to document for items such as adherence, medication adherence counseling,

and then also for other services including blood pressure and hemoglobin

A1C, amongst some other things there.

00:10:37:05 - 00:10:38:13

So, you know, what is this done? How is how is your team reacted to this

and what have you seen from a success.

00:10:42:23 - 00:10:43:13

Natalie Powers

Absolutely.

So engaging with the EQUIPP Enhanced Services, it's really been fulfilling for our teams.

It sounds really silly, But to provide our patients with that one on one education and support and then watch their PDC scores improve month over month knowing that we made a difference in their health outcome.

It really brings so much joy to our team. And on the flip side, our patients love how much we care about them.

You know, sometimes at the beginning of this, I thought maybe they would be annoyed that we were calling them and seeing why they didn't, like, refill their blood pressure medicine on time. But truly, at the end of the day, we have so many customers that are like, thank you for calling me. Thank you for caring about me.

Like, you guys are awesome. So I think that it's really a win win situation.

00:11:23:19 - 00:11:27:14

It really just depends on how you approach the situation and we have learned it's been a huge learning curve of what works in one pharmacy might not work in another pharmacy.

And our populations are different in our different pharmacies. There's patients who prefer calls, patients who prefer text messages, patients who save our phone number and call us every day.

00:11:46:13 - 00:11:49:20

You know, there's just so many different approaches that you can take. But I truly do feel like we have just tried to take that approach.

We truly care about our patients, and we truly care about their health outcomes.

00:11:58:20 - 00:12:02:21

So this service has only given us, you know, more data and more information around what our patients need help with. You know, what they need help with from an adherence standpoint.

And we've been able to provide that to them.

00:12:13:11 - 00:12:13:19

Nick Dorich

Yeah.

And what I'm hearing, Natalie, is that these are things you want to be doing anyways.

This sort of outreach because it's good for the patient, it's good for your team.

But even as you're going through this outreach, it's creating ancillary benefits for your team.

You're finding out, hey, how does a patient prefer they get communications about their health care that may extend to other items as well?

00:12:32:12 - 00:12:36:12

So when you're, out, when you're when you're providing a new service or even when it comes to maybe something like flu shot season, which Natalie don't look at the calendar,

but that's coming up sooner than we think.

That may help with, hey, how do we make sure that patients come in and get a flu shot?

And especially as pharmacy start to provide more service opportunities for health screenings, you've got those communication ways that are built and the healthcare truly becomes a local aspect.

It is that patient knows their pharmacist. They know that pharmacy team, and they're going to respond to you, you know, really more than they are any other kind of provider.

00:13:03:23 - 00:13:06:23

So these service offerings I think are really great because, it reinforces that for that patient and their behavior that this is what they should expect from their pharmacist.

So anything else you'd want to add to that or kind of put an exclamation point on before we move to our next question?

00:13:20:06 - 00:13:24:24

Natalie Powers

I think at the end of this, I just think that, I completely agree, and I think that adherence is huge for patients, huge for their outcomes.

But it's not only you got to fill your medicine every month, it's also let's change it to a 90 day supply.

Your insurance will cover a 100 day supply.

00:13:35:23 - 00:13:38:16

You know let's get that in the works for you. and it's not only I'm going to call you every month and refill this, it's explaining why adherence is important and getting that patient to change that adherence on their own.

So they're not they're not going to be on our list. Our hope is that they're not going to be

on non-adherent every single month. We're going to give them the tools and the education. So they become adherent and they want to become adhere on their own.

00:13:58:18 - 00:14:01:16

Nick Dorich

And all right, so Natalie, for our next question here, what I want to think about in a terminology that's really popular right now and big in pop culture is, is the whiteboard.

What do you what does Kinney Drug have on its whiteboard?

What is that? What is your wish list? You know where what does pharmacy

what is community pharmacy practice? What does it look like in five years? What are you going to be doing at that point that you're, you know, not doing now, some of these things, they may already be happening, but they're just more expansive.

Some of these may be things where they're going through and baby steps are some of them, hey, it may not even be in that development stage,

but it's we want that to be happening or our patients want that.

00:14:34:12 - 00:14:35:08

We want that to be happening. So I'll give you free rein here to throw out, you know, some of your ideas and some of your thoughts, that you and the Kinney team would really like to see.

00:14:41:16 - 00:14:42:06

Natalie Powers

Absolutely. So in my clinical role with Kinney, I see the expansion of clinical service, services, as being the most exciting opportunity. Our pharmacies find a lot of fulfillment in being able to expand our scope of practice and work at the top of our licenses.

Like I said earlier, we're one of the most accessible and one of the most trusted health care professionals out there in our communities.

And at the same time, there's a shortage of primary care physicians as well.

00:15:06:21 - 00:15:09:21

So at this point, it's really all hands on deck. And I think that, again, we proved what we're capable of throughout the Covid pandemic. And I just hope to continue to see more and more legislative changes, allowing pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to dive even deeper into patient care.

And with those legislative changes, at the same time,

I really hope that we can see payers jumping on board and providing, you know, credentialing options for our for our pharmacists and a fair reimbursement for our services.

00:15:35:17 - 00:15:37:10

So really, depending on the state, there are so many exciting opportunities on the horizon for pharmacies.

We've got test to treat on the horizon. Pharmacies can dispense oral contraceptives in certain states smoking cessation medications, administer long acting injectables.

So I really want to just continue to grow our roles as healthcare professionals and provide these valuable services to our community.

00:15:57:01- 00:16:08:01

Nick Dorich

Yeah, there's so much and I think that's one of the items that I'm that I think about continuously or when I go to bed, each night, what do I think about for a pharmacy?

There are still so many things that we can do. There are some items that we need to figure out And, having a pharmacy support staff that's built in.

And Natalie, earlier you spoke about you spoke about how your team has certain operations or even certain aspects of medication dispensing that are centralized.

00:16:21:21 - 00:16:26:01

These are all steps that pharmacies can, and I would say should take in order to let pharmacists truly be community centered health care practitioners. That's what we want.

That's what we are trained to do. So it's really exciting to see and hear from an organization like yours and an individual like you that is not just talking the talk about these, but it's truly walking the walk around these services and truly expanding and putting, pharmacists on the forefront as a community health care provider.

00:16:50:01 - 00:16:51:22

now, Natalie, I'll give you one last question here before we wrap up, because, you know, this is a podcast that we share and we engage with for many other community pharmacies, for many in public health, but also with managed care

and with folks that are at health plans or pharmacy benefit managers and folks that are engaged with various parts of the process.

00:17:07:01 - 00:17:10:01

So, you know, if you've got a message that you would like to share with health plans about, you know, hey, why should they partner with pharmacies and why should they do it now and today? What would that message be?

00:17:16:24 - 00:17:19:12

Natalie Powers

Yeah, my recommendation is please do it. Please partner with us, give us the opportunities.

Like I said, pharmacies are so accessible and we're so valued and respected in the community and we can really make such a big difference in the health outcomes of a patient.

00:17:31:11 - 00:17:33:00

So I don't care if it's a comprehensive medication review or a targeted intervention.

We're doing providing a vaccination, maybe taking somebody's blood pressure or A1c, or filling a lifesaving medication. We can and we do make a difference every day.

So my advice is work with us to help achieve your goals. We want you to achieve your goals, and at the same time, will work to create a program to ensure that we can find success together in whatever you're looking to provide.

So together, let's invest in our patients and improve the health outcomes. Is what my biggest beg would be.

00:18:05:18 - 00:18:07:06

Nick Dorich

Excellent. It's fantastic. It's a great message. And we're I'm really excited to get the opportunity to showcase you and the Kinney team.

Really appreciate how your team has taken the bull by the horns.

And I appreciate your your honesty as well.

00:18:17:10 - 00:18:19:18

When we talk about EQUIPP, it is a lot of data. We live in a world where data is king, and that can make it difficult to manage and difficult to understand.

But I think as you showcase today, taking the time to understand the data up front really leads, it really creates this snowball effect of benefits where once you get the ball rolling on it, it actually just becomes habit, it just becomes routine.  

00:18:38:08 - 00:18:42:02

And as you're able to get your team in place, it's something where you're going to have some folks that really need to understand it. But for everybody else in the organization, it simply becomes implementation and just taking care of the patients, getting the right people in the right place to do that.

So, Natalie, again, I appreciate having you here. I appreciate the Kinney team.

We are going to wrap up this episode for today. But before we do, would like to give you,

you know, a chance to. Do you have any shout outs? any comments you would like to add,

you know, for your team at Kinney or for pharmacy in general before we close here?

00:19:10:16 - 00:19:14:11

Natalie Powers

Yes. First of all, I just want to say thank you, Nick and the team at EQUIPP, because you have been just fantastic partners and you're always there for questions.

So yes, it is a lot of data, but like you said, you figure it out, you get through it and now we feel like we're professionals at it.

And we can come to you anytime when we need help

and when a new program is implemented.

00:19:32:04 - 00:19:36:02

So you've all been amazing and we really, really value our partnership with EQUIPP and enjoy our discussions as we continue to navigate the ever changing community pharmacy.

00:19:41:10 - 00:19:47:04

But my team, especially my leadership team, that taught me that EQUIPP existed and said, Natalie got take it, take it away, figure out what you can do and believing in me and my team has been amazing and we have just thoroughly enjoyed figuring out these programs and, you know, putting a procedure and a policy on these and then seeing them come to fruition.

00:20:06:15 - 00:20:10:11

So, the pharmacist on my team, the pharmacy technicians on my team, they have worked so hard and they work so hard every single day to make sure that we can maximize all of these opportunities.

And they get equally as excited, if not more excited when we see these numbers come through and we can see that we're making a difference in these patients.

So thank you to my team and thank you to you guys.

00:20:30:05 - 00:20:31:04

Nick Dorich

Excellent. Final item here, Natalie, because you've had a lot of great comments and obviously you had a lot of great experience and, working through understanding, EQUIPP data, implementing this and really motivating your pharmacy team.

If there are other folks that are out there that would like to hear, you know, a little bit more from you or, you know, get in contact, can they find you on LinkedIn? Is what's the best way to reach you?

00:20:50:19 - 00:20:52:11

Natalie Powers

Absolutely.

I think LinkedIn would be great. So you can find me under Natalie Power's on LinkedIn and connect with me.

00:20:56:10 - 00:20:57:03

Nick Dorich

Excellent. Well, Natalie, with that, we've, wrapped up this episode for today. Again, thank you for joining. hope you enjoy. And hope the Kinney team enjoys

the rest of the summer. Hope you enjoy. I don't know if enjoys the right word, but hope you're in good shape as we come up to the fall and flu shot season.

I know that brings on a whole new avalanche of items for pharmacies to manage,

but that's both the blessing, I guess, and the curse of being that community health care provider.

00:21:20:01 - 00:21:22:17

I know you and the team are going to crush it. but thank you for being on this episode for our audience. Thank you for joining us today on this episode.

We hope you enjoyed it. And then we'll have one final message here from the PQS team.

00:21:32:10 - 00:21:35:23

Outro 

The Pharmacy Quality Solutions Quality Corner Show has a request for you. Our goal is to spread the word about how quality measurement can help improve health outcomes, and we need your help in sharing this podcast to friends and colleagues in the health care industry.

00:21:47:16 - 00:21:50:22

We also want you to provide feedback, ask us questions and suggest health topics you'd like to see covered.

If you are a health expert and you want to contribute to the show or even talk on the show, please contact us. You can email info@pharmacyquality.com.

00:22:04:23 - 00:22:07:22

Let us know what is on your mind,

what we can address so that you are fully informed. We want you to be able to provide the best care for your patients and members. And we wish all of you listeners out there well.