2026 EQUIPP Summer Trade Show Takeaways

Host Nick Dorich and PQS teammates Terilyn Flores, Josh Elyash, and Rosalyn "Roz" Otting recap three summer 2026 independent pharmacy trade shows (McKesson ideaShare, Cardinal RBC, and Cencora ThoughtSpot) where they met with over 500 pharmacies. Find out what the biggest takeaways were from each event on how to make the most of EQUIPP in your pharmacy.  Common questions covered accessing EQUIPP and the Copilot, training resources, and how often to check for new opportunities. 

Transcript

00:00:04:11 - 00:00:04:24
Nick Dorich


00:00:04:24 - 00:00:38:22
Josh Elyash
So my biggest piece of advice was simple. Basically treat EQUIPP like it's a standing appointment. Set aside a dedicated, absolutely non-negotiable time slot on your calendar every single week. Even if it's 30 minutes, that's plenty. Use that time to review and act on all your opportunities. And bottom line is consistency is what turns clinical opportunities into profit.

00:00:38:24 - 00:00:40:05
Voiceover
Welcome to the Pharmacy

00:00:40:08 - 00:00:49:05
Voiceover
Quality Solutions Quality Corner Show. Buckle up and put your thinking cap on. The Quality Corner show starts now.

00:00:49:07 - 00:00:52:17
Nick Dorich
Hello everyone and welcome to the PQS Quality Corner Show.

00:00:52:18 - 00:01:23:01
Nick Dorich
I'm your host, Nick Dorich. On today's episode, I have a group of some of our best teammates here at PQS who have all come back from attending some of the independent pharmacy wholesaler trade shows. We had a great experience meeting with pharmacies at McKesson, ideaShare, Cardinal RBC and Cencora ThoughtSpot. To three conferences. We met well over 500 plus pharmacies, meeting with the pharmacy owners, pharmacy technicians, staff pharmacists.

00:01:23:01 - 00:01:41:06
Nick Dorich
I think a little bit of everything in between those three roles. Our team could not be more excited as we come back from the show. We shared a lot of great information with pharmacies there, and we brought back a lot of great questions, some of the most frequently asked questions, some of the best practices that pharmacies were asking about at these conferences.

00:01:41:06 - 00:01:59:19
Nick Dorich
So we wanted to share some of that information with you, our listening audience, so you can hear some of the best tips and reminders as we go to finish out this 2026 year. So as we get started, I've got 4 or 5 questions that I'm going to ask my panel of teammates today. And that actually is first going to start off with introductions for the team members.

00:01:59:19 - 00:02:17:13
Nick Dorich
So I've got three of my PQS team members here. I'm going to have them introduce themselves one by one there. They're going to say who they are, what is their role here at PQS, what do they do in supporting you as the pharmacy and then what trade show they attended this summer. So starting off here, Terilyn, welcome to the show.

00:02:17:15 - 00:02:20:08
Nick Dorich
Let's hear from you.

00:02:20:10 - 00:02:32:04
Terilyn Flores
So my name is Terilyn Flores. I'm a clinical transformation specialist PQS which means I do training in education. And then I was at the McKesson ideaShare in Colorado. 

00:02:32:07 - 00:02:36:05
Nick Dorich

 Thanks Terry Lynn. Next up we've got Josh Elyash.

00:02:36:07 - 00:02:56:06
Josh Elyash
Hey, everybody. Thanks for having me here. My name is Josh Elyash. I am a pharmacy account manager. What it is that I do is I work with our pharmacy partners on all of their EQUIPP opportunities. And I was privileged to attend both McKesson ideaShare and Cardinal RBC this year.

00:02:56:08 - 00:03:00:14
Nick Dorich
Thanks, Josh. And then our next panelist for today is Roz.

00:03:00:15 - 00:03:02:01
Nick Dorich
Roz, welcome to the show.

00:03:02:01 - 00:03:02:17
Nick Dorich


00:03:02:17 - 00:03:20:04
Rosalyn Otting
Yeah. Hi, Nick. Thanks for having us. So my name is Roz Otting. I'm a pharmacist by trade with my background is in clinical geriatrics, but with PQS, I hold the title of senior manager for clinical transformation for pharmacy. And so in my role, I oversee our quality measures for pharmacy as well as clinical program development.

00:03:20:04 - 00:03:25:23
Rosalyn Otting
And maybe you saw me this year at a ThoughtSpot down in Orlando. That was a good time. 

00:03:25:24 - 00:03:40:18
Nick Dorich

 Thanks, Roz. And thanks everybody for for joining here. I really one of the things that I really enjoy is we get to bring a lot of our different team members with different perspective and experience. So we're able to offer a number of different training and engagements with the pharmacies that we meet with.

00:03:40:20 - 00:03:57:19
Nick Dorich
Again, I mentioned we met with over 500 across the three shows, and I'm sure that number is actually probably lower than expected based on some of the pharmacy that we maybe had a handshake with or had a coffee with, or maybe a meal at one of the shows, and we just didn't get that badge collected. But I do want to jump into the actual conversation for today.

00:03:57:19 - 00:04:13:02
Nick Dorich
And for this first question, we're going to go in the same order Terilyn, Josh, and then Roz. So Terirlyn, starting off very simple, straightforward. We met with a lot of pharmacies. What was the most common recommendation you provided to the pharmacies at the trade show? 

00:04:13:05 - 00:04:13:15
Nick Dorich


00:04:13:15 - 00:04:17:15
Terilyn Flores
For me, it was to make sure that they connect with us, the clinical transformation team.

00:04:17:15 - 00:04:27:13
Terilyn Flores
We literally exist to help users be more successful and to make the absolute most of EQUIPP.

00:04:27:15 - 00:04:28:19
Nick Dorich
And Josh. 

00:04:28:22 - 00:04:29:10
Nick Dorich


00:04:29:10 - 00:04:58:03
Josh Elyash
So my biggest piece of advice was simple. Basically treat EQUIPP like it's a standing appointment. Set aside a dedicated, absolutely non-negotiable time slot on your calendar every single week. Even if it's 30 minutes, that's plenty. Use that time to review and act on all your opportunities. And bottom line is consistency is what turns clinical opportunities into profit.

00:04:58:05 - 00:05:00:05
Nick Dorich
Thanks, Josh. And Roz,

00:05:00:07 - 00:05:03:24
Nick Dorich
what was your recommendation? Common calling point for pharmacies. 

00:05:04:02 - 00:05:04:06
Nick Dorich


00:05:04:06 - 00:05:25:15
Rosalyn Otting
Yeah, mine was pretty similar to Josh. So my recommendation to pharmacies is to identify someone on your team who would be a leader, to push your team, to be checking your EQUIPP dashboards. The amount of money that you have available within EQUIPP grows each month, and if you aren't consistently logging in every single week, you will miss out on dollars.

00:05:25:16 - 00:05:33:08
Rosalyn Otting
So my number one piece of advice was to identify one person. You can push to be that team leader, and make sure that they're logging

00:05:33:08 - 00:05:34:11
Rosalyn Otting
in every week.

00:05:34:13 - 00:05:35:10
Rosalyn Otting

 

00:05:35:10 - 00:05:45:13
Nick Dorich
Summarizing the points I heard from the team, have an EQUIPP champion, have that EQUIPP champion set it as a habit and have them connect with our clinical transformation team here at

00:05:45:13 - 00:05:46:00
Nick Dorich
PQS.

00:05:46:01 - 00:06:05:24
Nick Dorich
Those are all really simple steps that every pharmacy should be able to take. This is not a giant amount of time that pharmacies need to to work on the EQUIPP opportunities. And my own $0.02. A lot of the conversations that I had with pharmacies at these meetings was that, for many of them, the things that EQUIPP is asking them to do or to document is work they're already doing in the pharmacy.

00:06:05:24 - 00:06:22:24
Nick Dorich
So it's not something new necessarily that they have to learn. They have to learn how to navigate it. But once they get there, this is already work that they're doing with their patients day in and day out. So appreciate that first round of questions. We're going to go to round two. Josh, Roz, and Terilyn. That'll be the order for for round two.

00:06:23:00 - 00:06:38:19
Nick Dorich
We're going to change it up just a little bit. So Josh, starting off with you, I first question was about what we said to the pharmacist, to the pharmacy technicians. What about what did we hear from them, and what were they most excited about when it came to using

00:06:38:19 - 00:06:41:00
Nick Dorich
EQUIPP? 

00:06:41:02 - 00:06:41:12
Nick Dorich


00:06:41:12 - 00:06:45:23
Josh Elyash
Good question. So I'd say the most excitement was, They

00:06:45:23 - 00:07:15:05
Josh Elyash
were thrilled by how straightforward it actually is to drive revenue through EQUIPP. Once they saw how managing performance metrics directly boost their bottom line while improving patient outcomes at the same time. Light bulbs starting popping, going off everywhere. They realized that profitability and quality patient care, they don't have to compete with each other. They go actually go head on hand.

00:07:15:07 - 00:07:20:01
Nick Dorich
Thanks, Josh. Roz, what did you hear from pharmacies? What were they most excited about? 

00:07:20:01 - 00:07:20:11
Nick Dorich


00:07:20:11 - 00:07:46:04
Rosalyn Otting
Oh, so the majority of pharmacists and techs that I spoke to there are really excited about our EQUIPP Copilot agent. For those of you who aren't familiar with it. We have an AI agent called the EQUIPP Copilot that sits on top of any pharmacy management system, and it surfaces our payable opportunities and our PDC rates and adherence rates and performance programs within your dispensing workflow.

00:07:46:05 - 00:08:02:14
Rosalyn Otting
So we all know that our pharmacy teams are short on time. They're quite busy. Having that built into your daily workflow is huge, and it was really well received. And I think that is a big, exciting, exciting point for us on this team. 

00:08:02:16 - 00:08:03:02
Rosalyn Otting


00:08:03:02 - 00:08:04:02
Nick Dorich
Thanks, Ross. And

00:08:04:02 - 00:08:05:17
Nick Dorich
then Terri Lynn, how about you? 

00:08:05:19 - 00:08:06:01
Nick Dorich


00:08:06:01 - 00:08:09:09
Terilyn Flores
Yep. So the same for logged in users.

00:08:09:09 - 00:08:26:01
Terilyn Flores
They were super excited about the copilot and how easy it is to integrate that into their workflow. And then for those folks who had not logged in, it was actually the... either the surprise or shock in the amount of money that was there now or what they lost last year. 

00:08:26:07 - 00:08:26:20
Terilyn Flores


00:08:26:20 - 00:08:40:10
Rosalyn Otting
You know, something interesting that I heard a lot at ThoughtSpot, at least Nick, was how many of our pharmacies have already installed the copilot, but they didn't realize that they had it on trial version from last year.

00:08:40:12 - 00:08:55:09
Rosalyn Otting
So it was working last year, but now it's not popping up and it just kind of sits there. And they didn't realize that they might need to sign up for that. So if you have our little button on your screen, but it's not identifying patients for you, please reach out to us. 

00:08:55:11 - 00:08:55:23
Rosalyn Otting


00:08:55:23 - 00:09:14:04
Nick Dorich
That's a great call out. And I think right from that part of it, some pharmacies, when we were at these shows last year, we were talking with a lot of pharmacies about, hey, EQUIPP Copilot is going to be launching, and we had a lot of excitement over 1000 pharmacies that were that signed up in that initial launch again in 2025, but many

00:09:14:04 - 00:09:41:02
Nick Dorich
of them had not gone back to utilizing it. And there's some new functionality and new features that come with it as well that make it really exciting. So definitely for listeners, if you haven't gone back in since 2025, go check that out. Now, Roz, I'm going to come back to you. And for our next question. So Roz, Terilyn Josh, as the order for this question, we talked about, hey, what were some of the best practices that you shared or what were some of the things that we're most excited about?

00:09:41:02 - 00:10:00:00
Nick Dorich
But what about the most common question? And this might be about, you know, the dollars available, this might be from the pharmacies, how they're logging in, or it might be them trying to understand the measures. Some of these programs or some of these quality measures may be new to pharmacies, or they may seem really complicated. What were the most common questions, and then how did you respond to those?

00:10:00:00 - 00:10:03:04
Nick Dorich
What was the answer that you gave? And again, Roz, we'll start with you and then

00:10:03:04 - 00:10:04:18
Nick Dorich
Terilyn, and Josh. 

00:10:04:20 - 00:10:05:04
Nick Dorich


00:10:05:04 - 00:10:20:06
Rosalyn Otting
Yeah. Thanks, Nick. So as I mentioned earlier, I do function as our subject matter expert for quality measures. So I got a lot of the measures questions at ThoughtSpot. And one recurring question that I noticed is related to the measure Statin Use in Persons with Diabetes (SUPD).

00:10:20:08 - 00:10:37:15
Rosalyn Otting
We see a lot of pharmacies coming to us saying, hey, I have a patient who's intolerant to statin. They tend to be noted here as an outlier, but I can't intervene on them because they can't take the medication. I feel like that's not fair. How do I get them removed? And there actually is a way to get them to drop off for that measure.

00:10:37:15 - 00:11:05:24
Rosalyn Otting
But it does require a little bit of coordination with the provider. So there is a set of diagnosis codes that if they are on the patient's profile and submitted to the insurer by the doctor, that they will disqualify the patient for the measure. And one of the easiest ones is called G70 2.0 for myopathy unspecified. So if you're a pharmacy picks up the phone, makes a quick call to the doctor and say, hey, this patient's intolerant, but maybe the diagnosis code isn't being transmitted.

00:11:05:24 - 00:11:19:22
Rosalyn Otting
Can you make sure to review that and add to your records, if appropriate? That'll get them removed. And it benefits the providers as well because they are held to these same standards for value based care quality measures. So they're probably getting dinged for it as well. 

00:11:20:02 - 00:11:20:17
Rosalyn Otting


00:11:20:17 - 00:11:25:16
Nick Dorich
Great call out, Roz, and I appreciate you providing an example on that part of it.

00:11:25:16 - 00:11:33:01
Nick Dorich
I know with the measures there's a lot of specific details. There's a lot more than just that. But that that type of example, very helpful to be illustrative.

00:11:33:02 - 00:11:34:12
Nick Dorich
Terilyn how about for you? 

00:11:34:12 - 00:11:34:18
Nick Dorich


00:11:34:18 - 00:11:44:06
Terilyn Flores
I'm going to go with my two. For logged in users it was how do they get the copilot, which was an easy fix since it's right there in the EQUIPP platform in the top left hand corner.

00:11:44:08 - 00:12:07:11
Terilyn Flores
They can do that download and it populates like anything you download from the internet. For the non-users, it was how to get training once they get home. And if you go to the help.pharmacyquality.com that brings you to a page where you can land on the welcome guide and a bunch of resources there. And in the top right hand corner you can submit a ticket.

00:12:07:16 - 00:12:11:10
Terilyn Flores
If you had any specific questions or issues with EQUIPP.

00:12:11:12 - 00:12:11:23
Terilyn Flores


00:12:11:23 - 00:12:30:12
Nick Dorich
Terilyn. That's great info and I'll add real quick to that. Most of the pharmacies that we meet with have access to EQUIPP through their pharmacy service administrative organization or PSAO. So most pharmacies have access. It was really just kind of a problem solving and which PSAO and then how do you go through access and is the right person set up for access.

00:12:30:12 - 00:12:37:05
Nick Dorich
But there are a few here and there like you mentioned here, we do have to go through and get them set up for access. But great call out.

00:12:37:07 - 00:12:38:21
Nick Dorich
Josh. How about for yourself? 

00:12:38:23 - 00:12:39:08
Nick Dorich


00:12:39:08 - 00:12:51:05
Josh Elyash
So the question I heard over and over was now that we understand everything that EQUIPP offers, or at least for the most part, how often should we actually be checking EQUIPP for new opportunities?

00:12:51:07 - 00:13:19:21
Josh Elyash
Answer was very simple and I just told them we update EQUIPP and opportunities every Friday and my takeaway for them was designate. I mean, not to sound like a broken record and repeating Roz, but designate and adherence champion and your staff and give that person ownership to like in weekly to tackle the fresh list, have one dedicated team member run the playbook and that makes the process seamless.

00:13:19:23 - 00:13:38:01
Nick Dorich
It does. And the I'll add a quick addendum to that. Josh, to hammer home this point and Roz, you talked about, Terilyn. You talked about doing the training for these pharmacies as well. It doesn't need to be a pharmacist doing this work either. Much like many operations in the pharmacy, a lot of this can be initiated by a pharmacy technician.

00:13:38:01 - 00:14:00:12
Nick Dorich
Or even if you have a qualified pharmacy intern, someone that's going through pharmacy school, a lot of that work they can take the lead on, just like many operations in your pharmacy, they are the ones answering the phone calls. But if there's a question from the patient about a side effect, or if there's someone from a doctor's office that wants to talk about, okay, which medication we're switching to, your staff should be trained to appropriately hand that conversation over to the pharmacist to handle.

00:14:00:12 - 00:14:23:22
Nick Dorich
But much of the work that can be done in EQUIPP or in EQUIPP Copilot can be handled by your pharmacy technicians and interns. So great points here. I do want to bring us to one last question. And Terilyn, will have you start. And then Josh and Roz finish us up here. Our final question. We met with a lot of pharmacies and almost all of these pharmacies were independently owned pharmacies.

00:14:23:23 - 00:14:45:11
Nick Dorich
Now some of them may be pharmacies under a a common store owner. There were some small pharmacy chains that we went by and large, we were meeting with independent pharmacy team members. What excited you most? What resonated with you when you came home meeting with these pharmacies, and how does that change what you think about working with Independent Pharmacy?

00:14:45:11 - 00:14:49:04
Nick Dorich
As we finish out the 2026 year? Terry Lynn, I'll let you start. 

00:14:49:06 - 00:15:12:11
Terilyn Flores

 So as a nurse by trade and new to the pharmacy world, I was most shocked by how independent pharmacies are reimbursed and how hard it can be for some of these smaller pharmacies to even survive. So my excitement came when I met with a pharmacist who I had actually did it in store visit with in Tampa, and to see him in Colorado was one exciting in itself.

00:15:12:11 - 00:15:32:09
Terilyn Flores
But then when we logged into his EQUIPP and showed him the dollars that he made, which was over $79,000 just in the Humana program last year was incredible and a great feeling. And just shows when you connect with us and work with us, you can. It's not impossible to capture those dollars. 

00:15:32:10 - 00:15:33:04
Terilyn Flores


00:15:33:04 - 00:15:37:22
Nick Dorich
Great story, Terilyn. Thank you. Josh, how about for yourself?

00:15:37:24 - 00:15:38:18
Nick Dorich


00:15:38:20 - 00:16:14:10
Josh Elyash
Usually attending this conference is completely recharges me. And seeing independent pharmacy owners and their teams with so much passion and getting to meet them face to face. Answer their burning questions. Give them that A-Ha moment. It's incredible. I love showing them that just these few small tweaks to their workflow and implementing EQUIPP they can deliver exceptional patient care and capture dollars that previously they were, quite frankly, just leaving behind on the table.

00:16:14:12 - 00:16:19:06
Nick Dorich
Thanks, Josh and Roz, your experience after meeting with the independent pharmacies? 
 

00:16:19:09 - 00:16:38:15
Rosalyn Otting
Yeah, I have two things, and I love the independent pharmacy model. I worked for a few years in independent pharmacy, and I just appreciate all of the extra work they do to take care of their patients at ThoughtSpot. I am not going to say I was excited to see when a pharmacy missed on $80,000 in Humana dollars by one patient.

00:16:38:19 - 00:16:57:10
Rosalyn Otting
That's actually a huge bummer, and I know that my team, the clinical transformation team, we want to help the pharmacies get paid. That's like one of our number one priorities, is we want to put as much money in their pockets as possible. But I enjoyed interacting with those pharmacy teams and showing them that they didn't even realize they lost out on that money.

00:16:57:12 - 00:17:17:07
Rosalyn Otting
But if you connect with us, we can help work with you this year so you can achieve those numbers. Specifically, like Terilyn mentioned, the Humana program is a big driver at ThoughtSpot for a lot of our pharmacy users, but also just overall, I enjoyed that you can just tell the level of engagement from these independent pharmacies that came to our shows and came to our booth.

00:17:17:07 - 00:17:38:11
Rosalyn Otting
I have pharmacists coming up and they know by name every patient in their EQUIPP portal who's not adherent, and they can tell me on the spot what they've done to try to help and how their numbers have improved over the course of the year and now that they've become more engaged. So I just appreciate that level of dedication to their patients and their pharmacies performance.

00:17:38:13 - 00:18:00:21
Nick Dorich
Great call out Roz, and I appreciate the comments from all three. I think for us as the PQS team, it is very rewarding for us to be at these shows and to hear from pharmacies about how they're earning money through these engagement programs. That helps them not just keep their doors open, but that allows them to expand their staffing, they expand their services that they're providing and really continue to do more of the things that independent pharmacies do.

00:18:00:21 - 00:18:30:02
Nick Dorich
And that's serve as a health care provider in their local community, whether it's a pharmacy that's in rural Kansas or whether it's a pharmacy that's in very urban, you know, Brooklyn, New York, independent pharmacy experience has a lot to offer patients. And we're proud to be part of the story to help facilitate that. So Terilyn, Josh, Roz, I know I first and foremost thank each of you for attending the shows, being part of the PQS team to help share the messaging with the pharmacies.

00:18:30:03 - 00:18:48:19
Nick Dorich
I've got a long list of some of our other team members that I'm not going to name, because I would end up forgetting somebody and I don't want to do them that disservice. But to all of our members of the PQS team that spent time away from their families and their day to day work to be engaging with the independent pharmacies, I want to send a special thank you to them.

00:18:48:21 - 00:19:10:11
Nick Dorich
Also, a special thank you to the teams at McKesson, at Cardinal, at Cencora. These are groups that we've been working with, that support in independent pharmacies and obviously running these trade shows, you know, working to make these independent pharmacies successful. And I think this year, more than any other year, I've been doing these conferences for now, 12 years as part of PQS.

00:19:10:11 - 00:19:29:12
Nick Dorich
And I think we had more collaboration, more engagement, more handshakes and high fives and hugs with those respective teams than we have in any of the years previously, which really just goes to show how we're continuing to build and strengthen those relationships, to support independent pharmacy. To the teams that, so to the teams at McKesson Cardinal and Cencora, thank you.

00:19:29:13 - 00:19:48:15
Nick Dorich
We do appreciate those parts of it. As we wrap up, I'll give it kind of one final reminder or kind of call to action for our pharmacies that are still listening. And whether it's an independent pharmacy or whether you're part of a chain pharmacy, a health system pharmacy and ambulatory care pharmacy, LTC, whatever that practice is. We shared some great thoughts here.

00:19:48:16 - 00:20:09:10
Nick Dorich
Terry, Lynn, Josh and Ross have a lot of experience just in these last couple of weeks and meeting with the independent pharmacies. Your teams should be logging into EQUIPP weekly. You should have an adherence or EQUIPP champion. You should be setting those habits when that data updates on each Friday. And you should be engaging with Roz, Terilyn, and the rest of our clinical transformation team to help answer those questions.

00:20:09:14 - 00:20:28:04
Nick Dorich
If you do need help or support around your EQUIPP engagement, you can go through either the support link in your EQUIPP dashboard, or you can contact our support at pharmacyquality.com to get connected with one of our real human beings that can set up a demo and coordinate with you to understand EQUIPP. But that is all that we have for today.

00:20:28:04 - 00:20:50:00
Nick Dorich
And with that, we thank you, our listeners, for your work, for your support of community and pharmacy and for improving the health outcomes for the patients in your community. We will be coming up very, very soon with at least one episode about some of our other conversations and takeaways at some of the some of these summer trade shows, Roz may be making a return appearance for a podcast.

00:20:50:01 - 00:21:00:24
Nick Dorich
Not that not too far off in the future, but that is all that we have for today. So before we go, we have one final message from the PQS team.

00:21:01:01 - 00:21:24:01
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00:21:24:03 - 00:21:43:14
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00:21:43:14 - 00:21:46:18
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