PHOENIX -- A significant challenge facing supermarkets with pharmacy operations today is to maintain the thinning ranks of supermarket pharmacists, John Beckner, director of pharmacy and whole health at Ukrop's Super Markets, Richmond, Va., told some 485 attendees gathered here for the Food Marketing Institute's 13th annual Supermarket Pharmacy Conference, April 15 to 18. Beckner is this year's conference and committee chairman of the 2000 Pharmacy Conference.
Beckner noted that in some extreme cases, pharmacists are being driven away by their disdain for filling out third-party paperwork. "Some pharmacists are becoming frustrated by the cumbersome clerical tasks associated with third-party transactions and they are actually leaving retail," Beckner said. He asked how the supermarket pharmacy-practice setting can be improved to free pharmacists' time for disease management, wellness initiatives and pharmaceutical care.
Whole health may be the answer, he suggested. Placing whole health and pharmacy under one roof could prove to be an incentive for pharmacists, according to Beckner, giving supermarket pharmacists the ability to use their expertise by consulting with customers about their health, rather than just filling prescriptions.
"I believe one of the biggest advantages supermarkets have to attract pharmacists is what's now commonly referred to as whole health," Beckner said. "The challenge is how to most effectively integrate these two worlds and best utilize our pharmacists to meet the needs of the consumer."
