Mid-Year Check-In: The Top 10 Forces Shaping Health System Pharmacy

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Welcome to the Pharmacy Innovators Podcast, brought to you by Visante. We talk with forward thinking leaders who are re-imagining what's possible in health system pharmacy. Each episode delivers timely insights to help health systems optimize performance and transform health care through pharmacy.

Jim Jorgenson (0:17)

Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Jim Jorgenson, and today we'll be taking a look at Visante's Top 10 Report, doing a mid-year check-in.

And joining me for this are Visante's Senior Executives, Alex Varkey and Dave Hager. You guys have both been on the show before, so welcome back.

Dave Hager (0:33)

Thanks, Jim. Glad to be back and kind of share what we've learned so far this year. Excited to talk a little bit more.

Jim Jorgenson (0:39)

Excellent. Well, let's start with some general observations. You know, at the beginning of the year, as always, Visante publishes the Top 10 Forces Shaping Health System Pharmacy. And now that we're halfway through the year, what really stands out to each one of you?

Dave Hager (0:51)

So my take is we did pretty good job in terms of like what we predicted and where we thought the industry was going to have in store for our clients and for the people we work with. I'd say if there was one surprise to me, it was really at the end of 2025 looking into 2026

I think the workforce concerns were really top of mind for pharmacy leaders. And what we've seen is that given some of the rebounds in residency application, school of pharmacy enrollment, I feel like people are more comfortable with where they are from a workforce pipeline perspective than I would have thought. I really believe that it was going to be a multi-year problem that was going to continue to pose challenges. And I think that has moved down the priority list for a number of people we work with in the industry. I'm not exactly sure if that's the most strategic response yet, but definitely it has moved to a lower priority level than I would have predicted.

Alex Varkey (1:56)

I would agree with exactly what Dave mentioned. I think from a workforce standpoint, definitely the concerns as it related to workplace well-being, what was happening as it relates to pharmacy personnel, their desire to want to continue working within the pharmacy space or the health system space. I think some of those things have definitely evened out a bit. Obviously, I think one of the biggest things that stood out over this first half of the year is that, and perfectly in line with I think the top 10 that we put out, is just how quickly we've moved from looking at pharmacy as more of an operational focus and wanting to ensure that we're doing everything the right way as it relates to cost savings or ensuring regulatory compliance, or really looking at overall enterprise strategy, where patients are within the continuum of care, and how pharmacy can really be a solution across all phases. And I think that's become even more important as we're starting to see some of the impact of the IRA and some of the impact that it's having as relates to drug costs and budgeting overall for health systems.

Jim Jorgenson (3:04)

Looking across the industry and the report in its entirety, what developments have reinforced the predictions you guys made and what if anything has surprised you?

Dave Hager (3:14)

In reviewing all the articles, I think the one about what pharmacy leaders really want to say about pharmacy, and I think we played with that title a little bit. We think we're going to be a little bit punchier at one point, which is really the nature of that article was, hey, what do pharmacy leaders want to say, but maybe don't have the right venue to say it as directly as they could.

To me, uncertainty in the 340B space is directly highlighted in that article, and I certainly think that prediction has more than come true. Alex can share a little bit more about his recent experiences at conferences where again, this continues just to dominate the national conversation within pharmacy. Certainly, we predicted that uncertainty, and I don't think that was a stretch. What I didn't anticipate and should have is that that uncertainty is slowing investments in pharmacy to the degree that it has. So, I don't know what the overall strategy is necessarily, but what I'm seeing is that because there's just so much smoke out there about the program, it is really causing organizations to really take a step back and say, what is safe to pursue right now? And where do we want to make investments? And it's, I think, slowing investment, it's slowing strategic action as a result. And I think that's going to be a push we're going to have to make through the second half of the year is how can we get back past that paralysis?