Pharmacists play a critical role in defeating COVID-19

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, pharmacists have been critical frontline health care providers.

While many industries were forced to close, neighborhood pharmacies remained open as essential businesses. They retooled their practices to offer curbside pickup, accommodate increased demand for medication delivery, produce hand sanitizer, provide patients with face masks and more.

Much like telehealth, which has seen years of growth during this pandemic, the role of the pharmacist has been elevated during this pandemic and the door is opening for new ways to serve their communities.

Pharmacists have been given limited authority to order and administer coronavirus tests during the public health emergency. The diagnostic tests for pharmacists to use are becoming increasingly available, a benefit to millions of patients for whom a pharmacist is the most accessible health care provider.

With nearly 95 percent of the U.S. population within five miles of a pharmacy, pharmacists have the ability to assist rural and underserved populations. Antibody tests may be another opportunity for pharmacies to engage in the fight against the pandemic and contribute to economic recovery until there is a coronavirus vaccine, and even afterward.

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb predicts that a vaccine may be available as soon as the end of this year, though mass production could push widespread vaccination into 2021. Whatever the timeline, hundreds of millions of Americans are likely to line up for it, and pharmacists will play a tremendous role in administering the vaccine and educating the public about it.

Twenty percent of zip codes in the United States don’t have a big chain drug store and instead are served by locally owned, small business independent pharmacies. These independent pharmacies are perfectly positioned to mass immunize and educate people when a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available.

As we all continue to anxiously await the development and production of a vaccine, we need federal pharmacists-as-providers status to ensure patients can fully benefit from the knowledge and skills of the pharmacist.

Expanding roles, eliminating burdens restricting patient care, and allowing pharmacists to practice to the top of their license can help improve health outcomes in a cost-effective manner. States like Ohio, Idaho, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia have made progress in this area, but national provider status must be granted for pharmacists to truly reach their maximum potential.

Stay-at-home orders may be lifting and the nation is working towards reopening, but we are still in the thick of a pandemic. Pharmacists have been and will continue to be needed to get their communities healthy and to keep them so.

The federal government should remove the obstacles that keep neighborhood pharmacists from providing needed, expanded care and should promote immunization authority, allow for more autonomy over clinical therapeutic strategies, advance provider status, and ensure pharmacists can be compensated for this work.

These measures will help as the coronavirus lingers but in calmer times too, as even then, most patients see their pharmacist more regularly than they see their doctors. Whether the country is in crisis or not, pharmacists can monitor chronic disease and communicate patient progress with the physician.

Allowing pharmacists to practice to their full capabilities allows patients access to better health care and better outcomes.

Congressman Earl L. “Buddy” Carter, a Republican, represents the First District of Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the only pharmacist currently serving in the United States Congress and is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. B. Douglas Hoey, pharmacist, MBA, is CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association, which represents over 21,000 independent pharmacies across America.