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We Are Main Street! NCPA 2026 Annual Conference Rewind | Part One · Pharmacy Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A special thank you to our sponsors who made this
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: year's NCPA event coverage possible.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: This episode is sponsored by Yarrow Pharma.
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  Speaker 3: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
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  Speaker 3: to the pharmacy profession.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
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  Speaker 4: Welcome to the 2026 NCPA Annual Convention Rewind. The National
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  Speaker 4: Community Pharmacy Association held their annual event in Kansas City
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  Speaker 4: on October 3rd to the 6th. Pharmacy owners, community leaders,
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  Speaker 4: vendors from all aspects of business development, and of course,
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  Speaker 4: Todd's longtime friends in pharmacy, all gathered under one roof
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  Speaker 4: at this special event. Bringing together the community within the
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  Speaker 4: community pharmacy space, we bring you the conversations from the
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  Speaker 4: showroom floor.
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  Speaker 5: Hey, welcome to Main Street.
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  Speaker 6: This is the NCPA 2026 Annual Convention Rewind Podcast Press
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  Speaker 6: Coverage by the Pharmacy Podcast Network. I'm Todd Ury, the
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  Speaker 6: host of the Pharmacy Podcast Network. Get ready for a
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  Speaker 6: packed podcast series.
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  Speaker 7: Hey, this is Mark Ping, Guy Garofali, and you are
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  Speaker 7: listening to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
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  Speaker 6: Mark here at NCPA 2026. So good to see you.
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  Speaker 6: Got to see Gretchen, the much more attractive Garifulli.
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  Speaker 8: Amen.
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  Speaker 5: Amen.
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  Speaker 6: So NCPA, community pharmacy, independence. You know, you bring interesting
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  Speaker 6: perspectives because you're a blend of academia in your time
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  Speaker 6: with your students. I just got to spend time with
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  Speaker 6: your P3s again. Absolutely love doing that. Then all of
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  Speaker 6: a sudden you're blending because your wife is deep into
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  Speaker 6: community pharmacy. Then you come to these conferences, you go
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  Speaker 6: to the pain conferences. So talk to me about your
• 2:02
  Speaker 6: life and just a shout.
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  Speaker 5: Out to you.
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  Speaker 6: I mean, you've done so much with your career and
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  Speaker 6: I think that this is a, it's a barometer, it's
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  Speaker 6: a measurement for pharmacists and even pharmacy students to be like,
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  Speaker 6: you don't have to necessarily do just one thing.
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  Speaker 7: Highly unlikely you do one thing really. I mean, that's, um, Every,
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  Speaker 7: there's 140 some schools of pharmacy in our country and
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  Speaker 7: then a lot abroad too.
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  Speaker 5: And just about every one.
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  Speaker 7: Of them has the good old either career round table
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  Speaker 7: or career day panel or pick a title. They've all
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  Speaker 7: got different ones. But the intent of that, it's usually
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  Speaker 7: the first year, P1 year. And it's such a paramount moment.
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  Speaker 7: And most people walk into something like that thinking like, oh,
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  Speaker 7: I'm going to learn what somebody did and then I
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  Speaker 7: can follow their path.
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  Speaker 8: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 7: I'd say, yeah, good luck, but that's actually, it's not
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  Speaker 7: even too harsh, it's just not a thing.
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  Speaker 5: Like, all of our careers are.
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  Speaker 7: Snowflakes, lightning bolts, whatever it is, we're all different in
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  Speaker 7: that way, where I even remember my days of thinking, wow,
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  Speaker 7: I want to be like that guy or that gal,
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  Speaker 7: and whatever they're doing, but that's just not going to happen,
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  Speaker 7: but you can learn what they did and those things
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  Speaker 7: in the background, all the soft skill things, all the
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  Speaker 7: you know, the mental sweat that goes into building either
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  Speaker 7: your brand or who you are or your career. You know,
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  Speaker 7: when you're actually doing your job, you're doing your job,
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  Speaker 7: whether you're rounding, whether you're dispensing, whether you're checking med orders,
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  Speaker 7: whether you're giving immunization, you name it, the list goes
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  Speaker 7: on and we call it pharmacist here is for, but
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  Speaker 7: that's when you're doing your, what you're there for in
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  Speaker 7: the background is where the magic happens.
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  Speaker 5: That's all that.
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  Speaker 7: Planning and thinking and being different there and, You know,
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  Speaker 7: thanks for the shout out for my career thus far.
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  Speaker 7: It's been a wild ride. I was actually just having
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  Speaker 7: a conversation just before the exhibit.
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  Speaker 5: Hall at NCPA here.
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  Speaker 7: And, you know, folks were.
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  Speaker 5: Asking, like, how did you get from point A to
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  Speaker 5: point Z or wherever we're at here now?
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  Speaker 2: It's all over the place.
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  Speaker 5: It's just wild.
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  Speaker 7: Wild ride.
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  Speaker 5: Great roller coaster.
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  Speaker 7: You know, get the fast pass.
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  Speaker 9: It's great.
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  Speaker 7: But the big picture is you can't anticipate granularity.
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  Speaker 5: You just have to prepare yourself.
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  Speaker 7: Like all pharmacists, when you're going through the PharmD program
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  Speaker 7: right now, everybody learns how to make an IV.
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  Speaker 5: It's pretty straightforward, actually.
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  Speaker 7: But then there's some of us that haven't done that
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  Speaker 7: for 20 or 30 years and might not bode well
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  Speaker 7: if next week I have to make one of those or.
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  Speaker 5: Check one of those.
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  Speaker 7: You know, I haven't done that in decades. But I
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  Speaker 7: had to be prepared for that and everything else. And
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  Speaker 7: that's so important in the background because everybody goes through
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  Speaker 7: pharmacy school. For all of our student pharmacists, listen, all
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  Speaker 7: across the country and globe for that matter, you know,
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  Speaker 7: we have.
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  Speaker 5: everybody's got to learn.
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  Speaker 7: All the clinical information. Hands down, obvious. That's just technically
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  Speaker 7: the low-hanging fruit. Learning what else is going on.
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  Speaker 5: And how to be that star is so incredibly important.
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  Speaker 7: I know in my own alma mater, I mean, truth
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  Speaker 7: be told, I work at WVU, I went to Pitt,
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  Speaker 7: I'm walking back here at Brawl, just like my wife,
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  Speaker 7: just like a couple other people as well. You know,
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  Speaker 7: the whole football, basketball thing, in case you're a West Coast,
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  Speaker 7: you have no idea what I'm talking about.
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  Speaker 1: But the.
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  Speaker 7: We were.
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  Speaker 5: Prepared just like with patient care.
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  Speaker 7: You know, in patient care, it's pretty synonymous, pretty low
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  Speaker 7: bar to say, like, if you didn't document it, it
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  Speaker 7: didn't happen. Well, you could extend that to everything in.
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  Speaker 2: Your career as well.
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  Speaker 7: You don't have to glorify every little thing that you do.
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  Speaker 7: And it's not all about that. It's getting the information
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  Speaker 7: out there. So when you're at a conference, when you
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  Speaker 7: just published a paper, My research colleagues, I love everybody
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  Speaker 7: in academia, but there's a way for everybody to work together.
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  Speaker 7: You know, folks will publish a manuscript. Okay, gets 500 people.
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  Speaker 7: Ends up being 1,000 people.
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  Speaker 1: Fantastic.
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  Speaker 7: Those are actually decently high numbers. But you could put
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  Speaker 7: something on LinkedIn and.
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  Speaker 5: Have more than that number tomorrow. Yeah. Now, that's not
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  Speaker 5: going negative, by the way. What I'm saying is.
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  Speaker 7: Take that publication that you put your blood, sweat, and
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  Speaker 7: tears into, hopefully not blood, actually, and publish.
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  Speaker 5: Post it wherever.
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  Speaker 2: Pick one.
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  Speaker 7: Pick all of them, actually.
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  Speaker 5: And get so much more bang from the buck for that.
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  Speaker 7: That's that documenting part of it and distribution, dissemination of
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  Speaker 7: the information or whatever folks are doing. You know, we're
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  Speaker 7: here at NCPA. I already saw folks posting online of, oh, well,
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  Speaker 7: it was I think Nicole was on the treadmill this
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  Speaker 7: morning from Pitt.
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  Speaker 5: Other folks were, you know, enjoying the reception last.
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  Speaker 7: Night and they're tagging people and all that. And, you know,
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  Speaker 7: the days used to be you would, you know, how
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  Speaker 7: people meet, basically. It used to be that, oh, you
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  Speaker 7: meet and then you say, hey, let's connect online to
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  Speaker 7: keep in touch. These days it's more so, oh, I've
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  Speaker 7: met you, I've connected some way, shape, form, or fashion online,
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  Speaker 7: and here we are finally, our footsteps crossed. That's usually
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  Speaker 7: the way it goes anymore, and that's incredibly important. You know,
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  Speaker 7: that connection overall, or listening to folks' podcasts, or then
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  Speaker 7: talking to others about that, It's so incredibly important, all
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  Speaker 7: that background stuff. And it takes a lot, too.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, your online personality and your online presence, since I've
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  Speaker 6: known you, has tripled because you're consistent.
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  Speaker 5: You're involved in the online community. You're on LinkedIn. You're
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  Speaker 5: doing the pain pod.
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  Speaker 6: That's all part of the entire portfolio of who is.
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  Speaker 1: Dr.
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  Speaker 6: Mark Garofoli, in the realm of pharmacy, and you've made
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  Speaker 6: yourself so much more diverse. So if something in the
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  Speaker 6: future happens, if you guys wanted to move or you
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  Speaker 6: wanted to do something else.
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  Speaker 5: And you've had so many.
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  Speaker 6: buckets to get your name out there and to be
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  Speaker 6: involved and to show up especially with pain week loves
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  Speaker 6: you um they abused you the last time you went
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  Speaker 6: shout out to pain week for abusing mark that was
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  Speaker 6: in a good way i think you uh i think
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  Speaker 6: you hit a record yeah it.
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  Speaker 7: Was uh eight presentations in 32 hours but who's counting
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  Speaker 7: right yeah the pharmacist is of course um i do
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  Speaker 7: it again in a heartbeat kind.
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  Speaker 5: Of but somebody had to tell you your name after
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  Speaker 5: it was all over.
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  Speaker 7: Absolutely the You know, it also gives the opportunities to,
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  Speaker 7: you know, what, to pay it forward, I guess. You know,
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  Speaker 7: not to make this a campfire conversation, but at some
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  Speaker 7: point everybody's got to remember, hey, we're all in this together.
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  Speaker 7: We say this to, you know, in academia, it's to
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  Speaker 7: all student pharmacists and individual classes. They'll compete for things,
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  Speaker 7: but in the end, you know, it's all going to
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  Speaker 7: work out in some way for everyone. So, you know,
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  Speaker 7: working together and lifting each other up. I absolutely love
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  Speaker 7: having the bandwidth and, you know, folks knowing the who
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  Speaker 7: and this and that. to be able to give others
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  Speaker 7: the opportunity as well too. It's, and I'm not saying
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  Speaker 7: this again in that little Kumbaya campfire thing.
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  Speaker 5: It's a genuine, you.
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  Speaker 7: Know, a conference might reach out conference leadership. Hey, who
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  Speaker 7: would you recommend? And I don't take that moment lightly
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  Speaker 7: because by the way, whenever you recommend anything, your name's
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  Speaker 7: on it. So, you know, that's huge. Letters of recommendation,
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  Speaker 7: you name it. That is so incredibly important because it's
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  Speaker 7: your reputation.
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  Speaker 5: It is your brand.
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  Speaker 7: If you want to call it that it's everything, but
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  Speaker 7: being able to, You know, for the longest time, I
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  Speaker 7: remember being, you know, very early in my career, just,
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  Speaker 7: you know, butts in seats in an audience at a
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  Speaker 7: conference like this or any other, thinking, how do I
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  Speaker 7: get on that stage? Or how do I even get
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  Speaker 7: to hang out with those folks that know what the
• 9:18
  Speaker 7: heck they're talking about?
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  Speaker 2: Let's call them experts.
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  Speaker 7: And, you know, you've got to make a plan, make
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  Speaker 7: your connections, and make that happen. But then when you're there,
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  Speaker 7: it's like, don't forget. Like, right now, we are at
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  Speaker 7: NCPA in Kansas City. There will be sessions going on,
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  Speaker 7: the educational sessions and all that. There's people sitting in
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  Speaker 7: the seats that should be on stage.
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  Speaker 9: Yep.
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  Speaker 7: But they haven't been given the opportunity. And a lot
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  Speaker 7: of conferences are changing with that to open up the
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: doors so you don't have to be, you know, the Hamilton,
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  Speaker 7: the room where it happens. It's like, well, once you're
• 9:44
  Speaker 7: in that little inner circle of trust, Bobby De Niro,
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  Speaker 7: you know, remember what it was when you weren't. And
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  Speaker 7: I would challenge our seasoned pharmacists out there and health
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  Speaker 7: care professionals alike to remember that and, you know, pave
• 9:57
  Speaker 7: the road a little bit or at least put some
• 9:58
  Speaker 7: gravel on it for others longer. because that's huge.
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  Speaker 5: Mark, we always enjoy having you on the show.
• 10:03
  Speaker 6: Someone wants to listen to your portfolio of podcasts.
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  Speaker 5: Where do they go?
• 10:09
  Speaker 7: Well, as you know, if anybody, of course, you could
• 10:11
  Speaker 7: download the thing anywhere, of course. But where I usually
• 10:14
  Speaker 7: direct people is to my website. It's painguy.us, so www.p-a-i-n-g-u-y.us.
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: What I also invite people to do is, it's cooler
• 10:24
  Speaker 7: than email, in my humble opinion, because you can contact
• 10:26
  Speaker 7: me directly. If that happens right now, my phone will vibrate.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: For those not.
• 10:32
  Speaker 7: At NCPA right now, I'm touching my phone in my pocket.
• 10:34
  Speaker 10: Okay.
• 10:34
  Speaker 7: It will literally. That's the way that I have it
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  Speaker 7: set up. Open communication to literally anyone just to make
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  Speaker 7: it easier. So you don't need email.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: You don't need phone numbers.
• 10:43
  Speaker 7: You don't need anything.
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: Just contact.
• 10:45
  Speaker 7: It's nice and open.
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: So painguy.us.
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  Speaker 6: Excellent.
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: Thank you for being on the show.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Thank you, sir.
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  Speaker 10: Hi, this is Betsy Reynolds with MethodRx, and you're listening
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  Speaker 10: to the Pharmacy Podcast.
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  Speaker 6: Hey Betsy, welcome to the show. We're here at the
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  Speaker 6: NCPA 2026.
• 11:07
  Speaker 7: How are you?
• 11:08
  Speaker 10: Great. Couldn't be more happy to be here.
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  Speaker 5: How many times to Kansas City now? We live in
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: Kansas City.
• 11:15
  Speaker 7: Oh, we're a local.
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: You're so lucky.
• 11:17
  Speaker 7: Welcome.
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: No airports.
• 11:18
  Speaker 10: Welcome to our town.
• 11:19
  Speaker 7: Jeez, oh man.
• 11:20
  Speaker 10: We do have a wonderful airport, though, so hopefully everybody
• 11:23
  Speaker 10: has enjoyed this.
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  Speaker 5: I really liked it.
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  Speaker 6: It was slick getting in and out, and there's just
• 11:28
  Speaker 6: like one way to walk, and I didn't get lost.
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: Exactly right. That's success.
• 11:31
  Speaker 10: It's been a wonderful asset.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: Rodney, introduce yourself to the listeners.
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  Speaker 11: Hi, I'm Rodney Whittington with MethodRx and Method Healthcare.
• 11:40
  Speaker 6: Hey, we're excited that you're here because independent community pharmacy.
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: Is not what it was before. 20 years ago.
• 11:47
  Speaker 6: I entered the space 22 years ago, and it took
• 11:51
  Speaker 6: a long time to understand the different sectors, long-term care
• 11:55
  Speaker 6: and specialty and compounding and even the combo shops. It's
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: starting to get more blended now, and now the independent
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: community pharmacy setting is more about total health care and
• 12:07
  Speaker 6: continuing health care and disease state management. So talk to
• 12:11
  Speaker 6: us about what Method Health Care is doing to empower that.
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  Speaker 11: I think, you know, we're here for the pre-conference to
• 12:19
  Speaker 11: speak to long-term care pharmacies and pharmacists. And it was
• 12:24
  Speaker 11: encouraging to hear them, you know, wanting to grow their
• 12:29
  Speaker 11: business more in that.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: Space, which is our space.
• 12:32
  Speaker 11: And we are happy to be alongside them and teaching
• 12:35
  Speaker 11: them as much as we can about what happens inside
• 12:37
  Speaker 11: a nursing home from that perspective. And then our experience
• 12:41
  Speaker 11: the last seven years, you know, You know, trying to
• 12:45
  Speaker 11: improve our offerings to nursing facilities, going beyond the medication review,
• 12:51
  Speaker 11: but helping them with their quality measures, helping them with
• 12:54
  Speaker 11: their survey outcomes, helping them be prepared for, you know,
• 12:59
  Speaker 11: all the things regulatorily that they will face in that setting.
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  Speaker 10: Yeah, just a reminder that Rodney's background, he is a
• 13:06
  Speaker 10: nursing home administrator, owner-operator. I am a pharmacist, and we
• 13:11
  Speaker 10: have a team of pharmacists that we provide the clinical
• 13:14
  Speaker 10: consulting for nursing facilities. So with our unique backgrounds, we
• 13:18
  Speaker 10: have a real advantage of helping pharmacies really understand what
• 13:22
  Speaker 10: the nursing homes need from us and how we can
• 13:25
  Speaker 10: help them succeed and provide the best care for their residents,
• 13:28
  Speaker 10: et cetera. With that, we built MethodRx, which is a
• 13:33
  Speaker 10: pharmacy consulting software platform. So those pharmacists who are in
• 13:38
  Speaker 10: the long-term care space and do the clinical consulting for
• 13:42
  Speaker 10: the nursing facilities have this huge asset of this new
• 13:45
  Speaker 10: consulting software platform to help generate our recommendations and reports
• 13:51
  Speaker 10: that we provide and show our clinical outcomes to the
• 13:53
  Speaker 10: nursing facilities.
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: Are we talking about Assisted living and skilled nursing.
• 13:58
  Speaker 7: You got it.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 6: And if I'm a long-term, if I'm a community pharmacy
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: owner and I haven't really invested in infrastructure for the
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: expansion of long-term care, that's where Method can come in
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: and really help out.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: You got it.
• 14:13
  Speaker 10: That's exactly what we talked on on Thursday to a
• 14:16
  Speaker 10: wonderful group of probably about 50 pharmacists, pharmacy owners, technicians,
• 14:22
  Speaker 10: et cetera, that are, you know, in the space. Perhaps
• 14:27
  Speaker 10: they're serving a smaller, you know, assisted living in their community. Yep.
• 14:31
  Speaker 10: And they want to make that jump into the more
• 14:34
  Speaker 10: skilled long-term care space and what it takes to do
• 14:36
  Speaker 10: that and who to target, who are those good partners
• 14:39
  Speaker 10: that you want to have as nursing facilities.
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: So the term combo shop sprouted out maybe 12 years ago.
• 14:47
  Speaker 6: The new term now, and I like trends, so I
• 14:49
  Speaker 6: always say it, is long-term care pharmacy at home. And
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  Speaker 6: the facilities aren't expanding like they were in the.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: 70s and 80s, 90s.
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  Speaker 6: They are, some of them aren't being built, but how
• 15:04
  Speaker 6: are we tying community pharmacy into the home so that
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: we can extend those same type of services?
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  Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean, you look at your average long-term care customer,
• 15:13
  Speaker 11: it's a 85-year-old widow, and there are 600,000 too few
• 15:21
  Speaker 11: beds for nursing facilities come 2030, which is, we're here basically.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:26
  Speaker 11: And so where do those 600,000 people go? Well, probably
• 15:30
  Speaker 11: they're going to stay in their home if they're able.
• 15:32
  Speaker 11: And so taking the nursing facility into the community, that
• 15:37
  Speaker 11: same level of care that a pharmacist would provide to
• 15:40
  Speaker 11: make sure that that resident in a nursing home is
• 15:44
  Speaker 11: on the right meds, the right time and no interactions,
• 15:48
  Speaker 11: that we believe will probably be forced into the community
• 15:52
  Speaker 11: because I don't know where those 600,000 beds come from.
• 15:54
  Speaker 11: So it's probably going to push at-home services more and
• 15:59
  Speaker 11: be an opportunity for pharmacists to serve in that setting.
• 16:03
  Speaker 10: We talked on the age-friendly care model and how really
• 16:08
  Speaker 10: relating that to community pharmacists that, hey, we are providing these.
• 16:14
  Speaker 10: It's based on the four M's, so what matters, mobility, mentation,
• 16:20
  Speaker 10: and medication. And those are just practices that, you know,
• 16:23
  Speaker 10: pharmacists have as our baseline, if you will, in providing
• 16:28
  Speaker 10: that to the elderly population. And so whether you're providing
• 16:31
  Speaker 10: that to, you know, a community dwelling individual who comes
• 16:34
  Speaker 10: in your, you can walk in, you know, your pharmacy,
• 16:37
  Speaker 10: but then you can also take that to the next
• 16:39
  Speaker 10: steps as the age continuum carries on.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: My pharmacy management system, I have to have some kind
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: of connection to method.
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: Tell me how that works.
• 16:51
  Speaker 10: So we typically connect with or pull in a DAT
• 16:56
  Speaker 10: file from the pharmacy dispensing system. There are a bunch
• 17:01
  Speaker 10: of different versions out there, right? And we've really honed
• 17:04
  Speaker 10: in on kind of what those files look like and
• 17:08
  Speaker 10: bringing over a clean data feed, if you will, to
• 17:13
  Speaker 10: help our pharmacist and manage the meds of the residents.
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: Are we passing information back to the EHR at any
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: time so that the physician knows what's going on?
• 17:21
  Speaker 10: We are not directly interfaced with any EHR at this point.
• 17:26
  Speaker 10: We do provide the recommendations to the nursing facility and
• 17:30
  Speaker 10: the medical director, et cetera, and we do make progress
• 17:33
  Speaker 10: notes in the EHR as well.
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: Is there a patient sweet spot that I could invest?
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: If I'm a community pharmacy owner and I want to
• 17:42
  Speaker 6: invest in this technology, Are you saying, hey, listen, we.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: Have a calculator.
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: If you have X number of patients, this will really
• 17:51
  Speaker 6: start working for you.
• 17:53
  Speaker 7: One patient.
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: Okay, excellent. Very good. Yeah, one to millions.
• 17:58
  Speaker 10: So yeah, for sure. It provides a lot of value.
• 18:01
  Speaker 10: It also really helps if you're just getting into the
• 18:05
  Speaker 10: long-term care space. Maybe you don't know all the regulations
• 18:08
  Speaker 10: that go with nursing homes and the common recommendations that
• 18:13
  Speaker 10: we make. We have built in quite a library of
• 18:17
  Speaker 10: templates that will help a new pharmacist, whether they're just
• 18:20
  Speaker 10: new to the space or a new grad.
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: That's incredible.
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: So if I'm dealing with a patient that has dementia
• 18:25
  Speaker 6: or an incontinence or something, there's care plans built into
• 18:28
  Speaker 6: this for me.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: You got it.
• 18:31
  Speaker 10: Recommendations. And it goes right along with those quality measures
• 18:35
  Speaker 10: that really matter to a nursing facility.
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: Rodney and Betsy, I love having you on. I want
• 18:41
  Speaker 6: more independent community pharmacies to know about you guys. That's
• 18:44
  Speaker 6: why I wanted you on the press show. Come back
• 18:47
  Speaker 6: to Twerks and let's talk more about this. Let's bring
• 18:50
  Speaker 6: on an independent community pharmacy that's working with you guys
• 18:52
  Speaker 6: and really dig into implementation and how it's going.
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: Wonderful.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: Love that.
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Todd.
• 19:04
  Speaker 12: As frontline healthcare providers, pharmacists like you understand the importance
• 19:08
  Speaker 12: of personalized care, especially in acute pain management. Ural Pharma
• 19:12
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• 19:15
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• 19:19
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• 19:24
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• 19:28
  Speaker 12: and mess-free option for acute pain management. Keep Ural in
• 19:32
  Speaker 12: your toolbox of pain management options and join the ranks
• 19:35
  Speaker 12: of pharmacists leading the way in personalized care. To learn
• 19:39
  Speaker 12: more about Ural Pharma and its products, including full prescribing information,
• 19:44
  Speaker 12: boxed warnings, and important safety information, visit your all pharma.com.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: That's why.
• 19:40
  Speaker 12: And connect with them on LinkedIn.
• 20:06
  Speaker 8: Calling from Central Phil by Care Phil, and you're listening
• 20:09
  Speaker 8: to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: Brett, and it's so good to see you, fellow Pittsburgher.
• 20:16
  Speaker 6: I say Pittsburgh, but you're Greenville, but it's like the
• 20:19
  Speaker 6: greater Pittsburgh area.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: We're just about an hour and 15 minutes north, straight
• 20:23
  Speaker 8: up 79, and then a crossover to Greenville.
• 20:26
  Speaker 6: Well, I'm really proud of what you've built. You started
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: out in independent community pharmacy with One store, and now
• 20:33
  Speaker 6: you've grown to, how many are you at now?
• 20:35
  Speaker 8: So we originally started with the pharmacy I bought from
• 20:37
  Speaker 8: my mom and my father. Mom is a pharmacist, my
• 20:40
  Speaker 8: father is a school teacher, and that was in Jamestown, Pennsylvania.
• 20:44
  Speaker 8: We now have 15 independent stores, and we also have
• 20:49
  Speaker 8: our central fill that we sort of shove everything into it, right?
• 20:52
  Speaker 8: We do some long-term care, we do some mail order,
• 20:55
  Speaker 8: we do some LTC at home, and our newest is
• 20:59
  Speaker 8: the central fill. where we're central filling both vials as
• 21:02
  Speaker 8: well as compliancy packaging, strip packaging for anybody.
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 21:08
  Speaker 6: And that's more than just your business. That's business for
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: other independent community pharmacies.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: That is correct.
• 21:13
  Speaker 8: So we service our 15 retail stores and 11 other
• 21:17
  Speaker 8: non-Walbert family pharmacies.
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: That's incredible.
• 21:20
  Speaker 6: So talk to me about the expansion plan. With 2030,
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: I think we're supposed to hit the pinnacle of baby boomers.
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: And long-term care pharmacy at home is going to be
• 21:34
  Speaker 6: even more prevalent than it is even right now. So
• 21:38
  Speaker 6: if I want a strip package or I want something
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: prepared that I can go to my long-term care at
• 21:44
  Speaker 6: home patient, is that something that you can get involved
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: in and help me actually complete?
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: It certainly is. It certainly is.
• 21:51
  Speaker 8: We have piloted and we have proven that it's an
• 21:55
  Speaker 8: easy thing for us to do, compliancy packaging in strips.
• 21:59
  Speaker 8: So we have the ability to receive the flat file
• 22:02
  Speaker 8: that is being sent to us. Right now, it has
• 22:05
  Speaker 8: to be from a Pioneer RX store. Our central fill software,
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: Connect from BD, is only able to handle one PMS.
• 22:16
  Speaker 8: And obviously, we're a Pioneer store. So any Pioneer store
• 22:20
  Speaker 8: across the country, except for California, we're licensed in 49
• 22:24
  Speaker 8: states to be an outside pharmacy to ship into the state.
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: We can central fill, of course, as long as the
• 22:30
  Speaker 8: state allows for central filling.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: But yes, we can.
• 22:33
  Speaker 8: Package those medications directly into strips. We would send them
• 22:37
  Speaker 8: all ready, pre-checked. And obviously we have Pearl that goes
• 22:40
  Speaker 8: through and does all the pill recognition and points out
• 22:44
  Speaker 8: to the technicians to repair and pharmacists to verify that
• 22:47
  Speaker 8: we have the correct medicine. We would provide that to
• 22:50
  Speaker 8: you in a spool already wound up, ready for you
• 22:52
  Speaker 8: to drop in the box. We also have a sheet
• 22:55
  Speaker 8: that meets all the regulations, having all the refills and
• 22:59
  Speaker 8: the drugs and the pictures of it and the time.
• 23:01
  Speaker 8: So ultimately, if it's a paper, the paper consists of
• 23:05
  Speaker 8: all the prescriptions that are in the compliancy packaging that
• 23:09
  Speaker 8: would be required on a state pharmacy prescription. So it
• 23:13
  Speaker 8: comes to you ready to provide to the patient. Drop
• 23:16
  Speaker 8: it in your custom box. The only thing that it
• 23:18
  Speaker 8: would say, it would be saying packaged at careful LTC.
• 23:22
  Speaker 8: And that's just a small little line at the bottom
• 23:25
  Speaker 8: of the pouches, right, that is required per central fill laws.
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: And then communication back to your organization from the pharmacy with?
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: Changes, things that are being added. Talk to me how
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: that works.
• 23:36
  Speaker 8: So what we're doing is that would be considered all
• 23:39
  Speaker 8: part of the pharmacist verification one or PV one. Okay. Okay.
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: So they would adjudicate all the claims. Once the claims
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: are all adjudicated and then they would send that flat
• 23:49
  Speaker 8: file or that MAR over to a PASS unit or
• 23:52
  Speaker 8: a rapid pack or whatever choice that people were choosing,
• 23:57
  Speaker 8: that file would come to us all ready to go.
• 24:00
  Speaker 8: And of course we would pack it through one of
• 24:02
  Speaker 8: our PASS machines. We've got a 576, a 500, and
• 24:05
  Speaker 8: we have three 208s that we're always using really based
• 24:09
  Speaker 8: upon the disease state of the patient.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: So each of those.
• 24:12
  Speaker 8: Machines handle and house specific medications to make our process
• 24:17
  Speaker 8: more effective and efficient.
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: Bretton, with your experience in independent community pharmacy, talk to
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: me about other ways to make money that's not necessarily
• 24:27
  Speaker 6: attached to the medications or the prescriptions.
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: Is there something else happening now? that you're excited about?
• 24:33
  Speaker 8: Well, as a member of PPCN and ECPSN, the central
• 24:37
  Speaker 8: fill is alleviating time for our pharmacies to jump in
• 24:41
  Speaker 8: there and do these clinical services. Whether it is nicotine
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: replacement therapy or naloxone or asthma, you know, COPD, the
• 24:50
  Speaker 8: traditional moneymakers that we have, our team now has time
• 24:54
  Speaker 8: for our technicians to streamline the process. We're super excited
• 25:00
  Speaker 8: about the access program.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: What is coming up with that?
• 25:05
  Speaker 8: The time that we are freeing up for our staff
• 25:08
  Speaker 8: with our central.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: Fill is very exciting.
• 25:12
  Speaker 8: So we look at what other people are doing out there, right?
• 25:15
  Speaker 8: They have opportunities, but they don't have the time. So
• 25:19
  Speaker 8: what we are doing is truly let us count to 30, right?
• 25:23
  Speaker 8: I've been up, you know, talking on stage that we
• 25:25
  Speaker 8: don't make money counting by fives anymore. Yeah.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: So allow us.
• 25:28
  Speaker 8: To really reduce that cost to fill and receive our
• 25:33
  Speaker 8: dead net cost on the medications where we're combining. Right
• 25:36
  Speaker 8: now we're combining 25, 26 stores purchasing, being able to
• 25:41
  Speaker 8: buy case quantities directly from the manufacturer. And we share
• 25:45
  Speaker 8: all of that cost savings on to our partner pharmacies.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: What's good for one is good for all.
• 25:51
  Speaker 8: It sort of gives us the ability to have a
• 25:53
  Speaker 8: multi-store owner's buying power.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: For the individual stores.
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: So in your growth, you're licensed in 49 states. Where
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: do you have the partnership pharmacies?
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: How many states?
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: So currently we're in Texas. Excuse me. We're in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: and Delaware.
• 26:12
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: That's incredible.
• 26:14
  Speaker 8: So it's been a very exciting thing to the point
• 26:18
  Speaker 8: where we fully built out our system, right? I just
• 26:21
  Speaker 8: signed up for our final two SPURs. And we also
• 26:24
  Speaker 8: put in a new packing spur for just our cold
• 26:27
  Speaker 8: chain delivery.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: And so it's been exciting.
• 26:30
  Speaker 8: So those two spurs will accommodate up to 12 more
• 26:34
  Speaker 8: max two plus units. So ultimately driving that volume. So
• 26:39
  Speaker 8: currently we're filling the most that we filled in a
• 26:42
  Speaker 8: day has been just slightly over 6,000 prescriptions.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Hence, I need those additional spurs, right?
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: So at any given time.
• 26:50
  Speaker 8: Our max units have 40 to 50 totes waiting for them.
• 26:55
  Speaker 8: And just from the time that it takes to fill
• 26:58
  Speaker 8: prescriptions through the max units, it's time to expand. So
• 27:02
  Speaker 8: we're handling that volume without any problem just by adding
• 27:05
  Speaker 8: a second shift on Mondays. So it's really an exciting
• 27:08
  Speaker 8: thing that we have the capacity upon full build out.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: We're supposed to have our spurs delivered by this year,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: by the end of the year.
• 27:15
  Speaker 8: To be able to do 10,000 prescriptions in a 10-hour shift,
• 27:19
  Speaker 8: ultimately generating 20,000.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Scripts a day.
• 27:24
  Speaker 6: I'm going to have to make a trip up and
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: meet with you guys. I would love to see this
• 27:28
  Speaker 6: operations and preview it, talk.
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: More about it.
• 27:31
  Speaker 6: I was also thinking, are you doing any direct delivery
• 27:34
  Speaker 6: to any assisted living centers or any long-term care centers?
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: We do.
• 27:39
  Speaker 8: We have around 54 facilities that we're currently taking care of.
• 27:43
  Speaker 8: anything from assisted living to behavioral health youth to IDD.
• 27:49
  Speaker 8: We just recently acquired the SynMed Ultra, and it is
• 27:53
  Speaker 8: a phenomenal piece of equipment.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: It allows us to package something that would have.
• 28:00
  Speaker 8: We have a large home that has a little over
• 28:02
  Speaker 8: 200 patients, and it would take us at least two
• 28:05
  Speaker 8: days to get that cycle fill done. The SynMed Ultra
• 28:10
  Speaker 8: allowed it to be packaged... in about five hours.
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: Oh my goodness.
• 28:15
  Speaker 8: And so it is absolutely phenomenal. I was actually testing
• 28:19
  Speaker 8: it myself to sort of see what I could do.
• 28:21
  Speaker 8: And in 30 minutes, by myself, I filled, packaged, and
• 28:26
  Speaker 8: sealed 60 cards in 30 minutes.
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: Holy smokes.
• 28:30
  Speaker 8: But it's got two trays, right? And it's got all
• 28:32
  Speaker 8: that automation. Now, I did cherry pick a little bit, right?
• 28:34
  Speaker 8: Those are trays that the robot completely filled. But as
• 28:37
  Speaker 8: fast as I could get them off the machine and
• 28:39
  Speaker 8: get them sealed with the labels it pre-printed, That's what
• 28:44
  Speaker 8: I was able to do.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: So super exciting.
• 28:46
  Speaker 8: So imagine whenever you put, you know, two technicians sealing,
• 28:50
  Speaker 8: one technician doing all the tray drops, and one person
• 28:53
  Speaker 8: just being able to maintain and fill that send med,
• 28:56
  Speaker 8: keeping those trays busy, 120, 130 single-dose cards an hour.
• 29:00
  Speaker 7: Hmm.
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: So it's a alright so if I'm listening I'm a
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: pharmacy owner and I'm like wow this is interesting to
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: me how do I reach out to.
• 29:12
  Speaker 8: You what's the best ways to get a hold of
• 29:13
  Speaker 8: you so the best way would be to you can
• 29:15
  Speaker 8: certainly check us out on our website right carafill c-a-r-e
• 29:19
  Speaker 8: hyphen f-i-l-l dot com or if you google carafill or
• 29:24
  Speaker 8: even email me bwalberg w-a-l-b-e-r-g at w-f-p-r-x dot com I'd be.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Glad to help anybody.
• 29:36
  Speaker 8: I guess I look at this and I say that
• 29:37
  Speaker 8: if we're an independent pharmacy still out here surviving, today, it's,
• 29:41
  Speaker 8: it's still not easy by any means, but we need
• 29:44
  Speaker 8: to bind together.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: And be able to really do what we need to
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: do to serve our communities. Uh, it's so, it's so important.
• 29:52
  Speaker 8: Uh, we're in, we're in some rural areas of Pennsylvania
• 29:55
  Speaker 8: and we're excited, uh, to continue to reaching out.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: And expanding our services.
• 30:01
  Speaker 8: And what better way than to partner with our other
• 30:03
  Speaker 8: pharmacies that really want to get into that clinical.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Services but don't have the manpower, right?
• 30:09
  Speaker 8: And our central fill is not designed to replace people
• 30:12
  Speaker 8: or eliminate jobs.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: That's not it. We want to be able to do
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: more with the same.
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: This has been good. Thanks for being on the show, Brett,
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: and I'll be up in Greenville. We'll have to take
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: a tour.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: Todd, I'd love to have you. You're welcome anytime.
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: Thanks.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Hello, this is Mitchell Cushy.
• 30:30
  Speaker 13: I'm a P3 at West Virginia University, and you're listening
• 30:33
  Speaker 13: to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: Mitchell, welcome to the PPN's coverage of NCPA 2026.
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: It's good to have you.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, glad to be here.
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: We just saw you at WVU. It's my annual get-together
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: with the P3s. It was so cool to meet you
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: there and realize that it's.
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: Such a small world.
• 30:55
  Speaker 6: And a big fan of your father and his work
• 30:58
  Speaker 6: in Pennsylvania. I forgive you guys for going to WVU
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: and not going to a Pennsylvania school.
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: It's close enough. It feels like it's home.
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: So talk to me about the future of independent community
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: pharmacy and some of your viewpoints as someone who will
• 31:15
  Speaker 6: probably be setting the world on fire here in five
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: to 10 years as an independent owner.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 31:21
  Speaker 13: I mean, I think everybody kind of, talks about this
• 31:24
  Speaker 13: and it's really important to figure out how to overcome
• 31:27
  Speaker 13: the reimbursement struggles that we constantly are facing with PBM practices.
• 31:32
  Speaker 13: So moving away from traditional dispensing and it's still important
• 31:36
  Speaker 13: to make sure that we're taking care of our patients
• 31:38
  Speaker 13: and dispensing medications but trying to do additional things on
• 31:42
  Speaker 13: top of that dispensing to.
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: Help get them taken care of a little better.
• 31:46
  Speaker 13: Doctors offices are oversaturated so trying to make sure that
• 31:49
  Speaker 13: we're offering clinical services or adherence packaging measures to help
• 31:54
  Speaker 13: make sure people can manage their medications or remote patient
• 31:58
  Speaker 13: monitorings starting to become bigger with CGMs and blood pressure cuffs.
• 32:02
  Speaker 13: So making sure that we're going the extra mile to
• 32:05
  Speaker 13: keep being innovative and stay.
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: On top of things to keep our patients taken care of.
• 32:09
  Speaker 6: As much as independent community pharmacies and pharmacists want to help,
• 32:15
  Speaker 6: if you don't have the revenue to support The extension
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: and the hiring of techs and the hiring of other pharmacists,
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: it's just hard to grow.
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: So I like what you're saying. If we can add on.
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: Clinical services, if we can add on remote patient monitoring,
• 32:33
  Speaker 6: if we can add on classes, like contraceptions opening up
• 32:39
  Speaker 6: in the United States and having some kind of education
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: along with that, like a mother-daughter session or.
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: Teaching people about their own disease and managing their disease.
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: I think that there's so much more coming, especially with technology,
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: especially with AI.
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: Let's stop there for a second.
• 33:01
  Speaker 6: What do you think AI is going to do specifically
• 33:04
  Speaker 6: for independent community pharmacies? Where do you see it being
• 33:09
  Speaker 6: leveraged today where it makes sense?
• 33:11
  Speaker 13: Well, it's funny you ask that because I've actually talked
• 33:14
  Speaker 13: to quite a few different people here just in the
• 33:16
  Speaker 13: last few days alone, but This is something that a
• 33:19
  Speaker 13: lot of people have mixed feelings on, but I really
• 33:21
  Speaker 13: do think that AI data entry is coming. A lot
• 33:25
  Speaker 13: of pharmacies are already starting to try and implement it,
• 33:28
  Speaker 13: and just the nature of how it works, you can
• 33:31
  Speaker 13: teach it to really process and tailor it to your
• 33:33
  Speaker 13: own store.
• 33:34
  Speaker 7: So a lot of.
• 33:35
  Speaker 13: Those repetitive billing opportunities or going into your recycle fields
• 33:40
  Speaker 13: and just having an AI data entry technician, quote-unquote, go
• 33:44
  Speaker 13: through and process all of those things can free up
• 33:46
  Speaker 13: your technicians to really do some more of the patient-specific
• 33:49
  Speaker 13: interactions that require a human touch. So, I mean, I
• 33:52
  Speaker 13: think if you're not already prepared for AI data entry,
• 33:55
  Speaker 13: that's going to be the next big thing as far
• 33:58
  Speaker 13: as independent pharmacy goes.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: I see it.
• 34:02
  Speaker 6: The first place I saw it really being used was
• 34:04
  Speaker 6: specialty pharmacy for prior authorization that would put the data in, would.
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: Go back to the previous....
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: Request, replicate it, double-check it to make sure that it
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: was correct, give it back to the pharmacist for final reviews. So, yeah,
• 34:22
  Speaker 6: I think where the initial technician from the e-prescription coming
• 34:28
  Speaker 6: into the pharmacy, I think that's going to be AI,
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: and then I think it's going to be up to
• 34:33
  Speaker 6: getting it back to the pharmacist to do all the checking.
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: And to me, that means that the technician gets to
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: do more front-end work, or more customer service work that
• 34:44
  Speaker 6: gives us an opportunity to make some more money from
• 34:47
  Speaker 6: our patients.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: People still want interaction.
• 34:51
  Speaker 13: I don't think we're quite to a point where everybody
• 34:53
  Speaker 13: likes to make a phone call and be behind a screen.
• 34:56
  Speaker 13: There's still a lot of people that you talk to
• 34:58
  Speaker 13: that appreciate a face-to-face interaction, and having something that can
• 35:02
  Speaker 13: support the bottom end and running all of those prescriptions
• 35:06
  Speaker 13: to free up somebody else to do that in some
• 35:08
  Speaker 13: of these pharmacies that have really, really high volume could
• 35:11
  Speaker 13: be groundbreaking.
• 35:12
  Speaker 8: Yep.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 35:13
  Speaker 6: We appreciate you being on the NCPA Rewind 2026 show.
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: We are fans of yours, so we'll be watching you
• 35:21
  Speaker 6: in your career.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: Hey, welcome back to the NCPA 2026 coverage, the Rewind
• 35:30
  Speaker 6: show by the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: Tamara, welcome to the show.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
• 35:37
  Speaker 6: Hey, I want to get right into this. I've been
• 35:39
  Speaker 6: a fan of Jeremy for years. I used to compete
• 35:42
  Speaker 6: with Jeremy back in my software days. This had to
• 35:46
  Speaker 6: be 2008 or 2009. He's just a legend, and so
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: is Liberty Software. You guys came out with a new
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: brand last year called Pharmacy One. And it's this all-encompassing
• 35:58
  Speaker 6: enterprise system. So talk to our listeners about how that
• 36:01
  Speaker 6: is making an impact to our independent community pharmacies.
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: No, great question.
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: So Liberty Software did a soft name change to PharmacyOne
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: because they really wanted to show that with the software
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: system that you are not only getting a pharmacy management software,
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: but you're also getting the point-of-sale software, inventory management. So
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: it's an all-encompassing software system to impact and make your
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: pharmacy more efficient, and profitable and help the independent pharmacies.
• 36:31
  Speaker 6: When I think of what independents have to do today
• 36:35
  Speaker 6: to stay in business and more than stay in business.
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: To thrive, it is all of those things. You have
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: to have inventory.
• 36:43
  Speaker 6: You have to have predictive analytics and metrics and data
• 36:47
  Speaker 6: and reporting and e-commerce and checkout. So how do you
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: see AI impacting independent community pharmacy businesses What's one thing
• 36:58
  Speaker 6: that you see from working at Liberty that is proving
• 37:02
  Speaker 6: to be successful with AI?
• 37:04
  Speaker 8: Great.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so with AI, I think a lot of independent
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: pharmacies are really trying to focus on the data entry aspect.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: That's not actually where Liberty Software is having their focus
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: because we have virtual tech, which actually makes it very
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: efficient for that data entry piece to type up your
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: actual prescription and get it adjudicated with the insurance right away.
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: Where we're actually focusing AI is going to be in
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: the reports to where it could pull up that report
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: very quickly for you. We already have a great reporting
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: system with the data views, but the AI is going
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: to do that. I also feel it can really make
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: a big impact, and that might be later on in
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: terms of the development pipeline, that it would actually impact
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: in terms of your inventory management. I feel AI there,
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: having that data to where it can show which is
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: going to be the most beneficial one to purchase from,
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: that's going to be the best reimbursement. I think that
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: would really impact the independent pharmacies there.
• 38:04
  Speaker 6: So how has the NCPA been for Liberty? How's this
• 38:07
  Speaker 6: show going for you?
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: Oh, it's been great. Got to see a lot of
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: our customers and also new customers looking at where the
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: healthcare industry is changing. And AI, like you said, is
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: a big question that a lot of independent pharmacies are
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: looking at.
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 38:22
  Speaker 9: All right.
• 38:22
  Speaker 6: Someone's listening to the show. They want to get more information.
• 38:25
  Speaker 6: Where do we go to access more on Liberty?
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: Go directly to our website, libertysoftware.com. And you could even
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: request a demo and be connected to one of us.
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: A lot of our sales team are actually pharmacists ourselves.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: So you would be able to even talk one-on-one. We
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: understand that lingo and have that conversation directly with a pharmacist.
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: Tamara, thank you so much for being on the PPN's Rewind.
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: No, thank you so much for having me.
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: It's been great, Todd.
• 38:52
  Speaker 6: On a This Week in Pharmacy about a couple weeks ago,
• 38:55
  Speaker 6: I was talking about fear, and the fear came up
• 39:00
  Speaker 6: with lack of information. And when a patient, and it
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: was in the specialty pharmacy sector, but when a patient
• 39:09
  Speaker 6: doesn't feel that they have all the information, it creates
• 39:12
  Speaker 6: fear in them. And sure enough, it's a pharmacist or
• 39:16
  Speaker 6: a pharmacy team that can dissipate and mitigate that fear.
• 39:20
  Speaker 6: I'm talking with Jay Phipps.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Dr.
• 39:22
  Speaker 6: Phipps is in the studios right now here at the
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: NCPA 2026.
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: It's so good to see you.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Great to be here.
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: You speak on fear a lot, Jay.
• 39:32
  Speaker 6: There's a philosophy that you have as a pharmacy gladiator
• 39:36
  Speaker 6: in your whole program, some of the coaching you're coming
• 39:39
  Speaker 6: out with. We also are going to have you back
• 39:41
  Speaker 6: on Twerks when you release your.
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: Book, which is coming up.
• 39:44
  Speaker 6: Talk to us about your concepts and talk to us
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: about your philosophy as someone who started the very first
• 39:50
  Speaker 6: Pharmacy Gladiator, the attitude of what that meant.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: First of all, thank you for having me here. Really
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: excited about the opportunity.
• 39:59
  Speaker 9: So last year, I did a Freedom for Fear Tour
• 40:02
  Speaker 9: where I conquered 100 fears in a year, everything from
• 40:04
  Speaker 9: great whites to seeing my estranged sister I hadn't seen
• 40:07
  Speaker 9: in 15 years. And this fear shows up in our lives,
• 40:10
  Speaker 9: and fear can either be a jailer or a counselor.
• 40:14
  Speaker 9: And unfortunately, I think we live in a fear pandemic
• 40:17
  Speaker 9: And we're caught in a jail cell by fear.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: And so I went out.
• 40:22
  Speaker 9: To test a hypothesis that you could change your relationship
• 40:26
  Speaker 9: with fear. And what I found is when you face
• 40:29
  Speaker 9: that challenge and you empower yourself and you act boldly,
• 40:32
  Speaker 9: you actually do revolutionize your life. And I teach that
• 40:35
  Speaker 9: framework to individuals, teams, and through keynotes, gives me the
• 40:40
  Speaker 9: opportunity to really let people change their life from fear
• 40:44
  Speaker 9: to Because I do believe we live in that fear
• 40:46
  Speaker 9: pandemic now where social media is that echo chamber. It
• 40:50
  Speaker 9: really is that resonating factor. And whatever you're looking for,
• 40:54
  Speaker 9: you find those negative thoughts. You reinforce that. And so
• 41:00
  Speaker 9: I'm taking that and trying to get to people so
• 41:02
  Speaker 9: that they can realize there is another side of fear.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: And their potential is on the other side of fear.
• 41:09
  Speaker 6: You're showing up at more and more events. People are
• 41:12
  Speaker 6: starting to realize that. your philosophy around what started out
• 41:17
  Speaker 6: as more of a hashtag than anything, and then all
• 41:19
  Speaker 6: of a sudden it just blew up, pharmacy gladiators. So
• 41:23
  Speaker 6: talk to me about the coaching opportunities that you're starting
• 41:26
  Speaker 6: to bring to business owners, individuals, people that you cross
• 41:31
  Speaker 6: through networking with. What are your coaching services about?
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: So I'm doing a couple of different things.
• 41:37
  Speaker 9: I have been doing a gladiator luteus a full day
• 41:39
  Speaker 9: for teens for about a year, a little over a year,
• 41:44
  Speaker 9: I actually did a program with the Cascadia Group in
• 41:47
  Speaker 9: Washington State.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: It's a great group. It is a great group.
• 41:50
  Speaker 9: And brought in all their owners and did about a
• 41:54
  Speaker 9: two-hour program with them. And one of the things Jeff
• 41:57
  Speaker 9: Harrell asked for was, he said, can you develop a
• 41:59
  Speaker 9: full-day program so that you can come in and help
• 42:03
  Speaker 9: develop our team so we can recognize it? Because I
• 42:06
  Speaker 9: believe there is a fear tax to fear in organizations,
• 42:09
  Speaker 9: the lack of innovation in not speaking up, not having,
• 42:12
  Speaker 9: not expressing those ideas or we procrastinate or perfectionism all
• 42:18
  Speaker 9: cost our company's money. And we don't get a single
• 42:23
  Speaker 9: invoice for them, but they're, and there's no line item
• 42:25
  Speaker 9: on your tax return, but they're costing us money. And
• 42:29
  Speaker 9: so Jeff asked for that. And so then I started
• 42:30
  Speaker 9: to develop it and I'll be candid. I tested it
• 42:33
  Speaker 9: with my team first, brought all my leaders together, a
• 42:36
  Speaker 9: full day leadership program. So That's an opportunity for teams
• 42:41
  Speaker 9: that really want to get to really reach their potential.
• 42:45
  Speaker 9: I say you lead from vision to victory. And so
• 42:48
  Speaker 9: that's one of the programs. It's the Gladiator Looters full-day program.
• 42:52
  Speaker 9: But I'm also doing programs where it's a couple of
• 42:57
  Speaker 9: sessions online, Gladiator strategy intensive programs. where we can really
• 43:03
  Speaker 9: identify what their goals are, what's really holding them back,
• 43:07
  Speaker 9: what's in their way, what potential do they have, and
• 43:10
  Speaker 9: what is keeping them from reaching that potential. And then
• 43:14
  Speaker 9: they leave with an action plan. Then we follow up
• 43:17
  Speaker 9: two weeks later to see what steps are you taking
• 43:19
  Speaker 9: because you can have as many action plans as you want.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: The action is the antidote for fear.
• 43:25
  Speaker 9: And so that's an opportunity for a short time a
• 43:30
  Speaker 9: couple interactions, but it's extremely impactful. It'll get people to
• 43:34
  Speaker 9: really where they need to be so they can reach
• 43:37
  Speaker 9: that goal that they keep thinking about. You can think
• 43:39
  Speaker 9: about it all day long, but until you do it,
• 43:41
  Speaker 9: until you do something about it, it's just a thought.
• 43:45
  Speaker 9: Instead of being someday, I want it to be today. Really,
• 43:49
  Speaker 9: that gladiator strategy intensive is for that. I also can
• 43:52
  Speaker 9: do one-on-one. People can do one-on-one coaching with me. It
• 43:56
  Speaker 9: can be a weekly.
• 43:59
  Speaker 9: A weekly online session where we really do attack what's
• 44:02
  Speaker 9: going on, coaching.
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: I use coaches.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: I think everybody needs a coach.
• 44:08
  Speaker 9: Regardless if you're a podcaster, you're a pharmacist, you're an entrepreneur,
• 44:12
  Speaker 9: you're a speaker, you need coaches. And I'm using my
• 44:15
  Speaker 9: 26 years experience as an entrepreneur, running seven businesses now
• 44:20
  Speaker 9: to really shed some light on other people's practices and
• 44:24
  Speaker 9: how they can expand their services and expand who they are.
• 44:28
  Speaker 9: It may not be in pharmacy. It may be outside pharmacy.
• 44:30
  Speaker 9: But how do we take those skills we have and
• 44:35
  Speaker 9: the blockades that we have in our way and finally
• 44:38
  Speaker 9: reach our potential?
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: Jay, I saw a post that you put out.
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: It's hinting on the coming of a book that you're
• 44:46
  Speaker 6: putting out.
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: I'm so excited.
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: We'll be having you back on This Week in Pharmacy
• 44:50
  Speaker 6: to talk about it.
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: Tell our listeners a little bit about that.
• 44:53
  Speaker 9: Yeah. So, again, this is one of those things I've
• 44:55
  Speaker 9: talked about, I said I was going to do, I
• 44:58
  Speaker 9: finally put it on social media that I'm doing it.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: I signed the contract to get it done.
• 45:02
  Speaker 9: And in Q1 of 27, a little over 90 days,
• 45:07
  Speaker 9: we're going to have a book finally done and published.
• 45:11
  Speaker 9: And the working title now is The Cage or the Coliseum.
• 45:16
  Speaker 9: You can stay in your cage forever or you can
• 45:19
  Speaker 9: go into the Coliseum and fight and fight fear. And
• 45:23
  Speaker 9: it's really about those hundred fears that I conquered in
• 45:25
  Speaker 9: a year. and then how that led to the journey
• 45:30
  Speaker 9: to reach Dreams to Destiny. My Freedom for Fear Tour
• 45:35
  Speaker 9: not only changed me, it changed my family. My youngest son,
• 45:40
  Speaker 9: which is 11, Eli, one of the most fearful children
• 45:43
  Speaker 9: you would ever meet. When I started this, was afraid
• 45:47
  Speaker 9: of tons of things. And before the year was over,
• 45:50
  Speaker 9: he'd be like, Daddy, what fear are we gonna conquer next?
• 45:54
  Speaker 9: And so when you see that evolution, and you see
• 45:57
  Speaker 9: that it actually makes an impact and just not on yourself,
• 45:59
  Speaker 9: but your family, then, um, and on your team at work,
• 46:03
  Speaker 9: that's really what it's about is how do we take that?
• 46:05
  Speaker 9: How would you put it together? Teach people the framework,
• 46:08
  Speaker 9: the freedom from fear framework and, um, and allow people to, to,
• 46:13
  Speaker 9: to really reach their potential.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: So excited about getting the book done.
• 46:16
  Speaker 9: Um, it should be, like I said, Q1 of 27,
• 46:20
  Speaker 9: very excited about getting it out and, and, and, and
• 46:23
  Speaker 9: putting on paper and, um, codifying the work that I've
• 46:27
  Speaker 9: done and allow people to see that there's potential for it,
• 46:31
  Speaker 9: for everyone on the other side of fear.
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: I'm so proud of what you've done.
• 46:34
  Speaker 6: I've been watching you for over 10 years, been friends
• 46:37
  Speaker 6: with you through LinkedIn, but always appreciate you giving us
• 46:41
  Speaker 6: time on the podcast. And I can't wait until that
• 46:45
  Speaker 6: book comes out. I'm going to have you back on
• 46:46
  Speaker 6: this week at Pharmacy.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: I can't wait. It's really exciting.
• 46:49
  Speaker 9: I appreciate everything you do for the profession of pharmacy.
• 46:51
  Speaker 9: You're definitely a pharmacy collaborator and it's And the whole
• 46:54
  Speaker 9: profession appreciates you.
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: Thank you.