John McMillan 0:00
are seconds. There we go. We start the recording. So great. All right, here we go. Hi. Joining us today on stop start continue is Megan Reed, who's the Program Director of pharmacy and PCAP at AC HC. Megan, you know, well, let's talk about your focus. What are your focus areas is on compounding pharmacy. So what's what's something we should stop doing in that world?
Megan Reed 0:25
I think as far as I think it's more of the perception of people outside of compounding need to stop fairly judging compounders. Especially, I would say, during the pandemic, with specialty diseases, things that people need to be treated for, that they this is like their last resort, they, they found their answer and their treatments and compounding. I feel like, especially when people are so used to Big Pharma, they're not understanding, you know, how traditional compounding affects people every day. You know, we've come a long way. I would say even since the updated USP chapters being revised, and, you know, we've talked about before, you know, the whole New England compounding situation that happened, you know, through different things, FDA accreditors, such as Ach, C, and USP, just trying to get everybody safe and on the same page. So I feel like, we've come so far, I mean, we're 12 years from that situation. And I think just as a community in general, we have worked so hard to maintain standards and safety, and have routed out a lot of the bad actors in the space. Great.
John McMillan 1:51
Yeah, it feels like I mean, you know, a lot of times this is the the most effective way, and maybe sometimes the only source for some of these medications as we move forward. So, you know, we're will kind of stop looking down at them. But what's something we should start doing and compounding pharmacy to kind of help push your patient safety forward?
Speaker 1 2:15
I think we need to start raising the bar, we've had numerous discussions about how through accreditation, I feel like is a way to show that these pharmacies, especially MP cab being PCAP accredited. You know, there's only one state in Michigan that requires that right now, in order for people to get their sterile compounding license. But other than that, it's voluntary. And it's how people have shown compliance, people have shown that they're a step ahead of their competitors in the business, I feel like it really has, you know, it's the gold seal, you know, it's a gold seal. As far as, you know, getting that a plus, you when you walk into it into a door and you see that that symbol, then you can rest assure that they've been they've been through the wringer. That way, you know, that, that they have gone above and beyond what they really have to do. And so I feel like, it shows that these are a set of standards that we follow besides all of the other regulatory bodies that we have to deal with. We've decided to take it a step further, by becoming accredited, so streamlining our processes being in compliance with the USP chapters, because that's a big part of our accreditation standards, as they have to comply with USP. So I will say for us, you know, it's an educate educational and collaborative experience. So I think that really does help, folks, as far as it's not, we're not in the, you know, gotcha game. We're not trying to, like, utilize anybody. We're really trying to help people do the right thing and get everybody on the same page.
John McMillan 4:10
Yeah, and I think that that's so important, right? Because it's, it's not about gotcha, it's, it's about how do we move the best practices into as many pharmacies as possible as quickly as possible? And you mentioned that with the USP standards going out there and, and, you know, it's interesting with other pharmacies and other practice areas, you know, accreditation is just kind of expected, especially as
Speaker 1 4:34
part of the payer package, right, like for us to get paid or for us to get license right in that state to do those different things, especially in the fusion and specialty space, for sure.
John McMillan 4:46
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I think y'all are doing a good job of pushing this forward. And hopefully that will just become, you know, the standard, if you will, you know, as we move forward for sure. So, you know, we want to you know, kind of stop looking doubt, at the compounding pharmacies, you'll start raising that bar even further. What's something that we're doing right now that you think is awesome, and we need to continue doing that to increase patient safety and patient outcomes?
Speaker 1 5:11
I think the best thing that I've seen, and this goes to different organizations that have come together with compounders, as people in the community just leaning on each other, and kind of raising each other up and sharing, you know, we've seen the different, you know, MediSpa, PCCA, failure on, I would even say, you know, APC is a huge compounding advocacy organization, I think we need to continue to lift each other up and keep holding each other accountable. Whatever it is, like, if you see somebody doing something, if they're your colleague, go talk to them about it. If you, you know, have seen success in certain areas, or if, you know, these chapters are so open to interpretation, especially with the USP. So, we've been hearing a lot of will, from USP themselves like, well, we're not a regulatory body, it's up to the accreditation organizations and FDA, DEA, whoever. So I think it's really going to be a lot, especially in the next, I would say, two years, especially with Boards of Pharmacy, there's a lot of them that are implementing the changes for like, a year and a half to two years. So they don't even know what they're doing. I feel like you know, and not in a bad way, I think it's the chapters Poff you know, 795797, if you're now doing hazardous that's required, and a lot of places, so it's just wrapping our arms around all of this information and just kind of just, I feel like if we continue to lift each other up and lift up the industry, I think it'll everybody will take care of each other, it'll take care of itself as far as, like being where we need to be. Right. And go ahead. That
John McMillan 7:12
is to say, it is so wide open. And there's just like, here's some guidelines, right? Yeah. You know, but I, I feel like the the pharmacy world is so small, right, that everybody knows everybody, and let's all figure out what those best practices are. Right? For sure. And implement them?
Speaker 1 7:29
Yeah, I think so. Especially, you know, in education, I think there'll be a wide open space for that. So I feel like as long as we're continuing to show, especially from our surveyors, and you know, them going out to different pharmacies, they're gonna try and educate everybody that they can on what they know. And so it's like, if we can, they can then pass out the information to somebody else. I think that's super helpful. Right. And
John McMillan 7:57
there's some great technology out there that that can help with that. Right. You know, whether it's within the pharmacy, you know, talking with patients, you know, obviously, medical memory, he's got a great app that that can help with patient education, but I feel like you have to and even even some applicability, I think within the pharmacy of hey, here's how we, here's how we interact. Here's, here's how we interpret the 795 797 regs, or standards, you know, so let's move forward together. Well, great. Anything else you'd like to to share with the audience today? Megan?
Speaker 1 8:30
Well, I was just gonna add on to like, what you had just said, with all the requirements for training and competency is no, I mean, we're not going to be able to be showing that over and over and over again. So as you said, to using video, you know, such as medical memory, as you know, you said, I think will be very helpful for folks. I also think, you know, there's so many just different things out there for folks, but I feel like we are in a, you know, video digital age now. Especially with the different ways that people learn, I think it'll be helpful.
John McMillan 9:07
Yeah, and you all have a CH cu does such a good job of educating folks to the needle, there's so many good resources, and I anticipate that just expanding more and more as we as we narrow in some of these standards into a best practice, you know, so, obviously, people need to be checking out ACH. CEU
Speaker 1 9:25
Thank you. Yeah, we have a ton of we'll have more workshops and things coming out in the coming months. And we also have a compounding manual, we have, you know, different things coming out so people are like, I don't want to write all these SOPs. We have them in our other our educational arm, which is separate from the accreditation.
John McMillan 9:47
Fantastic. Well, great. Well, we appreciate you joining us today. Megan, I know your your thoughts, you know, carry carry a lot of weight around and and we're really looking forward to what the future for compounding pharmacy brings. So thanks again.
Unknown Speaker 9:59
Thank you so much for having me John
John McMillan:
10:01
of course
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
are seconds. There we go. We start the recording. So great. All right, here we go. Hi. Joining us today on stop start continue is Megan Reed, who's the Program Director of pharmacy and PCAP at AC HC. Megan, you know, well, let's talk about your focus. What are your focus areas is on compounding pharmacy. So what's what's something we should stop doing in that world?
Megan Reed 0:25
I think as far as I think it's more of the perception of people outside of compounding need to stop fairly judging compounders. Especially, I would say, during the pandemic, with specialty diseases, things that people need to be treated for, that they this is like their last resort, they, they found their answer and their treatments and compounding. I feel like, especially when people are so used to Big Pharma, they're not understanding, you know, how traditional compounding affects people every day. You know, we've come a long way. I would say even since the updated USP chapters being revised, and, you know, we've talked about before, you know, the whole New England compounding situation that happened, you know, through different things, FDA accreditors, such as Ach, C, and USP, just trying to get everybody safe and on the same page. So I feel like, we've come so far, I mean, we're 12 years from that situation. And I think just as a community in general, we have worked so hard to maintain standards and safety, and have routed out a lot of the bad actors in the space. Great.
John McMillan 1:51
Yeah, it feels like I mean, you know, a lot of times this is the the most effective way, and maybe sometimes the only source for some of these medications as we move forward. So, you know, we're will kind of stop looking down at them. But what's something we should start doing and compounding pharmacy to kind of help push your patient safety forward?
Speaker 1 2:15
I think we need to start raising the bar, we've had numerous discussions about how through accreditation, I feel like is a way to show that these pharmacies, especially MP cab being PCAP accredited. You know, there's only one state in Michigan that requires that right now, in order for people to get their sterile compounding license. But other than that, it's voluntary. And it's how people have shown compliance, people have shown that they're a step ahead of their competitors in the business, I feel like it really has, you know, it's the gold seal, you know, it's a gold seal. As far as, you know, getting that a plus, you when you walk into it into a door and you see that that symbol, then you can rest assure that they've been they've been through the wringer. That way, you know, that, that they have gone above and beyond what they really have to do. And so I feel like, it shows that these are a set of standards that we follow besides all of the other regulatory bodies that we have to deal with. We've decided to take it a step further, by becoming accredited, so streamlining our processes being in compliance with the USP chapters, because that's a big part of our accreditation standards, as they have to comply with USP. So I will say for us, you know, it's an educate educational and collaborative experience. So I think that really does help, folks, as far as it's not, we're not in the, you know, gotcha game. We're not trying to, like, utilize anybody. We're really trying to help people do the right thing and get everybody on the same page.
John McMillan 4:10
Yeah, and I think that that's so important, right? Because it's, it's not about gotcha, it's, it's about how do we move the best practices into as many pharmacies as possible as quickly as possible? And you mentioned that with the USP standards going out there and, and, you know, it's interesting with other pharmacies and other practice areas, you know, accreditation is just kind of expected, especially as
Speaker 1 4:34
part of the payer package, right, like for us to get paid or for us to get license right in that state to do those different things, especially in the fusion and specialty space, for sure.
John McMillan 4:46
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I think y'all are doing a good job of pushing this forward. And hopefully that will just become, you know, the standard, if you will, you know, as we move forward for sure. So, you know, we want to you know, kind of stop looking doubt, at the compounding pharmacies, you'll start raising that bar even further. What's something that we're doing right now that you think is awesome, and we need to continue doing that to increase patient safety and patient outcomes?
Speaker 1 5:11
I think the best thing that I've seen, and this goes to different organizations that have come together with compounders, as people in the community just leaning on each other, and kind of raising each other up and sharing, you know, we've seen the different, you know, MediSpa, PCCA, failure on, I would even say, you know, APC is a huge compounding advocacy organization, I think we need to continue to lift each other up and keep holding each other accountable. Whatever it is, like, if you see somebody doing something, if they're your colleague, go talk to them about it. If you, you know, have seen success in certain areas, or if, you know, these chapters are so open to interpretation, especially with the USP. So, we've been hearing a lot of will, from USP themselves like, well, we're not a regulatory body, it's up to the accreditation organizations and FDA, DEA, whoever. So I think it's really going to be a lot, especially in the next, I would say, two years, especially with Boards of Pharmacy, there's a lot of them that are implementing the changes for like, a year and a half to two years. So they don't even know what they're doing. I feel like you know, and not in a bad way, I think it's the chapters Poff you know, 795797, if you're now doing hazardous that's required, and a lot of places, so it's just wrapping our arms around all of this information and just kind of just, I feel like if we continue to lift each other up and lift up the industry, I think it'll everybody will take care of each other, it'll take care of itself as far as, like being where we need to be. Right. And go ahead. That
John McMillan 7:12
is to say, it is so wide open. And there's just like, here's some guidelines, right? Yeah. You know, but I, I feel like the the pharmacy world is so small, right, that everybody knows everybody, and let's all figure out what those best practices are. Right? For sure. And implement them?
Speaker 1 7:29
Yeah, I think so. Especially, you know, in education, I think there'll be a wide open space for that. So I feel like as long as we're continuing to show, especially from our surveyors, and you know, them going out to different pharmacies, they're gonna try and educate everybody that they can on what they know. And so it's like, if we can, they can then pass out the information to somebody else. I think that's super helpful. Right. And
John McMillan 7:57
there's some great technology out there that that can help with that. Right. You know, whether it's within the pharmacy, you know, talking with patients, you know, obviously, medical memory, he's got a great app that that can help with patient education, but I feel like you have to and even even some applicability, I think within the pharmacy of hey, here's how we, here's how we interact. Here's, here's how we interpret the 795 797 regs, or standards, you know, so let's move forward together. Well, great. Anything else you'd like to to share with the audience today? Megan?
Speaker 1 8:30
Well, I was just gonna add on to like, what you had just said, with all the requirements for training and competency is no, I mean, we're not going to be able to be showing that over and over and over again. So as you said, to using video, you know, such as medical memory, as you know, you said, I think will be very helpful for folks. I also think, you know, there's so many just different things out there for folks, but I feel like we are in a, you know, video digital age now. Especially with the different ways that people learn, I think it'll be helpful.
John McMillan 9:07
Yeah, and you all have a CH cu does such a good job of educating folks to the needle, there's so many good resources, and I anticipate that just expanding more and more as we as we narrow in some of these standards into a best practice, you know, so, obviously, people need to be checking out ACH. CEU
Speaker 1 9:25
Thank you. Yeah, we have a ton of we'll have more workshops and things coming out in the coming months. And we also have a compounding manual, we have, you know, different things coming out so people are like, I don't want to write all these SOPs. We have them in our other our educational arm, which is separate from the accreditation.
John McMillan 9:47
Fantastic. Well, great. Well, we appreciate you joining us today. Megan, I know your your thoughts, you know, carry carry a lot of weight around and and we're really looking forward to what the future for compounding pharmacy brings. So thanks again.
Unknown Speaker 9:59
Thank you so much for having me John
John McMillan:
10:01
of course
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
