By Meg Murphy, PharmD, Pharmacy & Regulatory Affairs Manager at Surescripts and Interoperability Matters Pharmacy Workgroup Lead

Care delivery in the U.S. is stretched due in part to increasing demands for healthcare and a growing shortage of primary care providers. While community pharmacies serve as a valuable access point for patients, access to information about the patient’s medical history is often limited and time consuming for pharmacists to track down.

A survey conducted in 2024 found that 1 out of 5 adults delayed or skipped care because they couldn’t get an appointment soon enough, and 1 out of 10 adults didn’t seek care because the provider was too far away or transportation was unavailable¹. According to Surescripts, nearly half of counties in the U.S. have less than one primary care provider for every 1,500 patients². When patients delay care, they often end up needing more intensive and expensive treatments later. This reactive approach contributed to the roughly $4.8 trillion in healthcare spending in 2024³.

Fortunately, 9 out of 10 Americans live close to a community pharmacy and can increasingly access select preventative and chronic care health services from their pharmacist⁴. For example, trends show more patients are choosing to receive their routine vaccinations from their pharmacist⁵ and a majority of providers believe it’s important for the industry to move toward team-based care⁶.

This approach is already taking place in some settings, like outpatient clinics, where physicians, pharmacists, and other providers share a practice setting as well as an electronic health record (EHR) to collaborate and coordinate patient care. Pharmacists issuing e-prescriptions in these settings increased 28.8% in 2023 and some of the top prescription types issued included medications for diabetes, cholesterol, and hypertension management, which demonstrates the role pharmacists can play in managing chronic diseases⁷.

Pharmacies lack access to EHRs, lab results, and care plans and instead rely on a phone call or the patient to relay information. This fragmentation leads to inefficiencies, duplicative care, and missed opportunities for intervention. Sharing critical information about a patient encounter with other providers and payers is also a challenge. The pharmacist may be able to provide A1c testing to a diabetic patient, for example, but the result might still be faxed over to the primary care provider for manual entry. The current infrastructure simply doesn’t reflect how care is delivered today – and that’s a problem.

Recognizing this gap, The Sequoia Project launched the Interoperability Matters Pharmacy Workgroup to bring together stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem. This includes pharmacists, pharmacy organizations, EHR vendors, standards bodies, payers, and government agencies – all working together to advance pharmacy interoperability. The workgroup’s mission is clear: to foster and broaden pharmacy interoperability through education, alignment, and actionable deliverables.

Since the Pharmacy Workgroup launched this Spring, over 45 organizations have joined the effort and meaningful progress is being made. Participants are working together to document real-world scenarios where pharmacists need access to clinical data – like chronic disease management, testing and treating respiratory diseases, transitions of care, and addressing gaps in care. The Workgroup looks forward to mapping out the pharmacy interoperability landscape to improve awareness and understanding of the opportunities and gaps that exist.

Healthcare is evolving rapidly. Value-based care, digital health, and patient-centered models demand better data sharing. Pharmacists are ready to do more – but the infrastructure must catch up. If you’re a healthcare leader, policymaker, or technologist, consider how your work can support pharmacy interoperability – and join the conversation! Together, we can ensure that pharmacists have the tools they need to deliver the care patients deserve.

References:

1. https://www.kff.org/health-policy-101-health-care-costs-and-affordability/?entry=table-of-contents-what-factors-contribute-to-u-s-health-care-spending
2. https://surescripts.com/press-releases/surescripts-unmatched-healthcare-interoperability-delivered-intelligence-sharing-scale-2023
3. https://www.kff.org/interactive/health-spending-explorer/
4. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2768247
5. https://www.iqvia.com/insights/the-iqvia-institute/reports-and-publications/reports/trends-in-vaccine-administration-in-the-united-states
6. Surescripts, “Data Brief: Prescribers & Pharmacists Look for More Collaboration & New Technologies to Improve Care,” August 2023
7. https://surescripts.com/insights/washington-state-is-empowering-care-team-evolution