November 13, 2024—East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy’s impact on the transformation of community pharmacy was recognized recently with a prestigious national award to the Greater Appalachian Transformation Effort (GATE), an effort which the college has helped lead since its inception.
At the October annual meeting for the National Community Pharmacy Association in Columbus,
Ohio, GATE won the 2024 Flip the Pharmacy (FtP) Team of the Year Award. GATE is one
of several teams across the country selected to participate in the Flip the Pharmacy
initiative, which was established in 2019 to help equip community pharmacies across
the country with the tools, resources and coaching they need to adapt from point-in-time,
prescription-level care processes to outcomes-based, patient-level care models. While
the grant funding for Flip the Pharmacy ended in 2024, the impact of the program will
continue to be felt across the region for years to come.
The college’s faculty helped lead GATE: Dr. Jessica Robinson, Assistant Professor
of Pharmacy Practice, served as Lead Coach; Dr. Katelyn Alexander, Director of Experiential
Education, served as coach; Dr. KariLynn Dowling-McClay, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy
Practice, served as program consultant; and Jeff Gray, Associate Professor of Pharmacy
Practice, served as a coach and program administrator.
Together with GATE leaders, they have worked closely with the Community Pharmacy Foundation,
the Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network (CPESN® USA) FtP Coordinating Center;
CPESN ® local community pharmacy networks; and a team of coaches across East Tennessee,
Virginia, and Western North Carolina to oversee the implementation of practice transformation
efforts in more than 200 pharmacies in South Central Appalachia.
GATE was the only multi-state team to compete for funding and the only team to achieve
funding in all four funding cycles, achieving unprecedented success in the number
of stores reached and resulting alternative revenue opportunities for community pharmacies.
“The success of this program is due to the hard work of our partner pharmacies who
together envision a new frontier for community-based pharmacy practice. Their willingness
to challenge the status quo of health care is opening new doors for pharmacist-provided
patient care services,” said Robinson, who graduated from ETSU Gatton College of Pharmacy
in 2017 and later became a faculty member. She attributed her time as a student as
critical to learn more about the need for pharmacy practice transformation.
“I wanted to be an independent pharmacy owner when I came here, but the more I learned,
the more I realized we needed to transform the way we care for patients to remain
competitive in a rapidly changing market,” said Robinson, who is also the Lead Network
Facilitator for the Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network (CPESN®USA) in Tennessee.
“I could see that healthcare trends were pointing towards a different model of care
that focused on value and outcomes and felt that I could be a resource for pharmacists
approaching this new frontier.”
It’s not just the pharmacies who benefited from this, either, as students are now
trained to “operate at the top of their license,” according to Robinson. It’s a two-pronged
approach, she said, with curriculum across the college enhanced to prepare students
to be practice- and business-ready.
“ETSU has really positioned itself to be a resource for not only students but also
for our preceptors and alumni, as well,” said Robinson. “We want to be a resource
so community pharmacists don’t feel alone – that they’ve got somebody they can call.”
It’s a fitting commitment for a college that was founded to address a critical shortage
of local pharmacists – professionals who would train, and remain, in rural and underserved
communities here and across the region.
“I think ETSU has really become synonymous with community pharmacy practice transformation
in the Southeast U.S.,” said Robinson.
ETSU Gatton College of Pharmacy offers many options for students to tailor their training,
including an emphasis on independent pharmacy ownership. Learn more at www.etsu.edu/pharmacy.