PRESIDENT’S PAGE
PROCURE SOME TOILET PAPER WHEN IT IS NEEDED!
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Diane Reist, PharmD, RPh IPA President Cedar Rapids
t has been a long and bumpy road for the past year or so, hasn’t it? There have been so many changes to our lives due to the global coronavirus pandemic that it almost leaves one speechless. Professional changes, personal changes, political changes, community changes – All can seem overwhelming. Yet I find on reflection that this is certainly not the first time I have felt overwhelmed by factors around me that I didn’t have control over. I have never lived through a global pandemic before, (still refuse to call it an “unprecedented” event), but I do recall having some of the same angst and concerns over other issues in my life in the past. Each time, I took the appropriate amount of time to fuss and fume, then grieve, then plan my revenge, and then come to my senses and move forward, taking the lessons that I learned and the frustrations that I felt to build something new and almost always better. Several times in the past year I have heard colleagues of mine say, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” What great advice! I always attributed it to Jay Currie and Gary Milavetz. Little did I realize that it is originally attributed to Winston Churchill back in the 1940s, very likely when he was talking with Stalin and Roosevelt after World War II, and the idea of the United Nations was being kicked around. “The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.” www.un.org The concept of using adversity and chaos to create something better has been a common theme throughout the history of the world in all aspects and venues of humanity, including being portrayed in the movie Operation Petticoat, which takes place during WWII. An American submarine base in the Philippines is bombed, and the boat’s crew is trying desperately to make repairs so they can get away. But even during this desperate time, the bureaucracy that lies above them hinders their efforts to get the supplies they need to repair the damages. During an air raid, an officer shouts, “In confusion there is profit!” He then utilizes that crisis to procure the supplies they need the most: including toilet paper! We can all learn from the TP raid (although the hoarding of TP in 2020 still baffles me a little) that in times of crisis, chaos, or air raids, there is an opportunity for great
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| The Journal of the Iowa Pharmacy Association
leaders to rise to the occasion in ways they wouldn’t be able to in normal times. Even Bud Light’s Super Bowl 55 commercial highlighted the fact that the year 2020, or as they refer to it ‘the year that shall not be named,’ was a “lemon of a year,” and what do we do with lemons when life gives you nothing but lemons? Make lemonade! (Not so sure about Lemonade Seltzer though…) Where am I headed with all of these serious and silly references to making the best out of bad situations? We are a profession of doers, of helpers, of kindhearted, educated healthcare providers that can take the bad situations and make them better, but certainly not alone. Just as the UN started with 51 different nations, all with diverse goals, languages, needs, and peoples, and worked tirelessly to make a positive difference in the world, we too as health care providers have had to work together in times of uncertainty. Do they always get it right? Do we? No – No one does, but we keep trying. Progress can be made from chaos. We have had plenty of chaos this past year, and that signals us to take that situation and make something better. Our association and members have been front and center with public health, local government, and other healthcare providers in coming up with solutions to COVID vaccine distribution and administration. Our association, together with our Board of Pharmacy, is squeezing lemons and using them to rewrite the Iowa Pharmacy Practice Act to create a practice environment and rules base that will allow us to do what is needed to improve the care of our patients in a new way. This will allow us to be, as NCPA CEO Doug Hoey said during PharmaCE Expo 2021, recognized not as part of the “provider creep” that physicians talk of, but qualified providers that are reimbursed for professional services. Scott Knoer, APhA CEO, also shared at Expo that he believes “the future is bright,” and we are being recognized for our rightful place in providing medication services, not just medications. Chad Worz, ASCP CEO, encouraged that we need to have the confidence to position ourselves to provide solutions to problems, whether it is in a healthcare institution or doctor’s office in addition to our more traditional practices. Paul Abramowitz, CEO of ASHP, offered his time and team to help sweeten that lemonade by focusing on Iowa specific issues. As we all see daily, there are a lot of people who have received more lemons than ourselves. Simply being aware that these issues exist does not get us any closer to helping alleviate the poor health outcomes that they cause. Rather, that chaos and adversity give us a place to start.
