IPN 2022 October

Boots Ireland – Leading from the Front

Boots Ireland: Winners of the Roche Diagnostics Point of Care Testing Award 2022

This was the first year of the Roche Point of Care Testing Award, won on the night by Boots Ireland. Boots Ireland responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by rapidly implementing testing services, the foundation of the country’s fight to manage and mitigate the disease. They were the first pharmacy in Ireland to offer PCR testing in December 2020 and again the first to offer professionally administered antigen testing to facilitate travel under the EU Digital Covid Certificate scheme in July 2021.

Boots Ireland, winner of the Roche Diagnostics Points of Care Testing Pharmacy of the Year Award. Pictured is Noor Bajalan, Boots Ireland, Len Marshall, Head of Healthcare Development, Roche Diagnostics and Susan O’Dwyer, Pharmacy Strategy and Development Manager, Boots Ireland

Susan O’Dwyer, Pharmacy Strategy and Development Manager with Boots Ireland says, “The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic set the world on a path never seen before in our lifetimes.

“As COVID cases swept the country, work from home and shelter in place orders were enforced and the healthcare sector worked tirelessly to continue to provide vital services and treat this new, unknown, disease. In the initial phases of the pandemic Government taskforces worked to implement regimes of testing to manage case numbers and to protect people from the harshest symptoms of the disease.

“Recognising that there was no testing provision under the National Testing Strategy for patients that were not experiencing symptoms and conscious of the allowances being made to facilitate international travel over the Christmas 2020 period Boots Ireland worked quickly to design, develop and implement the first private pharmacy delivered Covid-19 PCR testing service in the country.

Designed for asymptomatic individuals who required PCR testing for international travel or as a re-assurance when interacting with family over the Christmas period Boots were able to provide

a convenient and accessible solution to support the national programme by increasing access to testing.”

Susan continues, “Significant innovation was required to design, develop, implement and re-define this service over time in response to the ever-changing nature of the pandemic as follows:

• We developed a patent journey for the service that adhered to public health guidance, kept our colleagues, customers and patients safe and responded rapidly to changing guidance over time

• We sought out and evaluated potential laboratory partners to ensure we were providing access to high quality, appropriately accredited PCR testing that was cost competitive and subject to efficient turnaround times.

• We implemented an internal training programme, based on HSE training for community swabbers in HSE run testing centres, initially for pharmacists and later for a newly created role of Covid-19 Testing Service Advisor, that provided colleagues with the skills to accurately, safely and confidently collect swab samples, maintain proper infection control, accurately label and package test samples, interpret results and provide relevant public health advice to service users. A corresponding system of colleague and premises authorisation to provide the service was implemented.

• We developed an online journey that incorporated the use of online appointment booking, digital consultation record forms, remote payment, sample registration and laboratory integration to facilitate minimal patient contact, no duplication of data entry, tracking of samples from collection, to receipt at the laboratory, to result generation and communication with the patient through their online portal.

• We worked with national bodies such as the HSE Public Health Departments and the Department of Health to ensure timely notification of positive cases and to gain access to the national EU Digital Covid Certificate service

Boots Ireland, winner of the Roche Diagnostics Points of Care

Testing Pharmacy of the Year

Award. Pictured is Susan O’Dwyer, Superintendent Pharmacist, Boots Ireland, Noor Bajalan,

Boots Ireland and Len Marshall, Head of Healthcare Development,

Roche Diagnostics

Where Boots lead others follows as evidenced by the number of pharmacy providers of Covid-19 testing services in the pharmacy market. This supports scope of practice development and expansion across the sector and increases access to pharmacy led services nationwide, something that is of benefit to the sector and to the patients and communities.

“Whilst the need for Covid-19 testing services may be diminishing the lessons learned in service implementation can be used to re-introduce the service at pace into the future should that be required and/or to introduce similar services with a different disease target.

“The Covid-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the lives of people around the globe in an unprecedented way. The national public health emergency had, and continues to have, a significant impact on the way public and private healthcare services are delivered across the country. Community pharmacy has been at the forefront of the pandemic response, remaining open and accessible at all times through the crisis whilst simultaneously battling

its own workplace challenges in times of fear, pressure and workforce constraints.

The National Testing Strategy saw the implementation of community testing for symptomatic individuals as a means of identifying cases and contacts and thus limiting spread of the disease.

As society started to re-open and international travel started to reopen Boots recognised that more private services, for asymptomatic individuals wishing to determine their Covid-19 status and travel freely on foot of a negative result, were required. We worked relentlessly over a very short time period in late 2020 to implement the first private PCR testing service in community pharmacy in Ireland.

“Front and centre in our minds when developing the service was the need to protect colleagues who would deliver the service as well as other colleagues within the pharmacy. Detailed analysis of infection prevention and control measures, sourcing of high-quality PPE as utilised in the hospital setting (FFP2 masks, gowns, visors, gloves) and consideration for ventilation in the testing areas formed the very initial stages of the assessment of suitability of the pharmacy as a location for delivery of this much needed service. Risk assessments were carried out and risk mitigation measures implemented.

“We created a bespoke training programme to support out teams to deliver the service to the highest standards. Alongside this we implemented a robust system of accreditation for colleagues to ensure only those who successfully complete the programme and pass a series of competence assessments are authorised to deliver the service. Governance and professional standard requirements are outlined in a

series of SOPs and detailed result interpretation and communication guides are also provided to teams.

Recognising the need for minimal patient contact we have an almost entirely digital journey, the majority of which is completed by the patient outside of the pharmacy setting to minimise dwell time in the pharmacy. Working with a thirdparty provider, and in collaboration with the laboratory and the antigen test kit provider, we have a unique digital portal that allows scanning of a barcoded sample that is assigned to an individual patient to ensure accuracy of result reporting. Results and associated Certificates (including EU Digital Covid Certificates) are issued through this digital portal thus ensuring accuracy of reporting and efficiency in terms of result communication and Certification generation.

“It was imperative that our messaging was responsibly handled to ensure that only those eligible to attend store did so to prevent the spread of infection to other customers and Boots Ireland colleagues working in the store. This included criteria such as not having any symptoms when attending store for testing. It was also important that people understood that a negative antigen test did not mean that they could ignore the Government’s guidelines at the time. Therefore, time was spent to develop robust messaging and Q&A documents to guide communications ensuring that the eligibility to attend the store to access testing was adhered to.

“We feel that the innovative use of technology and digital solutions to facilitate more accessible care, the focus on designing and delivering a high quality, professional service,

underpinned by strong infection prevention and control measures and adherence to public health guidance, the execution of a very strong engagement plan at both national and regional levels and the long term engagement of our colleagues and customers is very deserving of the BOI Payment Acceptance (BOIPA) Innovation & Service Development (Chain) Award 2022.

The Award was given out on the night by Len Marshall, Head of Healthcare Development with Roche Diagnostics. He said, “Over the past number of years the profession has shown great innovation and agility in expanding the services that are offered. This includes services that support prevention, early detection, and management of chronic diseases such as diabetes.

“During the pandemic pharmacies remained open and, building on the experience with the Flu vaccination programme, became centres for Covid-19 vaccination. This award category recognises the pioneering pharmacy teams that have embraced this opportunity. Well done to all the finalists and most importantly, Boots Ireland on their fantastic win.”