Page 6 - DME Pharmacy, April 2021

women’s healthcare products, shares some insights and expertise.
IDEAL MARKET POSITION
To begin with, DME pharmacies are in a unique position to serve women’s DME/ HME needs. Assuming a community phar- macy has a good reputation for providing DME and HME products and services, they already have established a solid connec- tion with the women in their local market. Now they just have to follow through and be that primary resource for women.
“More than anything, women are seeking a trusted resource,” Jensen Says. “They want a compassionate, educated person who will listen and help them understand options. Women are also looking for one place to serve all their needs; they don’t want to go to several different locations if they can get everything they need on one stop.”
There are a variety of customer con- stituencies that pharmacies can better service by catering to care and product needs, such as those for mastectomy, ma- ternity and women’s compression needs.
MASTECTOMY
For starters, DME pharmacies are “uniquely positioned” to offer assistance to women before and after mastectomy surgery, according to Jensen.
“It’s possible these women are already customers using pharmacy services,” she says. “One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime, which sadly, is not expected to change anytime soon.”
Bearing that in mind, a pharmacy looking to help these clients should aim be a one-stop-shop for post-mastectomy patients. Now that the patient has found a friendly, reliable, supportive resource, the last thing she wants to do is have to go somewhere else for one single item. Simply by providing the full spectrum of post-mastectomy products, you are es- tablishing your pharmacy as a resource.
The more “central” products related to this group include post-mastectomy bras and prosthetics, but there is a wide variety of products and issues related to breast cancer patients that women’s healthcare providers should stock. Because those patients can be exposed to radiation treatment, there are various skincare product lines available to those patients. Wigs, hats, scarves and other
head coverings are also important to patients undergoing chemotherapy.
“As women prepare for mastectomy surgery, there are items she should have in advance to help make her recovery more comfortable,” Jensen says. “Items such as the Contour Flip pillow are very useful since women who’ve had mastec- tomy surgery will have limited range of motion using her arms or using her arms to get in and out of bed or rising from a seated position for several days.
“There’s also a need for wound man- agement,” she adds. “Women may need to resupply bandages and dressings for their surgical areas.”
MATERNITY
Obviously, new and expecting moms need a variety of products and services ranging from pregnancy support prod- ucts to breast pumps and everything
in between. So, this is a cornerstone women’s health category.
Furthermore, it represents a solid retail reimbursement category with a wide variety of products. And that list gets even larger if you factor in items such as infant nutrition. A pharmacy aiming to specialize in women’s healthcare should offer these items along with a wide array of other maternity- and baby-related products,
It’s worth noting that one of the more expensive maternity items, breast pumps, is a key maternity offering, but it is one that might trend increasingly toward retail purchase due to softening reimbursement rates. (Of course, new moms have been opting to purchase breast pumps when insurance hasn’t covered them for years.)
“Over the past few years, we’ve heard some of our members tell us the reim- bursement has been declining for breast pumps, so they wonder whether they want to continue offering them,” Jensen says. “For those people, I urge them to reconsider and call Essentially Women so
we can help you identify where you can make adjustments to your business model for breast pumps business. There are op- portunities to be successful in this area.”
COMPRESSION
Compression products, such as hosiery, socks and arm sleeves, are used for many reasons, from relieving pain to helping to prevent severe varicose veins and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Compression is also used in the treatment of lymphede- ma and in wound care.
Moreover, compression is a key women’s health offering with women rep- resenting the lion’s share of the market.
And compression needs are often re- lated to the previous categories, mastec- tomy and maternity. In fact, Jensen notes that as many as 40 percent of women who have experienced breast cancer will develop secondary lymphedema follow- ing cancer treatment.
“Women who’ve had lymph nodes removed as part of their treatment will be at higher risk,” he says. “Lymphedema can appear weeks, months or even years later. Treatment with prescribed gradient compression therapy will be needed.”
“Pharmacies are uniquely positioned because many patients, before they know what they lymphedema is, may be coming to your stores seeking wraps or sleeves to help control the swelling,” she adds.
It’s important to add that women buying compression products might need custom compression garments, or they might be prescribed overnight vs. daytime compression items. Also, most patients will be recommended to replace compression garments every six months since garments can get stretched out with use over time, Jensen adds.
The one thing to keep in mind is that even when prescribed, compression is almost always a retail product, except in some scenarios involving lymphedema.
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“More than anything, women are seeking a trusted resource. They want a compassionate, educated person who will listen and help them understand options.”
— Nikki Jensen, Essentially Women