Alum Maya Boguslawski receives an APhA Foundation Incentive Grant for a service to get patients from diagnosis to treatment — all in one pharmacy visit

By Logan Underwood

As the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped healthcare, Maya Boguslawski (PharmD ’23), then a student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy, watched community pharmacies step up like never before — providing critical testing, administering vaccines, and even delivering life-saving treatments. The experience opened her eyes to the evolving role of pharmacists and sparked an idea: What if pharmacies could take it even further?

After graduation, during her residency, Boguslawski turned that idea into action. With a 2024 Incentive Grant from the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation, Boguslawski launched a groundbreaking test-and-treat service that allows pharmacists to diagnose and prescribe treatment for common ailments — like COVID-19, flu, and strep throat—on the spot. By eliminating extra steps for patients and expanding the capabilities of community pharmacies, she’s helping to redefine the future of accessible healthcare.

“This was our chance to be the pioneers in a sense.”
—Maya Boguslawski

“A hot topic in the community pharmacy world over the last few years has been doing strep, flu, and COVID tests in the pharmacy and prescribing treatment the same day,” Boguslawski says. “This was our chance to be the pioneers in a sense.”

Mutual community benefits

After graduating from the School of Pharmacy, Boguslawski gravitated toward community pharmacy, landing a residency at Greenwood Pharmacy in Waterloo, Iowa. It was here that she worked with pharmacy leaders to design the service.

Boguslawski was initially drawn to the test-and-treat service because of its benefit to community pharmacies as well as their patients. It would bring in extra revenue for the pharmacy — a boon to community pharmacies, which typically run on thin margins due to reimbursement models — while increasing testing access for community members.

“With this service, patients can just walk in and get a test without an appointment or a trip to urgent care,” Boguslawski explains. “They can also get treatment that same day, so they don’t have to make another trip to another pharmacy to get the prescription.”

To utilize the service, a patient first schedules an appointment and pays an assessment fee. After completing a screening and detailing specific symptoms, a pharmacist reviews the information and determines whether a test should be administered. Depending on the results of the rapid test, the pharmacist prescribes treatment.

The system utilizes a cash-based point-of-care method, allowing patients with no insurance or high deductibles to find affordable care without ever billing an insurance company.

“The pharmacy had tried to get this kind of service going in the past, but they were just never able to fully get it off the ground,” Boguslawski says. “So, they saw this as their opportunity to do just that.”

Patients surveyed about their experience with the service saw its value, saying that it’s more convenient and quicker than a clinic visit. Boguslawski presented her findings through a poster at the annual APhA meeting last year and at a podium presentation at the Iowa Pharmacy Association, finding that colleagues were highly curious about the service.

“The presentation at the Iowa Pharmacy Association was pretty successful,” she says. “It was packed full — a lot of people came to see what I found from my project and listened to my results.”

Pioneering access

While Boguslawski’s implementation and evaluation project only spanned her residency, the infrastructure for test-and-treat service remains at Greenwood Pharmacy, and Boguslawski has carried the experience with her in her current role as an ambulatory care pharmacist at Southwest Health in Platteville, Wis.

“It’s helped me learn how to implement a service from start to finish,” Boguslawski says. “I’ve never had the opportunity to do that before.”

Besides learning how to conduct a research project and write a formal report, Boguslawski recognizes that the value of her project goes beyond her own personal benefit.

“This will help other pharmacies follow suit and enhance care for their patients.”
—Maya Boguslawski

With the research she’s conducted throughout her residency, she hopes that other pharmacists can implement test-and-treat services to expand healthcare access to more patients.

“It laid the groundwork for other pharmacists and other pharmacies to also implement this kind of service,” Boguslawski says. “They just didn’t know where to start and I think they were waiting for somebody else to do it. This will help other pharmacies follow suit and enhance care for their patients.”