If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you need to innovate.
Coming up with an innovative idea for your pharmacy can be difficult. If you’ve ever spent hours with a blank piece of paper trying to brainstorm, searched the web for inspiration, or sat in a meeting trying to encourage your staff to suggest new ideas, you know just how hard it can be.
When it comes to innovation in your pharmacy, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. Instead, look at what other independent community pharmacies, big box retailers and even other industries are doing, and adapt their innovative ideas to fit your pharmacy.
Here are a few innovative approaches to consider.
1. Expand your services
One way to reinvent your pharmacy is to change the way you think about what you offer patients. Instead of thinking of your business primarily as a dispenser of goods, think of your pharmacy as a service provider.
Consider providing a new service, such as diabetes counseling, to expand the value you offer patients. That way instead of just dispensing insulin, you can also help patients better manage diabetes through education and advice.
Another way to add a new service is to work with a partner, such as Creative Pharmacist, a company that provides clinical pharmacy solutions designed to help pharmacies improve patient outcomes and find new revenue streams.
Creative Pharmacist provides pharmacies with all of the resources and tools they need to start innovative programs, including diabetes education, heart health and asthma and COPD programs.
2. Reinvent your aisles
Your pharmacy’s aisles are a great place to try a new innovation.
Start by offering a new type of product, such as local honey, handcrafted gifts, and other natural or local items. These product categories can set your pharmacy apart from big box retailers and connect your business to the community.
Plus, updating your ends caps with new products, or rearranging your aisles to feature a selection of seasonal items, can refresh your front end and keep patients interested in discovering what new items your pharmacy has to offer.
3. Leverage partnerships
Working with your pharmacy’s partners can keep your independent community pharmacy at the forefront of innovation.
Reach out to your partners, especially local physicians and area businesses, to promote community health, select front-end merchandise and improve patient outcomes.
Working with your partners is a great way to generate unique, innovative health programs, charity events or community outreach projects that will benefit your pharmacy and your partners.
4. Update your workflow
Reimagining your pharmacy’s workflow can make your day-to-day procedures more innovative.
Look for ways to reduce the chance for error, improve the patient experience and increase efficiency. If you’re interested in completely overhauling your pharmacy’s workflow, consider incorporating new technology, such as robotics.
While you use your workflow standards to fill prescriptions everyday, it’s likely that you haven’t refreshed them in a while. Regularly reviewing your workflow procedures will help you stay up-to-date with the latest pharmacy innovations and standards.
5. Embrace technology
Innovative technology can set your pharmacy apart.
Whether you’re offering patients a new way to pay with mobile payments and chip cards, or just updating your knowledge about the latest health and wellness apps, technology is constantly changing, and offers a prime opportunity for innovation.
Cutting-edge technology enables your pharmacy to offer patients services such as pharmacogenetic testing, to determine if certain medications will work with that specific patient’s genetic makeup. This is an innovation that is simple for independent pharmacies to adopt, and it can help patients find the best medication suited for them.
Follow our series!
Stay up-to-date with our series on innovation. Each installment discusses a different aspect of innovation, including the need for it and the challenges you might face when trying to innovate at your pharmacy.
Pharmacy Innovation Part 1: Why It’s Important to Innovate
Pharmacy Innovation Part 2: Challenges of Innovation
Pharmacy Innovation Part 3: Innovative Ideas for Your Pharmacy
Pharmacy Innovation Part 4: Habits of Innovative Thinkers
A Member-Owned Company Serving Independent Pharmacies
PBA Health is dedicated to helping independent pharmacies reach their full potential on the buy-side of their business. Founded and owned by pharmacists, PBA Health serves independent pharmacies with group purchasing services, wholesaler contract negotiations, proprietary purchasing tools, and more.
An HDA member, PBA Health operates its own NABP-accredited secondary wholesaler with more than 6,000 SKUs, including brands, generics, narcotics CII-CV, cold-storage products, and over-the-counter (OTC) products — offering the lowest prices in the secondary market.
