Pharmacy: A Prescription That Works!

Strategic Retail Consulting


The Pharmacy, like most other areas of the store, can be re-engineered to reduce operating costs, increase revenue, improve inventory management and improve customer service. By focusing on five critical focal points, retailers can achieve great results in their pharmacy.

1 - Operational Excellence
To optimize operational efficiency, improve customer service, and minimize operating costs, utilize best practices such as:
  • Ergonomic workspace layout
  • "Speed Shelves" and "Fast Mover Endcaps"
  • On-line inter-pharmacy communications system
  • Prescription sequencing
  
2 - Staffing and Labor Management
Match staffing level and staffing mix with appropriate customer flow by day of week and hour of day to provide consistent and cost effective service by:
  • Defining and establishing performance standards for each task
  • Ensuring appropriate pharmacist to clerk ratio
  • Implementing automated scheduling

Provide appropriate levels of education, information, and coaching in order to develop the skills of technicians and the effectiveness and service skills of pharmacists. Successful programs include:
  • Contemporary procedures training manual
  • Coaching and leadership training
  • Reward and compensation programs
  • Spirit of continuous improvement

Improve turns of on-­hand inventory, reduce investment in non­productive inventory and improve effectiveness of order process. This can be achieved through:
  • Improving and automating the order process through accurate demand forecasting
  • Proactively utilizing item movement reports
  • Evaluating distribution system needs

5 - Revenue Enhancement
Increase same store weekly script volume and ticket amounts, and improve cross-selling of HBC/GM products with prescription sales. Some approaches include:
  • Synchronizing in-store frequent customer program and pharmacy database
  • Automating the marketing of pharmacy service to targeted health care providers
  • Providing customer reminders for refill or lapsed prescriptions

Typical program results include:
  • Increase in script volume and overall revenue by 8% -12%
  • Improved productivity I scripts per hour
  • Decreased labor costs of 3% - 6%
  • Quantifiable and improved customer satisfaction
  • Improved employee satisfaction and reduced turnover

For more information on this topic contact Pat Fitzpatrick at Atlanta Retail Consulting Inc