-
Retail Disruption Coming – Around the Corner and Around the World
I2P has always given direction for community pharmacy well in advance of the actual events liable to be disruptive or transformative. About four years ago we set out to define a “new paradigm pharmacy” that would cater for the needs of a community pharmacy and to include an emphasis on clinical services and the smart…
-
Consumerism, health care costs and patient-centred “homes”
Health objectives in Australia are shifting from fee for service models to capitation models in a bid to simultaneously improve quality and reduce costs. The idea of a patient-centred “home” led by a doctor is touted as the principal model of care. i2P has always pointed to the fact that any business model led by…
-
Three Bioethicists Critical of Pharmacy Retailing
Three bioethicists have combined to criticise the concept of community pharmacy conducting retail front of shop activities, while simultaneously working in the best interests of the patient. Their comments are published in Croakey here. The bioethicists, Wendy Lipworth, Christopher Mayes and Ian Kerridge (all medical academics attached to the University of Sydney) discuss what is…
-
Onboarding – a Key Word to Learn for Your Future Profitability
In planning resources for a pharmacy I often pose the question: “Which of the two resources of staff and patients is the most important, and what must be budgeted for first?” Seems a bit of a rhetorical question and if you answered “patients” both times you are technically wrong. If you do not have a…
-
The Starting Points for Change – Education and Cultural Adjustment
Most people working in community pharmacies recognise that there is a need to change. But the change needed is so broad that the starting point remains hidden. What needs to be changed? How do we achieve change? And how do we go about it? The essential starting point is a progressive change in culture and…
-
Good Pharmacy Practice – It solves the Problems of Moving Forward
Pharmacy Practice is undergoing a review process in Australia because the primary source of income (the PBS) for community pharmacy has reached the end of its life-cycle. The future of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme indeed looks bleak so re-modelling of dispensing services is unavoidable. Many aspects of Australian pharmacy practice have been one of the best…
-
For Future Growth & Stability – Add an Advisory Board
Pharmacy Practice requires a clearly defined infrastructure (physical and conceptual) before the product of a pharmacy practice can be delivered. Since the bottom of the last pharmacy business cycle in 2012 there has been a general realisation that pharmacy culture must change to a new paradigm and deliver a new end product – but a…
-
Throw The Map Away And Just Use The Compass
One of my hobbies is genealogy and I find it deeply satisfying when I can apply some areas of this discipline to my professional activities. For example, the origin of surnames for when I am involved in a formal interview, I will often use the patient’s surname as a conversation starter by asking the patient…
-
A Patient’s Real Cost – Their time Involvement and a future cause for health system collapse
For some time we have seen media references portraying GP’s as overworked, becoming more stressed and now being underpaid due to the freezing of Medicare rebates. It seems GP’s have now been put on the same treadmill as pharmacists. Welcome to the real world that we pharmacists already inhabit! But what is not identified within…
-
Do You Promote Free Advice?
Frequently there is a lament recycled by pharmacy commentators that the business model for community pharmacy has relied on providing services through the margins received for recommended products. That model is still a valid part of community pharmacy culture, except that it has not been appropriately adjusted to counter market changes that have occurred over…