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The Patient Proposition
I am wondering if there are any pharmacists out there who have ever created a written proposal to recruit patients to your practice. The reason I ask is that so many pharmacists in their communications with each other or with other health professionals, talk in terms of having “customers”, with the word “patient” appearing spasmodically…
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Developing a Single Patient View
From the last business cycle to the current version, pharmacists and community pharmacies have undergone some profound experiences and rapid change. The transition to now is leaving in its wake a sense of indecision and while many opportunities have arisen to improve pharmacist skills and community pharmacy development, only a small number of talented individuals…
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Micro-practice – Future Direction for Pharmacy
I2P has long proposed that pharmacy attracts two types of consumers – customers and patients. A little reflection will resolve this issue because clearly, customers will be attracted to the more commercialised aspects of pharmacy that compete with retailing in general, and the reason why pharmacists see their major competitors as supermarkets and variety stores.…
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Do we exclude our oldest customers?
People over the age of 85 are significantly more likely to suffer social exclusion than those in the 65 to 85-year-old bracket, according to new research. We know that a loss of social contact can damage physical and mental health, and furthermore, older people are more likely to need care from external providers. Let’s look…
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The Opportunity Cost of Waiting
A recent report published by Harvard Medical School highlighted the following patient cost in attending a medical appointment:Total time involvement….121 minutes; which broke down to Travel time….37 minutes and Clinic time……84 minutes. Within the clinic time segment, only 20 minutes was spent with the doctor. Those figures, extrapolated to represent the entire US population amounted to…
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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…
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Four trends that will drive future health policy – PGA analysis
A recent bulletin was issued by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia (PGA) that gave an insight into the thinking behind the 7CPA preparation that will commence shortly. i2P thought that this would be an excellent point in time to contribute comment in a constructive manner. Hopefully a “think-tank” process may evolve where input can be…
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Your Dispensary – Core Business Could Evaporate
This year will be “crunch time” for most community pharmacies who have not yet decided on adopting disruptive technologies as a means of improving the “bottom line” of their pharmacy. I am thinking specifically the decision to purchase a robotic dispensing machine. It is almost a “no-brainer”. Robotic dispensing equipment has been available to pharmacy…
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The Lessons From History – From Someone Who Has Lived It
Two weeks ago we published an article called Make the Right Turn at the Next Crossroads . It was based on a story written by a senior US pharmacist named Truman Lastinger and published in the US magazine, Drug Topics. Because Truman Lastinger and I are of similar vintage I could strongly identify with the period…
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Understanding the Impacts of a Global Pharmacy Invasion
Recently, i2P ran some articles postulating the expansion strategies of global supermarket and pharmacy groups. It is a story of consolidation of the pharmacy industry, both horizontally and vertically to form up massive conglomerates that concentrate purchasing power and market share of retail pharmacy goods and services. And it is a story that is mostly…