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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…
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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…
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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…
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Mean girls who impede the success of other women
Editor’s Note: My generation has long lived with the concept of the “glass ceiling” for women in senior management positions and as pharmacy owners. I have never personally felt that I was discriminatory against women in any workplace situation that I was involved with, but I guess that is really for others to judge. But…
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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…
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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…
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Digital Nomads – Providing Clinical Services That Appeal
There’s a growing opportunity that is emerging among professionals who are adapting to a nomadic lifestyle. You don’t have to be “grey” to qualify for the lifestyle – and it can accommodate any age. It does however, require a full confidence in your knowledge base and have some tech-savvy skills in addition. Welcome to the…
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Health Care Dissatisfaction
GE Healthcare Camden Group and Prophet on Wednesday published the results of a study that found about 81% of the people they surveyed are dissatisfied with their health care experience. While this is a US study i2P believes that a similar situation exists here in Australia. The study also found a gap between what providers…
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A Pharmacy Clinical Service Model – Innovating and Adapting from Others
Recently, in my capacity as a management consultant, I was asked to review some policies for a security company I had an association with, in a health capacity. Security guards, because of their continual work during the night and early mornings, suffer from health problems related to their interrupted circadian rhythms. The first casualty is…
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A Happy Workplace is also a Profitable Business Environment
A happy workplace is one that is characterised by good leadership generating good policies, forward planning and capital recruitment, with all of that activity interpreted by good managers. Note that I use the word “interpret” for managers whose primary function is simply to make good decisions. Words can sometimes be misleading and if they ambiguously…