Optimize Pharmacy Operations
Reduce Operating Expenses, Improve Workflows and Enhance Patient Care
In today’s rapidly changing world of pharmacy, if your pharmacy is still operating the way it did 10 years ago, or even two years ago, it’s time to rethink your process. The pharmacy industry is changing faster than ever and adapting to change is critical to staying competitive.
At Independent Pharmacy Cooperative (IPC), we understand the challenges you face. High inventory costs, inconsistent workflows and patient adherence issues; these operational hurdles can drain your resources and limit your growth. What if you could implement changes that not only improve efficiency while having the full support of your staff?
Let’s revisit Pat. Pat has been struggling to keep up with the demands of running a pharmacy in today’s overwhelming and complex world. Pat struggles with persistent workflow issues like incorporation medication therapy management (MTM), pharmacy performance, staffing, separating maintenance filling and clinical service adequately. To grow the business, Pat knows they need to find ways to streamline these operations and reinvest those savings into new revenue streams.
With IPC as your partner, you gain access to the experts, tools and resources needed to drive inefficiency out of your business and create a streamlined, profitable operation.
What are the Key Challenges Impacting your Pharmacy’s Operations?
- High Inventory Costs: Excess inventory ties up capital and valuable shelf space. IPC can provide tools and strategies to optimize your inventory management, ensuring you have the right products in stock without overordering.
- Medication Adherence Issues: Poor adherence impacts patient outcomes and your reimbursement. IPC offers solutions to improve patient engagement and adherence, helping you build stronger relationships while boosting revenue.
- Inconsistent Workflows: Disjointed processes slow down operations and create frustration for your team. IPC’s experts work with you to identify roadblocks and help streamline workflows that increase productivity.
For Pat, it can be the struggles with incorporating MTM into the daily routine, or monitoring staffing during peak busy hours. These challenges hurt both the patient’s health outcomes and the pharmacy’s revenue. Pat’s team is overworked during peak hours and underutilized during slow times, a deadly combination to retaining staff. Creating more efficient workflows based on process standardization and patient demand will reduce bottlenecks and help improve morale and reduce stress.
How IPC Helps you Optimize Your Pharmacy Operations
IPC is committed to helping independent pharmacies like yours grow. Here is how we support your journey to excellence:
- Expert Guidance: IPC’s team has decades of experience to provide personalized advice and tailored strategies unique to your pharmacy’s needs.
- Cutting-Edge Tools: Inventory management software & workflow optimization tools, IPC experts are here to help you simplify your operations.
- Proven Resources: Best practices, CE trainings, and workflow optimizations can help your pharmacy operate efficiently while eliminating waste and enabling your staff to work smarter, not harder.
- Cost Savings: Eliminating inefficiencies can drive down operating expenses allowing you to reinvest into growing your business. IPC experts will help you go through your operations to better optimize efficiency.
Here is how IPC can support our pharmacy services team has a detailed process for improving workflows. The first step Pat took was to work with an IPC expert to map out existing workflows to identify inefficiencies, gather data to measure bottlenecks and inefficiencies and solicit feedback from staff and patients about service and wait times. IPC will help Pat implement solutions that standardize procedures for common tasks, improve communication through regular meetings and clear protocols and foster a culture of continuous improvement involving staff in brainstorming sessions to improve operations. IPC can help Pat balance workloads, introduce new technology and help train and develop staff to clarify roles and responsibilities and maximize the use of their skills.
Why IPC is the Right Partner to Optimize Your Pharmacy Operations
We understand the challenges you face because IPC is led by pharmacy owners just like you. We have an amazing group of people looking to help you thrive in your pharmacy. That’s why we built operational strategies and solutions that meet you where you are:
- Reduce operating expenses through process improvements
- Improve workflows to reduce variability and increase efficiency
- Enhance patient care through adherence program implementation
We know owning a pharmacy is hard and it is critical that you have the right partner. Take the first step to understand how IPC can deliver the right solutions to optimize your operations for your store and your patients, giving you the Freedom to Pharm.
Your Next Steps
At IPC, we are committed to empowering our member stores through defined strategies in key areas of your business.
Financial Clarity
Some people have a knack for being able to read a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet. Many, however, find it hard to digest all the data to understand what it means to the health of their business. Most find it is easier to just look at their bank account.
How much more confident would you be if you understood your financial statements and how they can help you make better decisions?
Team Empowerment
You can’t do it alone and yet you’re not sure how to get your team fully engaged. Sometimes they’re excited and committed and other times they are just going through the motions. Leadership and management are skills just like any other and it’s time to shed your self-doubt.
If your team were fully engaged, leaving you with time to work “on” your business and not “in” your business, where would you focus?
Purchasing Power
Does this sound familiar? Your wholesaler rep keeps telling you to be more compliant. And you need to buy the lowest price to make sure it is less than what you’re reimbursed. And you’re shopping your wholesaler and secondaries everyday hunting for the best price.
What if you could do all three with less stress and reduce your costs?
Growth and Expansion
Growing your pharmacy means different things to different owners. It could be adding new patients from the nursing home nearby or increasing the number of immunizations you give each year or expanding into 340B. Additional growth opportunities include telemedicine, medical-at-home services, clinical services, and even OTC and retail merchandising.
Do you need a partner to help identify how you should expand your pharmacy model?
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