- 10/28/2024
Ever find yourself working harder than you need to in the process of buying something for your pharmacy? When choosing a vendor, I have learned that I prefer to do business with those I can communicate with, which is a nice way of saying that I do not have to babysit them.
- 10/22/2024
The good old pharmacy model saw the pharmacist as the firefighter and the architect, with burnout waiting around the corner. This one-person band put out fires and built buildings. However, since pharmacy is much more complex today, we find that the traditional jack-of-all-trades pharmacist divided into two different people.
- 10/15/2024
Across years of experience practising pharmacy, a pharmacist may go through a natural incline in ego during a steep initial learning phase, followed by a plateau. Here pharmacists have seen many of the more intense challenges already and the number of new headaches flattens out. Finally, towards approximately the last third of the pharmacists’ career, they begin feeling less driven by ego and let the problems around them simmer or settle.
- 10/8/2024
The problem with pharmacy is that it is all practice. It is training without race day. The daily grind offers much of the same training as it did the day before. After a short time, we become jaded. We practise with repetitive questions, monotonous problems, completing the daily-weekly-monthly tasks and draft endless calendars.
- 10/8/2024
Pharmacy can learn from a world-class Finnish education system by bringing more prestige, calibre and preparedness to our managers. We can also creatively find ways to make the job more fun and autonomous. We can also shift to treating our lowest skilled staff to their potential instead of their current status quo.
- 9/24/2024
In pharmacy, the iceberg principle will apply at each step of promotion along the various dispensary or head office jobs. This will also apply in the change from managerial to ownership roles. We can only see what we understand and the truth hits home when we finally step inside.
- 9/17/2024
We are pharmacists. We are not lawyers. We are not real estate agents. However, that does not mean we are void of negotiating. Whether we are explaining a co-pay to a patient, signing an agreement with an employer, buying a pharmacy or making a staff schedule, there are parts of the pharmacist’s day where we just have to pull up our pants and negotiate.
- 9/9/2024
When I realized that patients want and expect their medication experts to guide many of their choices, I began putting effort into developing workflow that would reduce the number of times patients visited or called for interactions that did not require the pharmacist.
- 9/3/2024
Being a striker, regardless of how good, gave me an identity and I quickly realized how important it is for people to have jobs. When pharmacists try to do everything themselves, they take someone else’s job. When we fail at delegating, we accidentally take purpose and importance away from others. Not only does this mitigate the impact the multi-tasking pharmacist can make, but also blunts what others have to offer on the team.
- 8/27/2024
The act of having someone in charge, responsible for the overall pharmacy operation, gives everyone structure, which is a foundational element of humans to build anything. Once this is established, the operators of any dispensary have someone to go to with problems, instead of living in the anxious environment of not knowing if or when their concerns will be resolved.
- 8/20/2024
The way you leave a pharmacy will speak volumes to your character. Although many good things that you do will go unnoticed and other things will potentially become inflamed, you will sleep well at night knowing you left the place in the best spot possible. At the very least, you can set up a long-term schedule, ensure staff cross-training and provide a list of lead candidates. You will leave the pharmacy better than when you entered years ago.
- 8/13/2024
The process of ending someone’s employment is a brutal one for everyone. However, our role is to take ownership of the process and outcome while leading everyone through it with respect and clarity.
