Sales & Marketing

In the world of medications, we want patients to take their appropriately prescribed medications regularly to obtain the intended benefit. Is this done through compliance or adherence? The intent of the two terms is the same, but the spirit is entirely different. And it’s the spirit that counts in the end when leading patients to take their medications.

Dozens of conferences and events take place for physicians each year. Have trouble keeping track? Check out our events calendar! (And let us know if we've missed an event you think your peers would want to attend by emailing Martha Porado, [email protected]).

Dozens of conferences and events take place for pharmacy professionals each year. Have trouble keeping track? Check out our events calendar! (And let us know if we've missed an event you think your peers would want to attend.)

Make no mistake, as leaders, it is important to develop the people around us. This is not limited to support staff. It also includes helping to develop our peers and even the people we report to. When we develop people, we increase the overall capacity of the organization, and we instill an increased feeling of ownership with our team members.

Although when I started my journey in pharmacy, I had a pretty extensive health background, I knew nothing about pharmacy. The lack of knowledge about pharmacy and what pharmacists do remains one of the biggest challenges that we’re constantly working to overcome.

The days of ‘Command and Control’ – ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ – are long gone, and thankfully so. You don’t have to be the CEO to influence the culture of your organization or store. Everyone plays a part in the establishment of the work culture; the CEO simply sets the tone and encourages similar behaviours from every team member.

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.

Earlier in my career, I served on a team that was to develop new revenue streams for our pharmacies. Anything that was not traditional dispensing was labelled “clinical” and given to our team to work through. In those days, we set out to participate in as many of these projects as possible.