Pharmacy

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.

Full disclosure: I am not now, nor was I ever, a pharmacist. But as they say: ‘some of my best friends are pharmacists’ and I sure got to know hundreds—thousands?—of pharmacists and their teams over my 27 years in pharmacy. I was proud and privileged to be entrusted with the leadership of an independent community retail pharmacy brand.

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.

First, pharmacists need expansion of their scope so they can run the clinic portion and leave the dispensing to the RPhT. I believe we need to ensure the public is aware of the abilities of both pharmacy professionals, allowing the changes to be accomplished.