- 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.
- 8/6/2024
Who knows where your next pharmacy hire will come from? People are our biggest investment yet we have little time to spend on dissecting résumés, making cold calls and conducting lame interviews. Over 15 years of being a pharmacist responsible for building teams, I have come to appreciate three ridiculously simple common traits familiar to the best staff that stuck.
- 7/30/2024
Thinking about pharmacy as the balance of taxi and Uber allows the big shifts to organically happen over time. It allows us to maintain the past and build the future while handholding the customer through the changes that affect their pharmacy visit experience.
- 7/23/2024
Your job is to create the systems and structures paired with people and resources that shift the balance of your prescription count as far to the predictable side as possible. Invest time and energy into knowing your patients and predicting what they need, when they need it and constantly scan for patient groups that can be standardized like synchronizing your monthly injectables and monthly blister co-pays.
- 7/16/2024
The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is most recently linked to social media but I believe it can be applied to a wider spectrum in an effort to support pharmacy leaders in their everyday lives. FOMO is an anxiety that an exciting event is occurring without us, flushing our brains with a depressed mood.
- 7/9/2024
Over the past two years, I have journaled about the anecdotes and lessons from over a decade of managing small and larger pharmacy teams, across corporate and independent models, both from retail and long-term-care. Across the multitude of journal entries, 7 key characteristics (which I call dimensions) show up recurrently. Enunciating them with very specific adjectives and placing them in an acronym allowed me to understand what to strive for in showing up for my patients, team and business.
