Pharmacy U news

Many years ago, I was building out a network of pharmacists to serve as “MTM specialists.” These pharmacists were being used to address a specific group of patients whose problems were going to be very challenging.

We love superheroes and villains because they are unique in their clear identity. We understand their strengths, their weaknesses and what makes them special. Why should you be any different?

I struggled for a long time with the idea of “winning.” A big part of the struggle came from my definition of winning. I confused dominating with winning.

Most pharmacist-owners are more concerned with running their businesses than with planning how to get out of them. Yet inevitably, the day will come when you realize it is time to turn the equity in your pharmacy into capital.

On the surface, for many pharmacists meeting a customer’s needs might mean filling an Rx accurately with the appropriate counselling, but the more important benefit is not necessarily the patient’s stated purpose.

In any given hour the always accessible, no-appointment needed, world’s number one trusted health care provider has phones ringing, patients in the aisles looking for recommendations, patients waiting in the counselling room for vaccines, deliveries arriving.

The greatest threat to pharmacy practice today is in pharmacists maintaining their relevancy to both patients and payers. While we are becoming less necessary for technical work and checking prescriptions, our other role as “counselling” on medications can also easily become obsolete.

The mouth is literally a viral factory, and it is the gateway to the rest of the body. Indeed, gum disease, otherwise known as periodontitis, has now been shown to be a better predictor of COVID-19 severity than a patient's age. This is HUGE.