Pharmacy U news

What if we viewed dispensing robots and RPhTs as a launching pad for a cognitive-service-based future for our profession? By freeing up our time, we can do more of what we do a better job at. You know, being the pharmacotherapy experts within the healthcare system.

If you have ever seen a late-night infomercial on television, you may have encountered a product that was so amazing and so easy to use that all you had to do was “set it and forget it.” While that phrase may sell product in late night infomercials, it most definitely does not apply to the pharmacies.

High performance teams need a strong leader, but it can be difficult to be a leader. Nobody ever teaches us as pharmacists what being a real leader is all about. True leadership is the ability to communicate with and effectively reach each person on your team.

If you are planning to exit your pharmacy business, you need a good team of advisors on your side. It should include an accountant, a corporate lawyer, a tax expert and a financial advisor, but the single most important member is the team lead – a “quarterback” who will ensure the players are working together and who will represent your interests from start to finish.

Many people, including myself, believed at one point that patients were very much like a cup. The education provided would be like the liquid filling up the cup. Once the cup got filled to a certain level, like a switch, the patient would begin to do everything correctly.

As practising pharmacists, we talk with patients suffering from IBS many days. Or, more accurately, we try to talk with these patients, with varying success. Patients really do not want to talk about it, they have been down this road too many times, they have tried so many different things and here they are again.

Pharmacists face leadership challenges from every angle. Staff, customers, prescribers, vendors, and you cannot overlook family. Pharmacists are challenged to lead all these groups (and others) and they all have different requirements.

All babies are beautiful – to their parents. It can be the same with a business. After spending years, even decades, building their pharmacy, surviving through the hard times and celebrating the good, many owners have a difficult time seeing their “baby” for what it truly is.