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Services for life

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Services for life

In the first in a mini-series of articles about services, Numark’s service development manager Amanda Bell explains how to expand on the essential services currently provided to help further enhance patient loyalty and increase profitability

 

The Public Health England website, www.apho.org.uk, provides data on geographical health issues. And consider your competitors – what are they doing and could you, or should you, compete with them? What could you offer that they don’t, and will it bring new customers into your pharmacy?

Next, think about who you will be targeting. Are you going to extend beyond the pharmacy? Can you take the service to local businesses or set up a clinic especially for them? You may want to consider offering a commissioned service. If this is the case, be proactive, talk to your local area teams and find out what services are being commissioned locally and how you can get involved.

Resource and skill mix

Assuming that you have identified the service that could be viable from the patient and stakeholder perspective, do you have the infrastructure in place to deliver that service? What training do you and your team need? Remember your counter team plays a very important role in identifying candidates for your service, so providing them with the skills to engage patients is essential.

Can you manage the workflow effectively? How would you structure your business to ensure that you have the appropriate resource in the right place to help free up your time? All these are important considerations prior to embarking on your chosen service.

You need to consider your cost versus return model and understand how many patients you need to turn a profit. Ensure you consider your set-up costs in this.

Services should be on top of your agenda

If you have to employ a locum, would this make commercial sense and, even if it does, what impact would this have on your customers? Does it have to be you that delivers the service, or could you train a member of your team to do it?

Developing relationships

It is important to build stakeholder relationships with local health communities, especially your GPs. Contact your local practices and talk to them about your plans.

Establish how you can collaborate to provide the best outcomes for your patients. Discuss with them how they would like referrals made.

If you engage stakeholders early on, they are more likely to support you and your service, and some may even refer patients on to you.

Marketing and promoting your service is vital to ensure its success. The more noise you make, the more people will hear and the more custom you will generate. But reaching the right audience is more important than
making a big splash. Consider how you can identify the most appropriate people and which third party organisations can help you. It can also be useful to tie in the launch of a service to national promotional campaigns when there is heightened public awareness – for instance, diabetes awareness campaigns or ‘Know your numbers’ for blood pressure.
Once you have decided on the start date, promote your service with marketing materials such as posters, leaflets, bag stuffers and shelf talkers.

You could also contact your local paper or radio station; explain what you are doing and how it will benefit the local community. You might want to consider a ‘case study’ once you have the service up and running about a patient who is willing to explain their experience.

What next?

Enthusiasm is infectious, so use your own passion for providing the service to motivate the team. Ensure that your successes are shared – it is rewarding to feel that you are making a difference. So when you find that person with high blood pressure who would never have visited their GP without your intervention, let the team know.

This is what you should consider to ensure you maximise your service’s potential:

  • Research your demographic to establish viability
  • Involve all key stakeholders and your pharmacy team
  • Know your competition and ensure that your service can compete, be that on price or service
  • Think outside the box – you could go to the local community centre and offer diabetes screening, perhaps on a coffee morning
  • The success of a service depends on marketing, so shout about what you are doing
  • Identify which services are being commissioned through pharmacy and liaise with your local area teams to understand how you can make the most of commissioning opportunities
  • Don’t forget your service should be profitable – always consider the commercial implications before you begin.
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