And just like that, here we are — the end of the year. You’ve successfully run the gauntlet of Halloween, the turkey madness of Thanksgiving, and the month-long marathon of the December holiday season.
A year of pharmacy work is full of highs, lows, and everything in between. You deserve to reflect on the past 12 months and appreciate all the strides you’ve made in the industry.
The New Year season — that little stretch after Christmas and before January 1 — brings a wave of retrospection, and rightfully so. Be proud of the work you and your pharmacy have done.
However, don’t sit on your laurels for too long. The pharmacy industry is a fast-moving one that rewards proactiveness and foresight.
What better way to look ahead than by setting some New Year’s' resolutions?
New Year’s resolutions are the perfect way to set the tone for the incoming year. Though you should definitely be ambitious with your resolutions, make sure you’re putting the work in.
There’s no phoning it in when it comes to pharmacy work. It’s everything or nothing with this industry.
Here are some New Year’s resolutions ideas for your independent pharmacy.
We’ve all been there. We all wish we could keep our homes or bedrooms nice and tidy throughout the year. It takes us a few seconds to make our bed in the morning, so why don’t many of us take the time to do so?
The same idea applies to your independent pharmacy. It’s easy to get swept away from your pharmacy’s tidiness during the work day. Pharmacy work is fast-paced, and hectic, demanding your undivided attention.
However, keeping your independent pharmacy clean is vital to its success.
As we mentioned in a previous blog, customers do in fact judge a book by its cover. And it makes sense: patients want to get their medications from a place that’s clean, neat, and tidy.
Patients will turn the other way if your pharmacy is a dusty, cluttered mess — no matter how many vaccines or clinical services you offer.
Clean your shelves, neatly arrange those shelves, keep your bottles properly aligned so they’re easy to find, vacuum regularly, and take out the trash at the end of every day.
It might feel like extra work in the beginning, but it’ll become easier as time goes on. Clean your pharmacy on a more consistent basis, not when it’s time for deep cleaning.
Your pharmacy shelves are not the only thing that can become cluttered. Your patients’ profiles can be filled with years’ worth of insurance plans, manufacturer coupons, and discount cards.
This usually happens because there isn’t time to deactivate old insurance plans. As we said, pharmacy work is fast-paced, so cleaning up a patient’s profile can feel like you’re flooring the breaks.
However, cleaning up profiles at the beginning of the year will make future fills a much smoother process.
What’s more, some pharmacy software systems automatically process the insurance plan used on the previous fill. That old insurance claim will of course reject the claim, which could prevent the prescription from being filled.
Save yourself that major headache by putting that new insurance plan in your patient’s profile and erasing the digital clutter in the process.
Go further by applying the card to the rest of their family. Everything should be (relatively) smoother sailing from here.
Clean room, clean pharmacy, clean profile — you got it all.
Uncertain times are a perfect catalyst for innovation.
Even with the best pharmacy software system, you need to handle certain situations at a moment’s notice. Your ability to embrace the unknown is your best asset.
As the leader of your independent pharmacy, you’re in charge of its trajectory. Things are constantly changing in the industry, and by now you know that that’s something worth embracing.
The pharmacy trends of 2023 will be different from what they were in 2022. Keep your ear to the ground as to where the industry is going. They might be focused on clinical services, automation, or even mail-order prescriptions.
Or they might be the exact opposite. In any event, embracing the unknown is a key component to an independent pharmacy’s success.
You can’t improve on something unless you know what you have.
Owning an independent pharmacy is always a work in progress. No pharmacy is perfect, but the pursuit of perfection makes it all worth it.
That pursuit begins with truly knowing your pharmacy’s strengths. Your pharmacy staff — especially your pharmacy technicians — are what help propel your pharmacy forward. They each have a unique approach to pharmacy work.
Use that to your advantage. Work to their strengths instead of making them follow a stringent system.
That’s what makes independent pharmacies stand out: you can do things your way. You can turn the mundane into the unforgettable.
Practicing gratitude is one of the best New Year’s resolutions, so set the right tone by appreciating what you currently have. Then you can move forward in innovating.
More often than not, New Year’s resolutions ended up being failed experiments. You either overestimated how much work a certain resolution would take or life simply got in the way.
The best way to fulfill your New Year’s resolutions is to be consistent. Progress is slow, tedious, and never noticeable in the moment. However, sticking to the routine is more fulfilling than any short-term convenience.
Stick to the routine and see your New Year’s resolutions through as you make the New Year the greatest one yet.
