Case Study: Capital Chemist Wanniassa – Delivering Valuable Professional Services Develops Community Trust

Patient engagement surveys conducted by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia have shown that pharmacists are one of Australia’s most trusted healthcare professionals.i Developing community trust is key to the successful implementation of Professional Services in your pharmacy. The trust your patient community has in your pharmacy can be directly attributed to your staff and their ability to deliver Professional Services that the community values.

“People trust the white coats” said Elise Apolloni, Pharmacist and Partner – Capital Chemist Wanniassa.ii

It is this trust that is key to the success of Professional Services delivery in Capital Chemist Waniassa Pharmacy which was awarded both Professional Services Innovation Category winner and GuildCare Pharmacy of the Year winner. During an interview with GuildLink, Pharmacy Partners Elise Apolloni and Honor Penprase outlined three influencing factors that led their patients to trust their white coat staff as primary healthcare professionals, and enables them to focus on the delivery of valuable Professional Services. These are:

Educated and knowledgeable Pharmacy staff
Capital Chemist Wanniassa employs 25 people, mostly pharmacists and intern pharmacists. As a Professional Services focused pharmacy, all pharmacist staff are encouraged to conduct Professional Services as part of their daily work flow.iii As part of this ethos, Capital Chemist Wanniassa is committed to ensuring staff receive training and education in relation to key Professional Services which strengthens the offering of their pharmacy. For example, the pharmacy sent a number of pharmacists to Melbourne to become Asthma educators, whilst other staff are qualified diabetes educators.iv Outside of clinical training Elise and Honor are dedicated to ensuring that all staff are coached to conduct Professional Services using the same process, ensuring that patient engagement with Capital Chemist Wanniassa is seamless and professional.v The winning combination of professional processes and clinical knowledge ensure that Capital Chemist Wanniassa staff embody the trusted white coat.

Integrating Professional Services into the everyday care provided to patients
To determine the Professional Services needs of the patient, pharmacists at Capital Chemist Wanniassa work questions into every engagement with patients. As well as ensuring a caring angle to their patient engagement, this empowers pharmacist staff to approach Professional Services recommendations with the trust of the patient, meaning the services are more likely to be taken up by the patient. Elise quantifies this in an interview with The Guild outlining that “we want all our customers to leave the pharmacy feeling like they have received a ‘health hug’”.vi

Encourage health focused team culture
During a business workshop presentation at this year’s APP conference Elise outlined that team culture has a lot to do with their enthusiasm for Professional Services, saying “We wanted to be a pharmacy that is recognised as having the most passionate and educated pharmacy health experts in Canberra.”vii This passion and desire to be the most educated and professional pharmacy team in their region is a culture that encourages trust from their patients.

The white coats staff are the trusted face of Professional Services at Capital Chemist Wanniassa and GuildCare is the tool that helps drive their success. In an interview with the Australian Journal of Pharmacy, Elise highlighted GuildCare as a primary tool used in pharmacy when delivering Professional Services.viii Elise and Honor believe you need to be able to record and save the interventions and services conducted as this provides the patient and pharmacy a valuable record of services. “Don’t know how you can’t have a recording software… it gives you good structure around what you have to do.” said Eliseix

Launched at APP 2017, the new GuildCare NG has been designed to improve the way Pharmacists deliver Professional Services in-pharmacy. The new platform keeps patients at the centre of every Professional Services interaction, giving both the Pharmacists and the patient a clear and overall picture of the patient’s health, dispense and services history. This encourages a stronger Pharmacist to patient relationship and further enables an experience of trust in the mind of the patients.

Discover how the new GuildCare NG can help you deliver better Professional Services through your trusted white coat staff at ng.guildcare.com.au.

References

iGuild Fact Sheet – Vital Facts on Community Pharmacy, https://www.guild.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020
/12908/vital-facts-on-community-pharmacy.pdf
iiInterview with Guildlink – Elise Apolloni and Honor Penprase , Capital Chemist Wanniassa, 22 December 216
iiiWinner – Pharmacy Guild POTY – Professional Services Innovation, AJP Interview with Elise Apollini, https://ajp.com.au/app/winner-pharmacy-guild-poty-professional-services-innovation/
ivWinner – Pharmacy Guild POTY – Professional Services Innovation, AJP Interview with Elise Apollini, https://ajp.com.au/app/winner-pharmacy-guild-poty-professional-services-innovation/
vDouble Win: Capital Chemist Wanniassa on their GuildCare POTY Award, AJP Interview with Elise Apollini, https://ajp.com.au/app/double-win-capital-chemist-wanniassa-guildcare-poty-award/
viElise Apolloni, Interview with Pharmacy Guild of Australia, December 2016
viiElise Apolloni, Business Workshop: How patient insights drive business growth, APP 2017 – 11 March 2017
viiiDouble Win: Capital Chemist Wanniassa on their GuildCare POTY Award, AJP Interview with Elise Apollini, https://ajp.com.au/app/double-win-capital-chemist-wanniassa-guildcare-poty-award/
ixInterview with Guildlink – Elise Apolloni, Capital Chemist Wanniassa, 22 December 216