Case Study: ChemPlus Waikerie Pharmacy – Professional Services as a Revenue Stream

The July 2015 Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement (6CPA) changes to PBS remuneration effectively reduced Community Pharmacy’s PBS revenue, which makes it more imperative than ever to derive revenue through complimentary pharmacy functions like Professional Services.i Recognising this, the Australian Government through the 6CPA committed ‘…up to $1.26 Billion… for evidence-based, patient-focused professional pharmacy programmes and service.’ii In this new pharmacy environment, 6CPA funding in addition to sponsored Professional Services and user-pay Professional Services, enables Community Pharmacy to increase their revenue stream while still providing quality patient care.

Focusing on a wide variety of Professional Services has enabled Pharmacy Guild of Australia Pharmacy of the Year finalist ChemPlus Waikerie Pharmacy to adapt to the changing pharmacy environment. In an interview with GuildLink, Managing Partner Nathan Lloyd explained that introducing user-pays Professional Services, along with funding gained from 6CPA and sponsor funded services has enabled the pharmacy to continue to deliver quality care to their community and still generate revenue.iii This measure has largely been supported by the small South Australian rural town’s patient community. Nathan attributes this to the fact that his patients are “happy with the professional approach, caring nature and accessibility of Waikerie Pharmacy’s health offering.”iv

“Waikerie Pharmacy’s philosophy begins with a strong foundation of connection with people and place and a focus on high-quality services and staff” Mr Lloyd said.

Broken down this strong foundation of connection can be attributed to the following community engagement methods:

Focus on The Needs of The Community

Nathan breaks his patient community down into two primary demographics: the ageing and young families. Despite the vast difference in health needs between these two communities, Waikerie Pharmacy has implemented a strong offering of Professional Services that caters for the specific needs of their patients, thereby cementing the value of their role as a primary healthcare provider in Waikerie.v

Community Education

Waikerie Pharmacy sees themselves as a community educator, enabling local health care professionals and their onsite nurse educator to support the community through education and outreach programs and initiatives, such as promoting events and initiatives around local health issues, for example Diabetes, Men’s Health, Skin Cancer and Baby Progress.vi

Strong connection with wider healthcare professionals

As a trusted local healthcare provider Waikerie Pharmacy are often a point of referral for local General Practitioners, when patients require ongoing monitoring or support. This is a valuable role in the community as it alleviates the pressure on the Waikerie healthcare system.vii

Professional, Streamlined Approach

Staff at Waikerie Pharmacy are dedicated to implementing a professional and streamlined Professional Services offering, which enables them to implement more services and builds confidence within the community that they are a trusted healthcare provider. Nathan attributes much of their efficiency to the implementation of a Professional Services booking system, an instore process that ensures every patient is seen by a Pharmacist, and using a Professional Services software solution – GuildCare. The team built much of their instore procedures around the flow of Professional Services in the GuildCare software.viii

Managing the substitution of lost PBS revenue through increasing Professional Services offerings and implementing user-pays services can be managed instore in a variety of ways. Visit the GuildCare stand at this year’s APP conference to learn how you can implement streamlined Professional Services and grow your revenue using a technology partner. Visit ng.guildcare.com.au for more information.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia 2017 Pharmacy of the Year finalists will be recognised and the 2017 winner announced between 12:00pm and 12:45pm on Thursday, 9 March 2017, at this year’s APP conference.

References

i Pharmacy Guild of Australia: Fact Sheet – Pharmacy and Wholesaler Remuneration – 27 May 2015
ii 2015 Australian Government Department of Health Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement [p. 15, Section 6.11]
iii Nathan Lloyd, Managing Partner Waikerie Pharmacy Interview with GuildLink – 9 January 2017
iv Guild Script: stories from community pharmacy – Guild Pharmacy of the Year finalist: Waikerie Pharmacy, SA http://www.guild.org.au/
news-events/recent-activity/blog-post/recent-activity/2016/12/14/guild-pharmacy-of-the-year-finalist-waikerie-pharmacy-sa – 15 December 2016
v Nathan Lloyd, Managing Partner Waikerie Pharmacy – Interview with GuildLink – 9 January 2017
vi AJP – Waikerie Pharmacy is one of the finalists in the Pharmacy of the Year 2017 competition, http://ajp.com.au/news/meet-finalists-waikerie-pharmacy – 30 January 2017
vii Nathan Lloyd, Managing Partner Waikerie Pharmacy Interview with GuildLink – 9 January 2017
viii Nathan Lloyd, Managing Partner Waikerie Pharmacy Interview with GuildLink – 9 January 2017