Business profitability is the goal of all business owners. Personalising a service, like packing blisters for your customers, ensures that those customers return to your pharmacy week in and week out. Personalised packs are starting to become a “thing” and is no longer focused on the older community. Personalised vitamins to maintain the health of the younger community is growing exponentially. The world is shifting towards a healthier lifestyle. How will you capture the younger community to come into your pharmacy and how much does it really cost your business to add a personal touch to your service?
Research has shown that an average pharmacy can produce a blister pack inhouse for roughly $18.00 per pack. Research has included cost considerations for packing space (rent), lighting, software/hardware, packing materials (blister, foils, card, labels etc), wages for packing technician and pharmacist checking off the pack, delivery costs (if delivering packs directly to patient home or aged care facility), admin work associated with managing patient medication and owing scripts.
Tables are always good. Let us break this down: to approximate figures:
If you calculate the average loss of $4.00 per patient per week across 100 patients, your pharmacy income is missing out on $20,800.00 per year! And we have not even addressed the nitty-gritty of the cost associated with losing and re-training a new packing technician . . . and pharmacist.
These hidden costs are in plain sight, and sometimes it is hard to see them because juggling and managing a team, dealing with customers, dealing with suppliers, hosing down little fires, and taking 50,000 phone calls a day takes your attention away. Consider the impact of these facts and figures. Is it worthwhile to consider looking at outsourcing?
Research Documents including Costs of Manually Packing Inhouse:
Blogs
The DAA Dilemma costing you more than $100,000 - https://www.guild.org.au/news-events/blog/2018/fpp-blog-issue-50-the-daa-dilemma-that-could-be-costing-you-more-than-$100,000
Hidden DAA costs draining thousands of dollars - https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/are-hidden-dose-aid-costs-draining-thousands-dollars-your-pharmacy
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia – Submission 41
Out-of-Pocket Costs in Australian Healthcare - https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=4986f8d8-c369-4b5c-996f-4a360ce0c5fa&subId=252627