Pharmacy Management: An Overview

Pharmacy Management & Drug Marketing

• Pharmacists used to focus on production of pharmaceutical products from raw materials.
• Now, the focus is on patients receiving drugs.
• Good patient care and good business are not mutually exclusive, instead they are mutually dependent.
• Superior patient care and implementation of clinical services are possible with skilled pharmacy managers.
• Management is needed to control costs and maintain or improve quality of care.
• It is a myth that pharmacy practice is ethically inconsistent with good business.
• Pharmacists need strong interpersonal skills to ensure application of clinical skills and knowledge.

Management Definition

• Management is a process that brings resources together and unites them to achieve goals or objectives in the most efficient manner.

Management Process

• The key areas of the management process are individual, interpersonal, organizational; plan, organize, lead, control; money, people, time, materials, information.

Management Functions

• Basic functions include plan, organize, lead, and control.
• New functions include energize, empower, support, and communicate.

Planning

• Planning is setting performance objectives and determining what actions should be taken to accomplish them.
• Planning is predetermining a course of action based on goals and objectives.
• Strategic and business planning are types of planning.
• The chief pharmacist plans which drug products to carry or what professional services to offer.

Strategic Planning

• Strategic planning ensures the organization does the right things.
• It addresses what business the organization is in, or ought to be in, which provides a framework for detailed planning.
• It occurs long term (5-20 years).

Business Planning

• Business planning determines the feasibility of a specific business or program.
• It assists with decisions about investing in and moving forward with a program.
• It occurs short term (1-5 years).

Organizing

• Organizing is the arrangement and relationship of activities and resources for effective accomplishment of a goal or objective.
• Pharmacists ask what resources are needed, how to obtain the resources, and when to obtain them.

Leading

• Leading means directing.
• Leadership is the power of persuasion to motivate subordinates to achieve an organization's goals.
• Leaders influence individuals or teams.
• A chief pharmacist works with other people to accomplish tasks.
• A chief pharmacist must stay in touch, communicate with employees, listen, consider, act, provide feedback, and give credit.
• Managers should be leaders.
• Institutions are often well-managed but poorly led.

Controlling

• Controlling means evaluating, monitoring actual performance, comparing actual to standard, and taking action if necessary.
• Quality control checks help ensure patients receive medication appropriately.
• Pharmacists should assess if goods and services met goals.
• Goals may be patient-focused in improved patient care or profitability for the pharmacy.

Management Activities

• Management activities should be performed in order, starting with the planning step.
• They are meant to be cyclic with managers incorporating what they learn in the control/evaluation step into the next planning step.

Levels of Decision Making

• Individual
• Interpersonal
• Organizational

Goals & Objectives

• Survival
• Profitability
• Growth
• Adequate Patient Care

Managerial Sciences

• Human resources management
• Operations management
• Accounting and finances management
• Marketing management

Marketing Definition

• According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.

Marketing Mix

• A marketing mix is the set of decisions the pharmacy makes to market its goods and services.
• The marketing mix for services has 4 elements; product, place, price and promotion, known as the 4 P's.

E-Marketing Definition

• E-marketing is planning, executing conception, distribution, promotion and pricing in a computerized networked environment.
• Digital marketing is marketing utilizing internet and online based digital technologies on devices to promote products and services.

E-Marketing Advantages

• E-marketing is cheaper than traditional Marketing.
• Tangible ROI (Return on Investment).
• 24/7/365 approach: works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days of the year.
• Eliminates follow-up failure by using business figures in software and automated marketing systems.

Marketing in Lebanon

• Pharmacy Code, Section 47, prohibits advertising prescription pharmaceutical products.
• It relates to public health, and the consumer must be protected from advertising competition.
• In-pharmacy promotion is allowed if it respects Lebanese law like window or counter displays, counter mats, and pharmacy TV.

Final Thoughts

• Marketing is applicable to small, independently owned pharmacies and large corporations.
• "Marketing is not a department, it is your business" - Harry Beckwith.
• Marketing and pharmacy practice have a long history of coexisting.
• Pharmacists implement pharmacy practice management daily.
• Good business and pharmacy practice are mutually compatible.
• Pharmacy OATH and pledge serve patient needs first.
• Relationships with patients and the community are based on trust, empathy, patient loyalty and positive word of mouth can lead to increased profitability.