The Disconnect in Pharmacy Management

One of the disconnects in pharmacy, and truly in many jobs, are the orders which come down from the corporate side of the business. As most are aware, this time of year in pharmacy everyone is pushing for immunizations. Often the manner in which they are pushed, and promised to patients, shows a clear disconnect between what corporate wants and what is actually possible.

And truly there is a simple solution to this problem.

During my travels across the pharmacy world, I once worked for a successful, and fairly sizable, independent chain. The owner made it a point to regularly work a shift in one of his pharmacies in order to have an accurate gauge of what it was he was truly running.

It wasn't always a full day, but there was still a consistent amount of time spent in a store on a regular basis.

Wouldn't you know it, last I checked his business was thriving.

Why is it so hard to do this? Yes, we're all busy and needn't be bothered by additional work, but isn't it a good idea to have first hand knowledge of what things are like at ground level? Wouldn't many of the problems we face be mitigated if the person making decisions was actually forced to deal with them?

Would the regional manager who keeps cutting hours for technicians still do so if they were forced to work in a busy pharmacy with minimal help? Sure, it would not change the thought process of some, but I'm sure it would change it for some.

One of the things that is preached in business courses is efficiency. It is this which can bring in the most revenue over a long period of time. In order to run a business efficiently, one has to not rely merely on second-hand knowledge of processes. Obviously this is a stark change in how many upper managers conduct their business, but it seems so logical that it would be foolhardy to ignore it.

Then again, whoever said upper management was logical...