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Leveraging Local Partnerships to Expand Pharmacy Services | Cardinal Health™ Counter Talk™ Podcast · Pharmacy Podcast Network

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Speaker 2: and services. You can subscribe to the Cardinal Health counter
1:02
Speaker 2: Talk podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen
1:06
Speaker 2: to your favorite podcasts. Hello everyone, and welcome back to
1:09
Speaker 2: the Cardinal Health counter Talk podcast. I'm your host Jason colorI,
1:12
Speaker 2: and today we are putting the spotlight on a few
1:14
Speaker 2: pharmacists here to discuss their approach to partnering with local
1:17
Speaker 2: businesses and entrepreneurs to expand their pharmacy service offerings, create
1:22
Speaker 2: integrated care networks, and identify new business models. To do that,
1:26
Speaker 2: we have Kristen Glesmond farm d from the Medicine Shop
1:28
Speaker 2: Pharmacy in Dennison and Sheridan, Texas and Malon Coffin and
1:32
Speaker 2: Emily Rolling farm D's from Dan Durand Drugstore in Wichita, Kansas.
1:36
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show, Kristen Manlin and Emily, how you
1:38
Speaker 2: guys doing good?
1:40
Speaker 1: Thanks for inviting us for excited.
1:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm really excited for you guys to dive
1:45
Speaker 3: into this. I think this is something we've you know,
1:48
Speaker 3: you guys did talk about this at RBC from a
1:50
Speaker 3: stage standpoint, and I'm looking forward to guys diving a
1:53
Speaker 3: little bit deeper into this subject. And especially for those
1:56
Speaker 3: of you listening who couldn't make RBC, this would be
1:59
Speaker 3: some some great information for you. So real quick, I
2:03
Speaker 3: just want to kind of jump around here and just
2:05
Speaker 3: learn about your your journey into the pharmacy profession, specifically
2:09
Speaker 3: why you chose to become an independent pharmacist. So christ
2:12
Speaker 3: and I'll start with you.
2:14
Speaker 1: You know, I was always drawn to independent pharmacy since
2:17
Speaker 1: I was a young child. I remember going into a local,
2:22
Speaker 1: small independent pharmacy that was in a downtown setting. They
2:25
Speaker 1: even had the old timey soda shop, and they had
2:29
Speaker 1: an old, you know, a pretty pretty large gift shop
2:32
Speaker 1: in that area too. There's just something about it that
2:34
Speaker 1: I felt that was just magical. And then I thought
2:38
Speaker 1: it was just really neat seeing the pharmacists working behind
2:40
Speaker 1: the counter and helping patients answer questions. And then, you know,
2:45
Speaker 1: I didn't know at that time that's what I was
2:47
Speaker 1: going to become. And then in college, after taking some classes,
2:51
Speaker 1: I had a light bulb kind of go off in
2:53
Speaker 1: my head that this is what I want to do.
2:55
Speaker 1: I want to become a pharmacist, and not only become
2:58
Speaker 1: a pharmacist. I knew then if I was going to
3:00
Speaker 1: go to pharmacy school, I was going to become an
3:02
Speaker 1: independent pharmacist because I wanted to work in that kind
3:06
Speaker 1: of environment of helping your community and knowing your patients.
3:10
Speaker 4: Yeah. I had a pharmacy in New York growing up.
3:12
Speaker 3: That had a soda shopping and I love going there.
3:16
Speaker 3: So I feel like there need to bring some more
3:18
Speaker 3: of those back.
3:18
Speaker 4: If we can, I agree.
3:20
Speaker 1: If I could talk my husband into putting one into
3:22
Speaker 1: our pharmacy, we might have one, but it's nostalgic.
3:26
Speaker 4: Definitely Mandolin. What about you, how did you get your
3:28
Speaker 4: start in pharmacy.
3:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, so went to a small college in Hillsboro, Kansas,
3:34
Speaker 5: and knew I wanted to be in healthcare. So started
3:37
Speaker 5: working for the independent pharmacy in Hillsboro, Kansas as a
3:42
Speaker 5: delivery driver and got to witness firsthand how much of
3:46
Speaker 5: an impact those pharmacists had on the community, and knew
3:49
Speaker 5: that I wanted to be just like them. You know.
3:51
Speaker 5: I'd seen what retail pharmacy had done with the corporates,
3:55
Speaker 5: and I was just like, I want to have more
3:56
Speaker 5: of an impact than just putting pills in a bottle.
4:00
Speaker 5: What's what it looked like from the opposite side of
4:03
Speaker 5: the counter for my parents. So I wanted to have
4:05
Speaker 5: that impact that independent pharmacies kind of have for sure.
4:08
Speaker 4: And Emily, what about you? Yeah?
4:11
Speaker 5: So, I mean I knew I always wanted to be
4:13
Speaker 5: a pharmacist in high school. I loved chemistry and my mom,
4:16
Speaker 5: she was a nurse, and she always said, if I
4:17
Speaker 5: could do it over again, I would be a pharmacist.
4:19
Speaker 5: So that's where I started working at independent pharmacy, and
4:22
Speaker 5: I fell in love with it. I did work in
4:23
Speaker 5: one with the soda shops or soda fountain, and I
4:27
Speaker 5: just fell in love with, you know, being able to counsel,
4:29
Speaker 5: being able to you know, make decisions to help the
4:32
Speaker 5: patient more, spending the time with them instead of, you know,
4:36
Speaker 5: just trying to meet certain numbers. I wanted to make
4:39
Speaker 5: a huge impact on my patients, which is what I
4:41
Speaker 5: feel like I've been able to do here at DANDARAN.
4:43
Speaker 5: So yeah, I've been very happy with it.
4:46
Speaker 3: So all your pharmacies are located in Texas and Kansas, respectively,
4:49
Speaker 3: And how how have the needs of your patients evolved
4:53
Speaker 3: over time given where you are?
4:55
Speaker 4: And you know, Manulin, I'll kick it back to you.
4:57
Speaker 5: It's really just the world that we're living and have
5:00
Speaker 5: evolved so much since COVID and technology. We are constantly
5:04
Speaker 5: having to keep up on the information tech information era
5:09
Speaker 5: where we are competing against Google, and we're competing against
5:16
Speaker 5: the wellness era. People want to be better, they want
5:22
Speaker 5: to they want to better themselves, they want to invest
5:24
Speaker 5: in themselves, and so where can we meet those patients
5:27
Speaker 5: where they're at instead of just hey, here's your prescription
5:30
Speaker 5: for X, Y and Z, but rather, you know, here's
5:34
Speaker 5: your prescription for X, Y and Z. But also, you know,
5:36
Speaker 5: have you ever thought about this or have you thought
5:38
Speaker 5: about meeting with a pharmacist to go through your med
5:40
Speaker 5: list and let's really look at you, know, how you're
5:42
Speaker 5: living your lifestyle and how can we help outside of
5:46
Speaker 5: just this medication. Where can we meet you to better
5:51
Speaker 5: your lifestyle outside of justice prescriptions?
5:55
Speaker 4: Christin, what is your take on this?
5:59
Speaker 1: I'll say, in our we were considered and we're we're
6:02
Speaker 1: still a small town, but we were more rule about
6:05
Speaker 1: five ten years ago than we are now. We're getting
6:08
Speaker 1: a lot of growth in our area. So we were
6:11
Speaker 1: known to be I think the second oldest population, our
6:15
Speaker 1: oldest county in our state. And now with all this growth,
6:19
Speaker 1: we're getting a lot of new young families coming in.
6:23
Speaker 1: So just their interest and needs are are different, and what,
6:27
Speaker 1: you know, what they're looking for over the counter items
6:29
Speaker 1: are are different. We've also with that growth, I have
6:32
Speaker 1: felt like our doctors are more overwhelmed with patients and
6:38
Speaker 1: probably the doctor growth hasn't grown with our population, so
6:42
Speaker 1: it is harder to see a doctor or find a
6:44
Speaker 1: primary care doctor, so we are getting I feel like
6:47
Speaker 1: some of those patients are finding us and coming to
6:50
Speaker 1: us to ask a little bit more simple questions that
6:52
Speaker 1: we can answer because they can't get a phone call
6:56
Speaker 1: or an appointment with their doctor. So they're discovering that
6:59
Speaker 1: pharmacist can be helpful and you know, a good resource
7:04
Speaker 1: for them as well.
7:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've heard that a lot in some other podcasts.
7:07
Speaker 3: How a lot of the different pharmacists, independent pharmacists in particular,
7:11
Speaker 3: are expanding these different services and really trying to make
7:15
Speaker 3: it something really unique to each and every community, which
7:18
Speaker 3: I think is really important and what makes you guys
7:21
Speaker 3: so important and so valuable to your communities. So at RBC,
7:27
Speaker 3: you know, this year twenty twenty five in Denver, you
7:28
Speaker 3: both spoke as panelists on the Peer Innovation Panel about
7:32
Speaker 3: several of the new services that you incorporate into your
7:34
Speaker 3: business model. I would like you guys to get into
7:38
Speaker 3: them a little bit, just to kind of set everything up.
7:41
Speaker 3: So let me start again on mantel inside. What do
7:45
Speaker 3: you What are those services that you have incorporated that
7:49
Speaker 3: you just spoke about that have made your pharmacy so unique,
7:52
Speaker 3: especially to your area.
7:53
Speaker 4: Yeah.
7:53
Speaker 5: Absolutely, I'm actuly gonna let Emily chat on this one
7:55
Speaker 5: because this is rarely where her passion lies and where
7:59
Speaker 5: she's kind of helped us grow the most. So Emily,
8:01
Speaker 5: I'm gonna let you seek on that all right, Emily,
8:04
Speaker 5: what do you got?
8:05
Speaker 1: All right?
8:06
Speaker 5: So, yeah, it's kind of you know, talking about evolving.
8:08
Speaker 5: This has definitely evolved over time because where we thought
8:12
Speaker 5: we were going to be, we have came so far,
8:15
Speaker 5: but it's not where we thought we were going to be.
8:17
Speaker 5: But it started out with diabetes coaching. We got certified
8:20
Speaker 5: to do diabetes coaching, but when we got into the
8:23
Speaker 5: nitty gritty of it, we found out that, you know,
8:24
Speaker 5: reimbursement wasn't what we thought it was going to be.
8:27
Speaker 5: As pharmacists, you know, we're not recognized as providers here
8:29
Speaker 5: in Kansas, so we are not reimbursed by most insurance companies.
8:33
Speaker 5: So that led to you know, we dig go out
8:36
Speaker 5: to the doctor's offices, We marketed, We let them know
8:39
Speaker 5: that we were here, that we were certified, and we
8:41
Speaker 5: did get the referrals. But unfortunately, then you know, we
8:44
Speaker 5: would contact the patient and find out that we were
8:47
Speaker 5: not you know, gonna it was not gonna be covered
8:48
Speaker 5: by their insurance. So that led to finding a cash
8:51
Speaker 5: model that was affordable because you know, these patients they
8:54
Speaker 5: need the help, they need the counseling. There's not a
8:57
Speaker 5: lot of there's a lot of wait lists here, and
8:59
Speaker 5: so we to be that, you know, that person for
9:02
Speaker 5: them to have to come to and get that coaching.
9:05
Speaker 5: So we try to make an affordable option, try to
9:07
Speaker 5: do group classes.
9:08
Speaker 4: You know.
9:09
Speaker 5: That made it that much more affordable for them as
9:10
Speaker 5: well because we could do it at at a cheaper cost.
9:14
Speaker 5: But then that just again led to people hearing that
9:16
Speaker 5: we were doing that. So we started partnering with local businesses,
9:20
Speaker 5: mainly fitness studios, because those patients were willing to invest
9:24
Speaker 5: in their health pay that cash price, so they were
9:26
Speaker 5: getting some movement and some nutrition coaching there as well.
9:30
Speaker 5: So we partnered and those businesses happened to just be
9:34
Speaker 5: like across the street or next door to our independent pharmacies,
9:37
Speaker 5: so that was really neat. So we could do door
9:40
Speaker 5: prices for our boutique. We could you know, show them
9:43
Speaker 5: the packaging that we do, the med compliance things like
9:45
Speaker 5: that they were right next door and so and just
9:48
Speaker 5: showing and it was really cool to show that Dan
9:49
Speaker 5: Durand was really part of the community trying to help
9:52
Speaker 5: you and so it was really neat that they could
9:54
Speaker 5: get both that nutrition and movement. So we partnered with
9:57
Speaker 5: a lot of different fitness studios. Then we got outs,
10:00
Speaker 5: so we would get calls. We got calls from schools
10:03
Speaker 5: wanting us to do this for like an in service
10:05
Speaker 5: day for their teachers, like care mainly because okay, I
10:08
Speaker 5: guess I should kind of say this as well. It
10:11
Speaker 5: started turning into not just diabetes coaching, but just wellness coaching.
10:15
Speaker 5: Blood sugar balance. I mean, we know that blood sugar
10:17
Speaker 5: balance is connected to everything. So it kind of led
10:21
Speaker 5: to and again, like Mandy spoke to everybody's wanting to
10:23
Speaker 5: do better. We're in this wellness era right now, and
10:26
Speaker 5: so it led to not even just coaching diabetes, but everybody,
10:30
Speaker 5: I mean again, anybody that was coming to this fitness
10:32
Speaker 5: studio teaching them like your blood sugar balance matters as well.
10:37
Speaker 5: One out of three patients have pre diabetes. Over eighty
10:39
Speaker 5: percent have no idea. There's so many clients that we
10:43
Speaker 5: identified having pre diabetes and had no idea because we
10:45
Speaker 5: were able to test a one CS and we were
10:48
Speaker 5: able to identify those patients and they had no idea,
10:51
Speaker 5: and so they were very grateful for that, and then
10:53
Speaker 5: of course wanted more coaching, but we were contacted by schools.
10:57
Speaker 5: What else, oh, local businesses. We have our vaccine clinics going,
11:01
Speaker 5: so we're able to check that on as like a
11:04
Speaker 5: wellness clinic. I spoke at Athleta, so I know a
11:07
Speaker 5: lot of people have heard of Athleta, but you know,
11:09
Speaker 5: selling the s leisure clothes and athletic where that they
11:12
Speaker 5: had a wellness event that I came and spoke to.
11:14
Speaker 5: And again all of this speaking was mainly about bleochriger
11:17
Speaker 5: balance and how we should all care about it because
11:19
Speaker 5: then that number, those numbers of pre diabetes might look
11:22
Speaker 5: a little bit better. But we also speak our gut
11:24
Speaker 5: health and liver health, hormone health. We do compound hormones
11:28
Speaker 5: here at our independent pharmacies, so you know, it all
11:30
Speaker 5: kind of goes hand in hand. But it has just
11:33
Speaker 5: led to one thing to another. I got really passionate
11:36
Speaker 5: about the bloochriger balance and CGM use and so coaching
11:39
Speaker 5: patients with their CGM. I actually do some work with
11:42
Speaker 5: Dexcom now too, and so it just keeps evolving. It's
11:46
Speaker 5: still going today, and it's we just have no idea
11:48
Speaker 5: who we're going to work with next, but we're always
11:50
Speaker 5: out there just trying to connect to our community and
11:52
Speaker 5: let them know like, hey, we've got some good information
11:55
Speaker 5: and we want to help you. So I think so
11:58
Speaker 5: that pretty much answered that I'm trying out. That is
12:01
Speaker 5: where we started, and I'm sure there's more, but that's
12:05
Speaker 5: basically the main part of it.
12:06
Speaker 1: No.
12:07
Speaker 3: I mean, you covered a lot, and it sounds like
12:08
Speaker 3: you're you're very passionate about it, but it also sounds
12:11
Speaker 3: like it evolved quickly too. It sounds like you started with,
12:14
Speaker 3: you know, kind of a from a a diabetes type
12:18
Speaker 3: of counseling and then into a complete holistic and wellness
12:23
Speaker 3: type of destination, which I think is really important especially today.
12:27
Speaker 4: Uh So, yeah, kudos to you for that. Kristin. What
12:30
Speaker 4: about you? What what tell us about some of the
12:33
Speaker 4: service that you've implemented for some of these new business models.
12:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, so one of them. Seeing the need, like I
12:40
Speaker 1: was talking about, how just harder to go see your doctor,
12:45
Speaker 1: you know, with the growing population, just doctors are overwhelmed.
12:49
Speaker 1: I started reaching out to more nursing homes and different
12:54
Speaker 1: I guess businesses to see if they're interested in a
12:56
Speaker 1: vaccine clinic. That way I went to them. It made
13:00
Speaker 1: easier on either their employees or their patients or their
13:03
Speaker 1: residents for me to go in and you know, we
13:07
Speaker 1: could do flu, covid, pneumonia, RSV, whatever they needed. We
13:11
Speaker 1: could bring the shots there and give them to them.
13:16
Speaker 1: That over time developed with a partnership with our local college,
13:19
Speaker 1: Austin College. We started with, you know, just covid and
13:23
Speaker 1: flu shots, and then it grew like, hey, what about
13:25
Speaker 1: other vaccines you have? So over the years it kept
13:31
Speaker 1: growing and expanding, and then recently we started giving up
13:34
Speaker 1: their students travel vaccines when they would travel abroad, and
13:38
Speaker 1: then recently it turned into a partnership where we are
13:41
Speaker 1: their pharmacy of choice, where we build their prescriptions and
13:46
Speaker 1: we deliver it to their campus so it's easy access
13:49
Speaker 1: for the students. You know, some students don't have cars
13:51
Speaker 1: or a way to access prescription, so we make it
13:54
Speaker 1: easy for them. So that's been a great partnershipship for us.
13:58
Speaker 1: We also how to move our Denisen location the pharmacy
14:04
Speaker 1: and going into that space, we were going to double
14:06
Speaker 1: our square footage, and I knew, you know, we had
14:09
Speaker 1: to take advantage of that square footage and so I
14:13
Speaker 1: really wanted to focus on cash paying services in the pharmacy.
14:17
Speaker 1: Kind of most independent pharmacists can say they're frustrated and
14:22
Speaker 1: looking for different ways besides insurance. So I wanted to
14:26
Speaker 1: really focus on expanding our compounding. So we built a
14:29
Speaker 1: nice new compounding lab and it was right where patient facing.
14:34
Speaker 1: When patients come pick up their prescriptions, they can see it,
14:39
Speaker 1: which has brought a lot of conversation. People are realizing
14:41
Speaker 1: and finding us that, oh, you do compound, and so
14:44
Speaker 1: that has grown tremendously. I think it's grown thirty percent
14:46
Speaker 1: over the last year year and a half we've been
14:50
Speaker 1: in the building. Yes, and then we also decided with
14:54
Speaker 1: the extra square footage, I decided to bring a gift
14:57
Speaker 1: shop into the pharmacy, which is and outstanding for us.
15:03
Speaker 1: It brings people into the pharmacy that you know, might
15:06
Speaker 1: not step in the pharmacy because they don't need a prescription.
15:08
Speaker 1: So we have people still coming into our doors, using
15:11
Speaker 1: our businesses and discovering our services. You know, they see,
15:15
Speaker 1: oh they do compound, or oh they do give vaccinations,
15:18
Speaker 1: and then they become a patient they return to us.
15:22
Speaker 1: And then in that gift shop, we created a space,
15:25
Speaker 1: which I call the farmer's market. I have it labeled
15:29
Speaker 1: as pH farmer's market.
15:32
Speaker 4: Very very clever like that.
15:33
Speaker 1: Yes, so still keeping with the pharmacy theme, we partnered
15:38
Speaker 1: with different vendors that you would find at a farmer's market.
15:42
Speaker 1: So a big seller of ours is honey, So we
15:46
Speaker 1: have honey and pickled items, we have elderberry syrup. They
15:49
Speaker 1: are all locally made. They have local, locally made candles,
15:53
Speaker 1: and that brings that just brings attention to our pharmacy too,
15:56
Speaker 1: because those you know, those vendors or those suppliers are
15:59
Speaker 1: advertising for us that their product is in our pharmacy.
16:02
Speaker 1: So that's that's also been a great I guess business
16:05
Speaker 1: model in that sense.
16:08
Speaker 4: Yeah.
16:08
Speaker 3: I mean you guys, yeah, all three of you have
16:10
Speaker 3: these incredible you know, all these different services that seem
16:14
Speaker 3: to evolve over time. But what I really want to
16:16
Speaker 3: ask you is, how did you, guys identify these.
16:21
Speaker 4: Specific needs in your community.
16:22
Speaker 3: Was there was it one patient that came in and
16:25
Speaker 3: you felt like you can turn this into something new
16:28
Speaker 3: for your pharmacy. Was it solely a monetary thing where
16:32
Speaker 3: you felt like, you know, we can kind of broad
16:35
Speaker 3: in our service models and get these cash payments in
16:39
Speaker 3: or was it something that just was a combination of
16:42
Speaker 3: that and also something that you felt deep within, deep
16:45
Speaker 3: within your heart, deep with thin your heart, something you
16:47
Speaker 3: were passionate about that made you want to implement these
16:50
Speaker 3: I'll start with you, Chris, and I'll stay with you.
16:53
Speaker 1: It was a mixture. The vaccine clinics started with it.
16:56
Speaker 1: I had mostly you know, like nursing homes reaching out
17:01
Speaker 1: to us to see what we could do and provide,
17:03
Speaker 1: and that just gave me the idea, well, if they
17:04
Speaker 1: need help, there's probably other places that could utilize our services.
17:09
Speaker 1: And then the compounding. Before we had moved locations, we
17:13
Speaker 1: had patients we compounded, but it was much on a
17:15
Speaker 1: much smaller scale. Had patients bringing in scripts for things
17:18
Speaker 1: we didn't do yet. So I knew there was a need,
17:21
Speaker 1: and I had patients tell me they were going to
17:23
Speaker 1: have to get it mail ordered from Houston, or they're
17:26
Speaker 1: going to have to travel to Dallas, which is, you know,
17:28
Speaker 1: over an hour away to get this prescription. So I
17:31
Speaker 1: knew there was a need in our area. And then
17:34
Speaker 1: the gift shop was mostly just a fun concept. I
17:38
Speaker 1: was overwhelmed with all the technicalities of you know, putting
17:44
Speaker 1: together the compounding lab and the USP guidelines and everything,
17:48
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, I want to do
17:49
Speaker 1: something fun, something I will enjoy doing. And so that's
17:52
Speaker 1: how that evolved.
17:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love that. What about you, Manny and Emily?
17:55
Speaker 4: What what what kind of led you guys?
17:57
Speaker 3: I know you talked a lot about the diabetes, you know, monitoring,
18:01
Speaker 3: how it evolved into a complete wellness service offering, But
18:05
Speaker 3: what really sparked it?
18:08
Speaker 5: Absolutely so, to be completely honest, we Emily and I
18:14
Speaker 5: opened our pharmacy here six years ago in twenty nineteen
18:17
Speaker 5: in the hospital, and Emily's always had a passion for
18:21
Speaker 5: talking to people, uh, medication, therapy, management, outcomes, all of
18:25
Speaker 5: that good stuff. So it kind of started with that,
18:28
Speaker 5: and then it evolved into, Okay, how can we make
18:30
Speaker 5: this basically a full time position for Emily. You know,
18:35
Speaker 5: Emily's super passionate about this, so why dampen that fire
18:40
Speaker 5: and how can we help build that fire brighter and
18:43
Speaker 5: bigger and give her a platform to do what she's
18:48
Speaker 5: passionate about. And so we had a handful of we
18:53
Speaker 5: had a couple of different doctors actually reach out to
18:55
Speaker 5: us asking us if we would be interested in some
18:58
Speaker 5: grant money to do a diabetes education certification, and so
19:06
Speaker 5: we kind of looked at that at that point, and
19:09
Speaker 5: that's kind of how that evolved. But we also are
19:11
Speaker 5: actually located inside of regional hospital and so we have
19:15
Speaker 5: quite a few new diabetics that come through our pharmacy,
19:19
Speaker 5: and so we quickly became very passionate about educating parents
19:23
Speaker 5: and families on this new diagnosis and this new disease
19:27
Speaker 5: state that their family is entering, and how can we
19:30
Speaker 5: help them and meet them and meet them where they're
19:33
Speaker 5: at and educate them on you know, treating their child
19:38
Speaker 5: and you know, changing their family's lifestyle for the better.
19:42
Speaker 5: And so I think you just kind of quickly evolved.
19:45
Speaker 5: And do you have anything to add to that? Yeah,
19:47
Speaker 5: I mean I kind of to speak to what you said.
19:50
Speaker 5: I've always been passionate about talking to people. At the
19:53
Speaker 5: time when this was all going down, I had had
19:55
Speaker 5: my second kiddo, and so I was very into, like
19:58
Speaker 5: just trying to get background track with I've always been
20:00
Speaker 5: really into wellness, and so I just was kind of
20:02
Speaker 5: taking those tips that I was using and bringing those
20:04
Speaker 5: to my patients and just showing them that you know,
20:06
Speaker 5: this doesn't have to be. I mean, I always say
20:09
Speaker 5: I'm going to coin this term one of these days,
20:11
Speaker 5: so hopefully no one takes it, but get it where
20:12
Speaker 5: you fit it, and just teaching people how you can
20:14
Speaker 5: get this into your everyday life. And so I just
20:17
Speaker 5: became very passionate about making it seem doable. We're on Instagram,
20:21
Speaker 5: We're trying to show videos of you know, me doing
20:23
Speaker 5: lunges to the printer, me doing little resistance bands underneath
20:26
Speaker 5: my computer as I'm on the phone with doctors. You know,
20:29
Speaker 5: just like you can get it where you fit it
20:30
Speaker 5: and you can make this happen. And so, yeah, it's
20:34
Speaker 5: passion just kind of led to where we're at today. Yeah.
20:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, So you know, for all three of you, obviously
20:41
Speaker 3: you guys had to kind of go out and connect
20:46
Speaker 3: with some local businesses and some and some doctors and
20:49
Speaker 3: some physicians and uh some you know, long term care facilities.
20:55
Speaker 4: What how was that like? Were there any challenges you
20:58
Speaker 4: know in doing that?
20:59
Speaker 3: I know a lot of people, you know, sometimes we
21:02
Speaker 3: talked to pharmacists and they're not too keen on doing that.
21:04
Speaker 3: Some are you guys seem really outgoing, so it might
21:07
Speaker 3: have been a little bit easier for you.
21:08
Speaker 4: But how did you.
21:09
Speaker 3: Guys identify community partners to help you expand these services.
21:13
Speaker 1: Well, I feel like I am an outgoing person, but
21:16
Speaker 1: the idea of stepping into a doctor's office into striking
21:19
Speaker 1: up a conversation is probably the bottom of my list
21:23
Speaker 1: just of things I like to do.
21:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah.
21:28
Speaker 1: It's a fear inside of me. And you know, I
21:30
Speaker 1: also don't like the idea of trying to sell myself
21:32
Speaker 1: for my services. But I knew that's what we had
21:36
Speaker 1: to do, especially for educating our community on what we
21:39
Speaker 1: could do and getting our name out there. So I
21:44
Speaker 1: did start doing that, and that started with the compounding
21:46
Speaker 1: because I knew our local doctors needed to discover us.
21:50
Speaker 1: I kept hearing patients tell us that, oh, you know,
21:54
Speaker 1: a doctor told them that you would have to go,
21:57
Speaker 1: you know, drive forty five minutes to go get this.
21:59
Speaker 1: So in my head I was like, what, they don't
22:01
Speaker 1: know that we already do this. Obviously I have some
22:03
Speaker 1: work to do. So I had to get over that
22:05
Speaker 1: fear and started, you know, dropping off material and information
22:11
Speaker 1: pages and starting conversations. And as I started doing it,
22:14
Speaker 1: it became easier and easier and one of our bigger compounders.
22:19
Speaker 1: Actually we did this for several doctors, but she's she's
22:23
Speaker 1: one that's really utilized it. We dropped off a candy dish,
22:26
Speaker 1: you know, just full of chocolate. We really didn't have
22:28
Speaker 1: any intention of you know, trying to sell ourselves. We
22:32
Speaker 1: just wanted to create a connection. So we dropped off
22:35
Speaker 1: this jar of candy or chocolate and in the bottom
22:37
Speaker 1: we put a sticker that said call us to refill.
22:39
Speaker 1: And they have called us probably you know, that was
22:44
Speaker 1: over six months ago. They probably called three or four times.
22:46
Speaker 1: And so yeah, it's working in my mind, like it
22:49
Speaker 1: gives us the opportunity to create a relationship together, an
22:53
Speaker 1: opportunity for I'm the one that personally goes and drops
22:56
Speaker 1: off the refilled candy to just to have a conversation.
23:00
Speaker 1: I kept on, you know them, if they need anything,
23:02
Speaker 1: how's it going. And it's been for us, it's been great.
23:06
Speaker 1: They refer patients to us, we have a connection, They
23:10
Speaker 1: ask us questions. So we work together to help our community.
23:13
Speaker 1: So that's been a you know, it's been positive.
23:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like that.
23:17
Speaker 3: I mean, you guys offer independent pharmacists are all about
23:19
Speaker 3: personalized care, so making a personal connection just makes sense
23:23
Speaker 3: for you, guys.
23:25
Speaker 4: Manny and Emily. What about you, guys?
23:26
Speaker 3: What were what were the things that helps you identify
23:31
Speaker 3: these partnerships across your community? I know you said this,
23:33
Speaker 3: Some were pretty uh, some were in pretty close proximity
23:37
Speaker 3: to where you are.
23:38
Speaker 4: But what made you kind of make that first attempt?
23:43
Speaker 5: I think a lot of it was encouraging not just networking,
23:47
Speaker 5: but also encouraging our current staff to think outside the box.
23:50
Speaker 5: And hey, you go to a pilate studio, have you
23:52
Speaker 5: talked to your pilateates, you know, an instructor about getting
23:55
Speaker 5: us connected? You shop lots of times at Lulu Lemon
23:59
Speaker 5: or Athletic. Have you dropped off a flyer there yet?
24:02
Speaker 5: I mean just using your personal connections to never stop working,
24:08
Speaker 5: I guess I mean you're always and not being afraid
24:12
Speaker 5: to hear no. I mean being proud of what you're doing,
24:17
Speaker 5: that you want to reach as many people as possible,
24:19
Speaker 5: but being okay with with the no because you're going
24:23
Speaker 5: to get more nos than yes is especially at first,
24:26
Speaker 5: and and we were okay with that. You know, I
24:29
Speaker 5: just I don't know a stranger. So sometimes I'll be
24:30
Speaker 5: at a coffee shop, just working, and I'll hear people
24:32
Speaker 5: talking and I just han them a flyer and I
24:35
Speaker 5: start talking with them, and then it's just so funny
24:37
Speaker 5: how like it leads to you know, go into their
24:39
Speaker 5: business and doing this spleitchergger class and you know, kind
24:44
Speaker 5: of speaking to me and they yeah, I just went
24:45
Speaker 5: into Athlanta and just said, hey, can I put this
24:47
Speaker 5: flyer up here? And then they're like, wait, what do
24:49
Speaker 5: you do? And then you tell them, And it's just
24:51
Speaker 5: so there's just a lot of networking and just getting
24:53
Speaker 5: out there and like many said, never stop working. I mean,
24:55
Speaker 5: I'll just be with my kids at a coffee shop
24:58
Speaker 5: and I'm like, oh, hey, I think you had been
24:59
Speaker 5: a fit from this. So it's just it's constantly ongoing.
25:03
Speaker 3: Did you guys face any challenges, either internally or externally
25:07
Speaker 3: when it came to either trying to implement these services
25:10
Speaker 3: or getting started or having it evolved over the over
25:14
Speaker 3: the course of time.
25:15
Speaker 4: Did you guys face anything like that?
25:19
Speaker 5: For sure? I would say I don't know how many
25:21
Speaker 5: times many, and I would just like I'd be in
25:23
Speaker 5: her office talking tern I'm just like, is this ever
25:24
Speaker 5: just going to take off? Is this ever going to
25:26
Speaker 5: do anything. I just feel like I'm working and working
25:28
Speaker 5: and working, and you know, two people would show up
25:31
Speaker 5: to my class every once in a while or you know,
25:32
Speaker 5: we talk. You know, it's hard to get people to
25:34
Speaker 5: invest in their health. You know, you don't have that
25:35
Speaker 5: instant gratification where you know, they go shopping, they buy
25:38
Speaker 5: a pair of shoes, they go.
25:39
Speaker 1: Home with the shoes.
25:39
Speaker 5: You know, it does. You know, you come here and
25:41
Speaker 5: you have to hear that you have to eat your
25:42
Speaker 5: veggies and move your body and that's not fun, you know.
25:44
Speaker 5: So we get a lot of you know, resistance sometimes too.
25:49
Speaker 5: But that's where I do feel like my strengths are at.
25:52
Speaker 5: I do try to make it fun and seem doable
25:55
Speaker 5: because I understand, you know, I've got three kids, Like
25:56
Speaker 5: it's hard to fit it in there. But so yeah, yeah,
26:00
Speaker 5: I think my biggest challenge was just like when is
26:02
Speaker 5: this ever going to take off? I'm working so hard,
26:04
Speaker 5: I care about this so much. But I had a
26:07
Speaker 5: great support so some Mandy was always right there by
26:10
Speaker 5: my side and you know, never give up, and she
26:12
Speaker 5: would always encourage me or remind me that like, hey,
26:15
Speaker 5: it's going to take off some time, Like we never
26:16
Speaker 5: know what this will lead to or what this connection
26:19
Speaker 5: will lead to just keep going. So for me, it
26:21
Speaker 5: was just the slowness of it. Honestly, do you have
26:23
Speaker 5: anything to end? But I think also was educating our
26:26
Speaker 5: staff so we actually have seven different pharmacies across town
26:32
Speaker 5: and getting our other staff members to buy in. We've
26:36
Speaker 5: probably got twenty percent of our staff across the board
26:40
Speaker 5: to help us out with it. But you really need
26:43
Speaker 5: the majority of your staff to really help sell buy
26:49
Speaker 5: into what you're doing, and educate your community. It makes
26:52
Speaker 5: it so much easier. And that's just a constant battle
26:55
Speaker 5: that will always face. I think is just educating that
26:57
Speaker 5: staff and educating them as to why it's important for
27:00
Speaker 5: them to want this for our community as much as
27:03
Speaker 5: we want it. And so I think that education piece
27:06
Speaker 5: is always going to be a barrier for us, and
27:11
Speaker 5: you know, it's just a battle that we have to
27:12
Speaker 5: be okay with and we'll just keep fighting in.
27:15
Speaker 3: Well, I kind of wanted to stay on that. How
27:16
Speaker 3: did you train and you know, empower your staff to
27:19
Speaker 3: adopt these new services. Obviously, training staff and getting your
27:23
Speaker 3: staff on board, especially if you have multiple stores, is
27:27
Speaker 3: largely important because you want to make sure that everyone's
27:30
Speaker 3: on the same page and you're talking about the same
27:32
Speaker 3: things and getting people excited and you know, keeping the
27:37
Speaker 3: enthusiasm for new services like this. How did you train
27:41
Speaker 3: and empower your staff to adopt these new services?
27:46
Speaker 5: I mean I feel like I'm still training today, you know.
27:49
Speaker 5: I don't know. I just feel like, you know, just
27:51
Speaker 5: going around to the stores, being present, talking to them.
27:54
Speaker 5: I'm a big communicator. I like to talk in person,
27:57
Speaker 5: so you know, seeing them. I've been told it's hard
28:00
Speaker 5: to tell me no sometimes, so maybe you know I
28:03
Speaker 5: have that on my side. But yeah, just you know,
28:06
Speaker 5: being there talking to them, just showing them my passion. Uh,
28:10
Speaker 5: you know, just trying to make it contagious really and
28:12
Speaker 5: just being present, and I think just being a squeaky wheel.
28:17
Speaker 5: I think sometimes you just have to keep reminding and
28:19
Speaker 5: reminding and reminding you know why this is important. And hey,
28:24
Speaker 5: you know, you can meet your patients where they're at
28:28
Speaker 5: and thinking outside the box. And we have these other
28:30
Speaker 5: services and you may you don't need to implement them,
28:33
Speaker 5: but get them in touch with us and let us,
28:35
Speaker 5: you know, be that point of contact for them. You
28:38
Speaker 5: don't need to know everything, you just need to know
28:40
Speaker 5: enough to be able to point them in the right
28:43
Speaker 5: direction to continue that extra level of service.
28:47
Speaker 3: Christin, what about you, How did your staff take to
28:50
Speaker 3: these new added services and how did you empower them
28:52
Speaker 3: to help you, you know, get enthusiastic about it and
28:56
Speaker 3: to talk about it with your patients.
28:58
Speaker 1: Well, I will say that that was probably our biggest
29:00
Speaker 1: challenge was it was internally, it's just getting the staff
29:03
Speaker 1: on board and excited for basically, you know, more work. Yeah,
29:09
Speaker 1: I could say that more work with the with the compounding.
29:13
Speaker 1: We we own two pharmacies and we we used we
29:17
Speaker 1: have Denisen as our main compounding location, so we pulled
29:21
Speaker 1: all of the compounds from our Sherman store to our
29:24
Speaker 1: our dentists in store, which, you know, just creating the workflow,
29:29
Speaker 1: figuring out the workflow and getting the staff on board
29:32
Speaker 1: with like, okay, our dentist in store now has this
29:35
Speaker 1: influx of more compounds that they have to focus on
29:38
Speaker 1: how is workflow going to work? Really just staying positive
29:42
Speaker 1: and reminding them it'll all work out. You know. Of
29:46
Speaker 1: course at the beginning there's some kinks and mostly just
29:49
Speaker 1: figuring out the smoothest workflow possible for all of us.
29:53
Speaker 1: But we have we have great leaders, we have great
29:56
Speaker 1: pharmacists in our in our stores, and by them showing
30:00
Speaker 1: that like, we will make this work and then putting
30:02
Speaker 1: in the work at the beginning, you know, slowly but surely,
30:06
Speaker 1: the technicians and the rest of the staff just they followed.
30:10
Speaker 1: So it took it took a little bit of encouraging,
30:13
Speaker 1: but we settled, you know.
30:15
Speaker 3: And yeah, one a big question we get when when
30:19
Speaker 3: talking to the pharmacists and coming up with these new
30:21
Speaker 3: models and talking about them, is, you know, how do
30:24
Speaker 3: you know what to charge for these specific services? So
30:28
Speaker 3: Chris and I'll start with you. You said, you you
30:30
Speaker 3: know you want to implement some more cash model business
30:32
Speaker 3: to your pharmacy.
30:34
Speaker 4: How did you figure out what to charge?
30:36
Speaker 3: Did you look at what other pharmacists were charging or
30:38
Speaker 3: did you just kind of come up with a number
30:40
Speaker 3: or what was best for the work you were putting
30:42
Speaker 3: in versus your output?
30:44
Speaker 4: How did you come up with your numbers?
30:46
Speaker 1: It really wasn't make sure of all that, Like we
30:48
Speaker 1: have that idea of what are I guess our area
30:51
Speaker 1: charges for, especially like say compounding for different prescriptions, But
30:58
Speaker 1: really I also feel like it's experience is just over
31:00
Speaker 1: the years listening to patients say well, not like they
31:02
Speaker 1: would check out a prescription with us thinking about compounds,
31:07
Speaker 1: they say, wow, I'm getting this at much better price
31:09
Speaker 1: than I was, you know, at the other store, or
31:13
Speaker 1: oh wow, this this costing a little bit more like it.
31:16
Speaker 1: Kind of it gave me a realization of where to
31:18
Speaker 1: land with pricing and what's what is appropriate. But I
31:23
Speaker 1: will say, you know a lot of compounds. I just
31:26
Speaker 1: talked to a patient yesterday. It was a parent on
31:28
Speaker 1: a compound. I gave you the price and she said, oh,
31:30
Speaker 1: that's great. I don't care. You can charge me anything.
31:32
Speaker 1: I'll pay for it. You know, there's also that aspect
31:36
Speaker 1: they see that there's a need, especially compounding. You can't
31:39
Speaker 1: get it everywhere, and it's a valuable service. So all
31:43
Speaker 1: that and expertise and then tying into you know, how
31:47
Speaker 1: much are our labor costs along with of course the
31:51
Speaker 1: product cost.
31:52
Speaker 4: Andy and Emily, do you have any insight to kind
31:55
Speaker 4: of coming up with what your cash models were?
32:01
Speaker 5: I mean, very very similar to Christian's as far as
32:04
Speaker 5: like classes and stuff go. Kind of knowing what we're
32:07
Speaker 5: worth but also knowing what our community is willing to pay,
32:12
Speaker 5: but also you know, starting something, we have to start somewhere,
32:16
Speaker 5: and so we kind of chose to err on the
32:20
Speaker 5: side of how are we let's you know, where can
32:24
Speaker 5: we make sure that we're paying our pharmacists their time
32:27
Speaker 5: but also not overcharge our community for these services that
32:32
Speaker 5: we are still you know, working through on our own.
32:37
Speaker 1: I miss my thing, No, that was.
32:38
Speaker 5: And you know, it's just so hard to measure the
32:40
Speaker 5: intangibles as well, you know, because we were doing like
32:42
Speaker 5: the door prices or our boutque and I don't know
32:44
Speaker 5: how many times I heard, oh yeah, I went into
32:46
Speaker 5: your boutique and I bought one for my friend, or
32:48
Speaker 5: I bought one at a Christmas present, or you know,
32:50
Speaker 5: or we don't know, you know, how many people transferre
32:52
Speaker 5: to us or told someone else about our pharmacy to transfer.
32:55
Speaker 5: So we knew that we could maybe error on the
32:58
Speaker 5: side of like, okay, we just want to get people
32:59
Speaker 5: in the do we know we have to go a
33:01
Speaker 5: little bit lower than maybe we would like to run
33:03
Speaker 5: the price, but you know, we know there are some
33:06
Speaker 5: things that we can't measure too, that we're bringing into
33:07
Speaker 5: the pharmacy as well, and just getting the dan Rand
33:10
Speaker 5: name out there and letting them know that we're still
33:12
Speaker 5: here in the community.
33:13
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well that brings me to my next question, Emily.
33:15
Speaker 4: I'll stay with.
33:15
Speaker 3: You the You know, you talked about how alcoing you
33:19
Speaker 3: are talking to people, you know, even if you're at
33:21
Speaker 3: a coffee shop, if you had at a restaurant, if
33:23
Speaker 3: you're just out and about talking to different businesses. But
33:27
Speaker 3: other than that, are you guys doing anything else to
33:30
Speaker 3: market these services outside the pharmacy and to reach more
33:35
Speaker 3: of a broader audience. I know it's a little tough
33:37
Speaker 3: in the beginning. You're trying to get word of mouth.
33:40
Speaker 3: Are you depending on it growing grassroots style or are
33:43
Speaker 3: you doing other things in the community social media? Just
33:46
Speaker 3: give us some of those tips of you guys, some
33:48
Speaker 3: of those avenues that you were in those marketing channels
33:52
Speaker 3: that you were utilizing.
33:54
Speaker 5: Yeah, so definitely the social media. We are on Instagram
33:58
Speaker 5: and Facebook, mainly Instagram. I'm trying to find some young
34:01
Speaker 5: people to help me with that. I am really struggling
34:03
Speaker 5: with all the news, but we are trying and we
34:06
Speaker 5: have a newsletter. Yeah, we have a newsletter that goes
34:10
Speaker 5: up monthly, and so you know, getting people to sign
34:12
Speaker 5: up for that and you know, it's slowly grown, but
34:15
Speaker 5: now we're up to like three hundred some four hundred
34:17
Speaker 5: and some, so it's getting there. And yeah, and also
34:21
Speaker 5: I work pretty close with one of our other employees.
34:24
Speaker 5: He markets for our long term care and so I'll
34:26
Speaker 5: go out with him. But also, like you know, we
34:28
Speaker 5: tell the nursing homes about our classes that we do,
34:30
Speaker 5: and I've even talked I think I've gone out to
34:32
Speaker 5: a couple and talked about Bootcherger Balance for their.
34:35
Speaker 4: Patients.
34:36
Speaker 5: And so just constantly like where can I go to
34:38
Speaker 5: get the name out? Like I said, I've went to
34:40
Speaker 5: Green Acres and put our flyer up, went to Athleta.
34:43
Speaker 5: But yeah, mainly the social media, the newsletters. We participated
34:48
Speaker 5: in the Woman's Fair that was really big, and so
34:49
Speaker 5: we would have people sign up for a drawing, but
34:52
Speaker 5: to sign up for a drawing, they had to sign
34:53
Speaker 5: up for our newsletter. That was like their way of
34:55
Speaker 5: signing up and getting entered into the drawing. And but
34:58
Speaker 5: what was crazy is just I would stand out there
35:00
Speaker 5: in the hallway and you know, tell it, say hey,
35:02
Speaker 5: enter for this, you know this drawing, and then they're
35:05
Speaker 5: like what do you do? When we start talking about
35:06
Speaker 5: the boodhirker balance, They're like, oh yeah, like I want
35:08
Speaker 5: to know more about that, And next thing, you know,
35:10
Speaker 5: they're emailing you to see about a coaching So it's
35:14
Speaker 5: just word of mouth and just being out there. But yeah,
35:16
Speaker 5: definitely the social media christin what about you?
35:21
Speaker 1: So yeah, besides going to doctor's office and just I think.
35:25
Speaker 4: And leaving delicious chocolates by the way, go ahead.
35:28
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, it's my tactic, you know, besides doing that,
35:33
Speaker 1: I think social media has been the best option and
35:36
Speaker 1: staying consistent on it too. You know, they say there's
35:39
Speaker 1: a formula to it, and so I even though like
35:42
Speaker 1: my posts don't get a notice, they only get like
35:44
Speaker 1: maybe a few likes for certain things, I'll have people
35:48
Speaker 1: walk into our pharmacy telling me they saw it. So
35:51
Speaker 1: at least it's being seen, so that that's encouraging for
35:54
Speaker 1: me to continue doing those posts and staying active on
35:57
Speaker 1: social media. I also, you know, so going back to
36:01
Speaker 1: the gift shop, I wanted to create its own business,
36:04
Speaker 1: so I gave it a name and I so I
36:06
Speaker 1: named it Honey and Hive, So I almost created it
36:09
Speaker 1: as its own business, not just part of the pharmacy.
36:13
Speaker 4: Smart.
36:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that that draws people and that might not
36:16
Speaker 1: be quite as interested in maybe pharmacy or more like,
36:19
Speaker 1: you know, the more technical or scientific side. They're they're
36:22
Speaker 1: excited about boutiques and that it just creates opens a conversation.
36:27
Speaker 1: But just in our community, I donate you know, gift
36:30
Speaker 1: baskets from that gift shop and it has you know,
36:33
Speaker 1: honey and hive. It's located inside the medicine shop, so
36:35
Speaker 1: people can find us the pharmacy because that's that's the goal,
36:39
Speaker 1: is for them to find our pharmacy services. Or like
36:42
Speaker 1: at our vaccine clinics, I donate a door prize. I
36:45
Speaker 1: have everyone that gets a vaccine they get opportunity for
36:49
Speaker 1: the door prize. So that's another way just to you know,
36:52
Speaker 1: expand and put our name out there as well.
36:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, you guys are using some really interesting not only
36:58
Speaker 3: social media tactics but also you know, grassroots tactics as well,
37:02
Speaker 3: which I really love.
37:04
Speaker 4: Chris, and I'm gonna stay with you.
37:05
Speaker 3: How do you believe these services have further your position
37:08
Speaker 3: as a community healthcare destination, because you know, there's a
37:11
Speaker 3: lot of different things you can do, but you're finding
37:14
Speaker 3: no specific services that you feel like your community needs,
37:18
Speaker 3: and I mean, how successful has it been?
37:20
Speaker 4: What? What is it? What kind of.
37:24
Speaker 3: I guess, what kind of feedback you're getting in your pharmacy,
37:28
Speaker 3: what kind of I guess you know, bottom.
37:31
Speaker 4: Line are you getting your pharmacy? Has it helped your
37:33
Speaker 4: bottom line? You know, what does success look like and
37:36
Speaker 4: what has it done for your business? Overall?
37:39
Speaker 1: I mean overall, all of these different services have been
37:42
Speaker 1: fantastic for us. I feel like, you know, people, more
37:48
Speaker 1: community members and then also providers doctors are coming to
37:52
Speaker 1: us because they see what we do and they'll ask us,
37:53
Speaker 1: oh can you do this? So this is giving us
37:55
Speaker 1: more ideas of how we can grow and expand. So
37:58
Speaker 1: I do feel like we're becoming, you know, kind of
38:01
Speaker 1: their outlet. I'm thinking mostly like, well, you know, our
38:04
Speaker 1: patients and community members, but providers too. They it feels
38:08
Speaker 1: like that they come to us first to be their
38:12
Speaker 1: outlet of information or to ask us questions or services,
38:16
Speaker 1: and then you know, in turn, of course they're sending
38:19
Speaker 1: the patients to us. So all these just I feel
38:22
Speaker 1: like at the beginning, I felt like it was just
38:23
Speaker 1: small little services things we were adding, but you know,
38:29
Speaker 1: throughout the last year, throughout time where you have seen
38:32
Speaker 1: people are relying on us, are coming to us. They
38:36
Speaker 1: you know, they they're finding us to ask our pharmacist
38:40
Speaker 1: specific questions or ask hey, can you get this for us?
38:43
Speaker 1: Or what service services can you do? So, just in general,
38:46
Speaker 1: I feel like it has laid the groundwork of US
38:49
Speaker 1: becoming a destination, you know, for health care, and US
38:56
Speaker 1: just being an important business in our community. It's it's
39:00
Speaker 1: been great.
39:01
Speaker 4: Love that man and Emily. What about you guys, same question.
39:05
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I'm very much similar to Kristen being kind
39:10
Speaker 5: of that first phone call, that first thought when someone
39:13
Speaker 5: has a question, a tough question that they can't get answered,
39:15
Speaker 5: or they can't find a product, or they don't know
39:18
Speaker 5: where to turn. Really wanting to be that first phone call. Hey,
39:23
Speaker 5: you know, I may not be able to help you,
39:24
Speaker 5: but I can find somebody that can help you. Or
39:27
Speaker 5: you know, you keep getting that same question over and
39:29
Speaker 5: over again. I've heard that question a lot. Let's maybe
39:31
Speaker 5: maybe let's dive into it and see how we can
39:34
Speaker 5: meet that need for the community, because clearly, if we're
39:36
Speaker 5: getting that question from multiple people, that needed not being met.
39:41
Speaker 5: So really just wanting to be that first stop of
39:46
Speaker 5: the most accessible healthcare provider in town to provide these service,
39:53
Speaker 5: to provide any service, whether it be product or service
39:57
Speaker 5: or class or information that scene, and really just trying
40:03
Speaker 5: not to say no, but rather how can I help?
40:07
Speaker 5: And if I can't help, who can I point you?
40:08
Speaker 5: Or where can I point in the right direction to
40:10
Speaker 5: get that help in that assistance.
40:13
Speaker 4: I love that.
40:14
Speaker 3: Are there any other additional services you guys are looking
40:17
Speaker 3: to launch in the next year? I know, just talking Emily,
40:21
Speaker 3: I can I know she probably has a few more
40:23
Speaker 3: ideas in her back pocket.
40:24
Speaker 4: What do you say, Emily.
40:27
Speaker 5: Full of ideas? No, I did just have a baby,
40:32
Speaker 5: so it has been on pause for a little bit.
40:34
Speaker 5: But I am while I'm holding this baby, I'm always dreaming. So, yes,
40:38
Speaker 5: lots of different things. But I've just really went down
40:41
Speaker 5: the road of the CGM coaching the blood trigger balance.
40:44
Speaker 5: So I know we've always talked about doing the you know,
40:46
Speaker 5: helping people monitor it, look at their you know numbers.
40:49
Speaker 5: You know, there's different programs where you can partner with
40:51
Speaker 5: the doctor's office and do that monitoring for them, so
40:55
Speaker 5: that that would probably be the next thing. You know,
40:57
Speaker 5: we always talk about, you know, as much as we
40:59
Speaker 5: want this to grow also don't want to bite off
41:00
Speaker 5: too much that you know, we want to be able
41:03
Speaker 5: to do what we do well, and so I just
41:06
Speaker 5: want to get back in there too after this baby
41:08
Speaker 5: and start you know, going strong. But I would say
41:11
Speaker 5: that's kind of where I'm at, just keeping with that
41:12
Speaker 5: bletriger balance keeping kind of all you know in the
41:16
Speaker 5: just building upon that. So I've got the coaching, but
41:19
Speaker 5: also maybe working with the doctor's office to help their
41:21
Speaker 5: patients as well and do the monitoring for them.
41:23
Speaker 3: And yeah, I was, yeah, I was going to ask
41:25
Speaker 3: if to actually, you've guys done any collaborations with the
41:28
Speaker 3: with the local physicians in town as well, because I
41:30
Speaker 3: feel like it's something they can get on board with
41:32
Speaker 3: because you know, if they're trying to keep their patients
41:35
Speaker 3: healthy into whether it be losing weight or getting healthier,
41:40
Speaker 3: you know, them mentioning you.
41:42
Speaker 4: Guys as a as a great resource to go to.
41:44
Speaker 4: It just makes sense.
41:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure, And there's definitely I have another coworker
41:50
Speaker 5: with me on the clinical team and she has looked
41:51
Speaker 5: into that and there are some models. We just have
41:54
Speaker 5: to you know, get all the logistics iron out. But
41:57
Speaker 5: you know, with they're building department because they will have
41:59
Speaker 5: to build for us and then you know, reimburse us.
42:01
Speaker 5: So there's a lot of paperwork to be involved in that.
42:04
Speaker 5: It definitely can happen. And yeah, so there's definitely some
42:07
Speaker 5: business models out there, but it would be a really
42:09
Speaker 5: great idea to partner with them because then they, you know,
42:11
Speaker 5: like I said, we take that off their plate. And
42:14
Speaker 5: a lot of times, you know, especially if our pharmacy
42:16
Speaker 5: is right there next to the doctor's office and I
42:18
Speaker 5: actually was helping out, you know, even with like gestational
42:21
Speaker 5: diabetes and so know, sometimes are hesitant to start that
42:24
Speaker 5: monitor because they're, like I just a hard time to
42:27
Speaker 5: coach them, to let them know, you know, how to
42:29
Speaker 5: wear this, what to do with this. I'm like send
42:30
Speaker 5: in my way, like send the prescription to us. Like
42:32
Speaker 5: we've got the pharmacists here that are passionate about it.
42:35
Speaker 5: We'll coach that new mama and get her started and
42:37
Speaker 5: feeling better and give her some tips to walk out
42:39
Speaker 5: the door with. So yeah, I would say our next
42:42
Speaker 5: next adventure would be partnering with the doctor's office.
42:45
Speaker 3: Christen, what about you any other new services that you
42:48
Speaker 3: might be looking at as far as you know for
42:50
Speaker 3: either a cash model, perspective or maybe to add into
42:53
Speaker 3: your your bigger footprint at your bigger store.
42:55
Speaker 4: What do you think, Yes, we do.
42:57
Speaker 1: Actually we are opening a medspall and actually opens next Monday,
43:01
Speaker 1: and there we're going to do like HRT consulting weight loss.
43:06
Speaker 1: We have like vitamin injections, peptides, nad you know, along
43:11
Speaker 1: with like the sthetic approach as well. But it's right
43:14
Speaker 1: next door to our pharmacy and this whole so it's
43:17
Speaker 1: gonna be pharmacist Ran me and the other pharmacists are
43:19
Speaker 1: going to be the ones providing the services with you know,
43:24
Speaker 1: also the goal in mind. A lot of those services
43:26
Speaker 1: come with compounds, So we have a medical distrector and
43:28
Speaker 1: she she can prescribe the compound, so we'll in turn,
43:32
Speaker 1: of course, if the patient's okay with it, we can
43:34
Speaker 1: fill that compound for them at the pharmacy as well.
43:36
Speaker 1: So we're really excited to get it started.
43:39
Speaker 3: And that's kind of a big trend now with the
43:41
Speaker 3: vitamin injections, whether it be a vitamin C B twelve
43:44
Speaker 3: shot literally a shot to kind of get you boosted
43:48
Speaker 3: and get your your wellness up.
43:49
Speaker 4: I love that idea, Chris, and I'll stay with you.
43:54
Speaker 4: Kind of last question.
43:55
Speaker 3: For you and also for Manny and Emley, for fellow
43:58
Speaker 3: independent pharmacists eager to expand their services, what advice do
44:02
Speaker 3: you recommend on how to get started? And then we
44:04
Speaker 3: talked about a few things for you guys to go
44:08
Speaker 3: through and and you know, reaching out and doing all
44:11
Speaker 3: those other things.
44:12
Speaker 4: But what what are some of the footsteps and.
44:16
Speaker 3: Some of the best practices that you can offer up
44:19
Speaker 3: for our listening independent pharmacists.
44:23
Speaker 1: There are several outlets. I think one of the biggest
44:26
Speaker 1: outlet is to use your other independent pharmacists. We're all
44:30
Speaker 1: willing to help each other and build each other up.
44:33
Speaker 1: You know, we want this industry to stay alive. We're
44:35
Speaker 1: all fighting for it. So you know, if anyone wanted
44:39
Speaker 1: to reach out to me and ask questions, I love
44:41
Speaker 1: answering questions. I also like talking with other pharmacists to
44:44
Speaker 1: see what they have to do. Like I love hearing
44:46
Speaker 1: what Mandolin and Emily are talking about. You know, that's
44:50
Speaker 1: already giving me ideas, inspired, inspiring me. I also feel like,
44:54
Speaker 1: you know, being part of organizations, you'll just start networking
44:57
Speaker 1: and hearing ideas which might spark an idea for your
44:59
Speaker 1: s or also just you know, being part of Cardinal.
45:03
Speaker 1: Cardinal has been such a help in the pharmacy with
45:08
Speaker 1: ideas and support my business consultant, she's you know, the
45:12
Speaker 1: Medspall concept we've been running with. She's been so supportive
45:15
Speaker 1: and helping with ideas and you know, helping me with
45:18
Speaker 1: how Cardinal can help us. So I think just you know,
45:22
Speaker 1: finding those different outlets not only to spark your ideas
45:26
Speaker 1: and inspiration, but they also give you, you know, support
45:29
Speaker 1: and help along the way.
45:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, Manny and Emily, what about you, guys? What do
45:33
Speaker 4: you what advice do you have?
45:37
Speaker 5: Find someone who's passionate, and whenever you find that person
45:40
Speaker 5: that's passionate, help them grow that passion. Figure out ways
45:46
Speaker 5: to make that passion work for you. Because you telling
45:51
Speaker 5: somebody to do something, if they don't care about it,
45:54
Speaker 5: it's going to be really hard to get off the
45:56
Speaker 5: ground and start moving. So finding those people that have
45:59
Speaker 5: those passions and really plugging into them and really inspiring
46:04
Speaker 5: them and encouraging them to continue finding new ways to
46:09
Speaker 5: grow that passion, I think is really my desire as
46:13
Speaker 5: a manager. But I mean, Emily, coming from someone with
46:16
Speaker 5: the passion, what would you, Oh, yeah, I mean, I
46:18
Speaker 5: think it's definitely huge. I've always said I couldn't have
46:19
Speaker 5: made this happen without Mandy because you've got to have
46:22
Speaker 5: that support. You've got to have that person because also
46:24
Speaker 5: you know, you're trying to come up with all these
46:25
Speaker 5: ideas and you're like, is this even a good idea?
46:28
Speaker 5: Like I don't even know? Am I just dreaming over here?
46:30
Speaker 5: So it's just nice to have that support system and
46:33
Speaker 5: to help, you know, help you grow. You know. Also,
46:36
Speaker 5: I've said this several times I think are on this podcast,
46:38
Speaker 5: but never you know, don't be afraid to hear no,
46:40
Speaker 5: because you're probably gonna hear it more than you hear yes.
46:42
Speaker 5: So just get used to it always. You know, again,
46:46
Speaker 5: if it's a passion, you don't feel like it's worked,
46:48
Speaker 5: but you know, I'm always thinking and always dreaming, so
46:51
Speaker 5: just you know, just follow that passion and get out there.
46:55
Speaker 5: And you know, everyone's a friend. You never know what
46:57
Speaker 5: that's going to lead to. So you know, when we
46:59
Speaker 5: have of a you know, a drug rep come in,
47:02
Speaker 5: or if i'm like I said, if I'm out at
47:04
Speaker 5: this business or that business, it's just everybody's going to
47:06
Speaker 5: be my friend and we're going to see how we
47:07
Speaker 5: work together because something, something could come from this.
47:09
Speaker 3: So yeah, listening to all, listening to all three of you,
47:13
Speaker 3: and you know, tell me if I'm wrong. But I
47:15
Speaker 3: also feel like any of these great ideas of you
47:18
Speaker 3: guys are that you guys have and you're trying to implement,
47:21
Speaker 3: and you're trying to get your staff on board, and
47:23
Speaker 3: you're trying to get it rolling, social media, grassroots, everything
47:26
Speaker 3: that's you know, getting the ball rolling.
47:29
Speaker 4: Even if you're not getting.
47:31
Speaker 3: Immediate I guess either immediate successes when it comes to
47:37
Speaker 3: what you're trying to implement, Just keep it going, keep
47:39
Speaker 3: your head down, plow through, and eventually things will start
47:43
Speaker 3: rolling in. You guys agree with that, Yeah, yeah, I
47:48
Speaker 3: just I just wanted to make sure that that listeners
47:52
Speaker 3: know that because I think I think it's very especially
47:55
Speaker 3: for for small business owners. You want to implement something
47:59
Speaker 3: you wanted to work in me and you want to
48:00
Speaker 3: see that revenue come in.
48:02
Speaker 4: But doesn't always work like that.
48:03
Speaker 3: So as long as you're working hard and putting a
48:07
Speaker 3: passion into it, like I feel from you guys, I
48:09
Speaker 3: think the success.
48:10
Speaker 4: Is going to come well.
48:12
Speaker 5: And also you know, just being willing to be flexible
48:15
Speaker 5: and pivot, you know, because like I said, this is
48:17
Speaker 5: this whole wellness program is not even where we thought
48:19
Speaker 5: we were going to be. Wasn't even on our radar.
48:20
Speaker 5: We thought we were going to be doing a straight
48:22
Speaker 5: like diabetes program, you know, for people diagnosed with diabetes.
48:26
Speaker 5: And so you know, just being flexible, being open, being
48:29
Speaker 5: open minded, and just you know, going with what is
48:31
Speaker 5: going to work for the population and your pharmacy together.
48:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we'll have to do maybe another check in
48:39
Speaker 3: with all three of you, because I want to know
48:40
Speaker 3: how all these services are going down the line. I
48:42
Speaker 3: want to find out more about Kristen's METSPA. I want
48:45
Speaker 3: to find out how Manny and Emily, how you guys
48:49
Speaker 3: are expanding your your diabetes and your wellness offerings.
48:53
Speaker 4: This should be this should be really interesting to see
48:55
Speaker 4: how we go down the road.
48:56
Speaker 3: So I want to say thanks to Manny, Emily and
48:59
Speaker 3: christ for giving our listeners all their valuable insights on
49:02
Speaker 3: how to partner with your local businesses and expand your
49:05
Speaker 3: patient services.
49:05
Speaker 4: This is something everyone can.
49:07
Speaker 3: Do to make your pharmacy that much more of a
49:09
Speaker 3: community destination. Thanks for listening to today's episode of The
49:12
Speaker 3: Cardinal Health counter Talk podcast, and as a reminder, if
49:15
Speaker 3: this is your first time listening, make sure you subscribe
49:17
Speaker 3: and download The Counter the Cardinal Health counter Talk podcast
49:21
Speaker 3: wherever you get your podcasts. See you on the next episode,
49:24
Speaker 3: and to everyone listening, take care.