News - Page 84

Taking the Stigma out of Stoma

Hints and tips on how to engage your ostomy patients

United Drug were delighted to welcome back Coloplast for another Ostomy webinar session in February. In addition to their dedicated Ostomy Care Team, United Drug partner with their suppliers to disseminate as much educational material as possible in their ongoing mission to help their customers to reach out to their Ostomy patients and offer the care and support they need. Their aim is to provide a service that includes educational materials, customer support and an extensive product range, all of which ensures better quality of life and patient care where possible.

The webinar was led by Lucy Fitzgerald, a Coloplast Ostomy Nurse and she touched on the top 5 frequently asked questions by ostomy patients. The goal was to help empower pharmacists to chat confidently to ostomates and help them get the support that suits their individual needs. The discussion also identified and reviewed patient needs, treatments, useful tips, and guidance on how best to interact with the ostomates at the pharmacy. Lucy also provided an information booklet, launched recently by Coloplast to assist the pharmacist to have better conversations with Ostomates.

Access the video and webinar materials:

To access the webinar recording, please logon to www.udw.ie where you will find the video recap and its materials within our resource hub. The webinar materials can be found in the description box of the video recording.

Lucy was also joined by Kathy Daly, an Ostomy patient. K athy gave an invaluable insight from her perspective on how important the community pharmacist is to her care and how this additional community support can assist in helping ostomates to live a full and comfortable life.

Webinar Key Takeaways:

• Effective ways to have the conversation with your ostomy patients

• Correct usage of technical product language for discussions with ostomates

• Answering the most common questions retail pharmacies get asked

• Enhance your knowledge with additional sources of information

Ostomy Customer Care 01 463 2300 | Visit www.udw.ie

Irish Pharmacies – Family Businesses Under Threat

By Paul Keogh, Family Business Advisor The role of the community pharmacist is akin to the role of the community GP or the local vet. The family-owned pharmacy provides a much broader role than just dispensing. They are a key part of the network that binds a community together. However, “family-owned” needs to be re-defined in marketing terms to re-establish itself as a competitive advantage.

The industry will continue to consolidate and more big chains such as Bestway enter the market will is under threat. So, does “family-owned” matter to the consumer?

The answer is no unless you find a way to differentiate yourself. This leads on to many family discussions regarding the future of our family-owned pharmacy or pharmacies. Do we stay independent, do we join a buying/ marketing group, or do we sell?

If you are a pharmacy owner and you have no children interested in joining the business, then the decision is easy.

If you are a pharmacy owner and you have children interested in joining the business, the decisions regarding the future are not so clear-cut.

Owning and working as an independent pharmacist today can be difficult. Besides the business aspects of increased competition, increased administration, declining margins, increased costs etc, the human aspect of the business can be the most taxing. The increased administration means that many community pharmacists have to bring work home at night. To take time off, you need to find a suitably qualified replacement. Finding a locum can be very difficult, especially in rural areas.

It is never too early to have a family discussion about the future of the family business. It is more common for families to either avoid the discussion or to be discussing the future of the business when it is too late.

If one or more of your children have spend five years of education and training to become a pharmacist with the expectation of taking over the family business and during this time you decide to sell, this can be very disheartening for the children.

Selling might be the right decision for a number of reasons, not just that you got an offer you couldn’t refuse. You may, as a family, believe the days are numbered for an independent pharmacy in your area because competition is coming to town. There can be a whole host of reasons that make selling the right decision, but this should be discussed openly and honestly with the family.

You may have always imagined your pharmacy as staying in the family and passing the business on to the next generation. Very often, the next generation have a different view of how to bring the business forward and many next generation pharmacists have transformed the business once they have been given control.

In terms of succession planning, “retirement” is a difficult area for many families. It is quite common for two generations to be working in the pharmacy, but with the “owner” fully in charge. The children are merely “employees”. The transfer of “ownership” may not happen until the owner dies and, in many cases, the children are middle aged adults when this happens. It can be difficult to “let go”.

In my book, The Family Business Book, I give practical tips to help families navigate their way through all these type of issues.