At the time I write this, many owners are doing huge hours. The shortage in pharmacists is putting a lot of pressure on teams, with owners stepping in (once again) to fill the void. I am often having conversations with owners who are doing 70+ hours per week. And the cracks are showing. Stress levels, arguments and mental health issues are popping up more often.
But I want to bring your attention to an issue which I would like owners to consider more. There is an old saying that a business will never run as well as an owner operated pharmacy. It was a commonly held belief which many had experienced in their time. In an interesting observation, in August 2021 I was presenting a session at the WA Pharmacy Forum and was looking at my top 6 performing pharmacies. Of these, 3 were owner operated, 3 were manager operated. So, that old saying doesn’t necessarily ring true when looking at the best performers (granted a small sample size).
What I would like pharmacy owners to think about is, what is an owner’s role? It is not an owner’s role to just be on duty and knock out 200 scripts per day. That is what an employee does. You can hire that (assuming pharmacists are available to hire of course). I do see some owners who spend too much time being an “employee” and not an “employer”. I do understand though, an owner’s presence in the store often brings higher levels of customer service and employee’s compliance with systems and procedures. But at what cost?
What opportunities do owners miss? Being a pharmacist on duty, they are often very busy with scripts, phone calls, customers, vaccinations, managing employee matters, suppliers and on and on. They become so busy doing the things the business does, that they miss the opportunities.
