Background
Northwood Dispensing Chemist is a family owned and run group of six pharmacies in Staffordshire. Northwood’s pride themselves on patient care and having their customers health and best interests in all they do.
Post Covid, the pharmacies were in disarray. Harvey Northwood, Chairperson and Director, explains, “The dispensary environment was unpleasant to say the very least, increasing prescription volume, MDS patients, and the never-ending phone calls, it was a complete nightmare. As a result, staff turnover was at an all-time high, and this had a drastic effect on the bottom line, so something had to be done quickly.”
How We Helped
When exploring how a Hub & Spoke solution could help, Harvey found other solutions price prohibitive. That’s when he turned to Positive Solutions and realised there was a solution available at a fraction of the price, all from his existing PMR and EPOS supplier, and he was up and running at the hub within six weeks.
Harvey explains how “Analyst Central Fill (ACF) offered a cost effective and efficient Hub & Spoke solution so that we could develop our central hub. While ACF does interface with a robot, we chose not to, so the hub process we use is a manual process.”
Outcome
All six pharmacies in the group are now fed by the hub, which is currently assembling in the region of 65% of the group's monthly prescriptions and still has capacity for more. This also means the hub is purchasing approximately 65% of the group’s monthly stock, so they can create efficiencies with purchasing.
Harvey explains that “ACF has an integral stock control system, and this just works perfectly for us. The accuracy is unbelievable, and the dispensing process is simple. We have a hub manager and two members of staff frequently assembling over 2,000 prescriptions per day.”
At the spoke they have also seen a truly unbelievable difference, Harvey states that “the dispensaries are still busy, but they are organised.” This has led to:
- A significant reduction in dispensary stock, which also means less orders to place and unpack.
- Staff turnover is now at an all-time low. Locum pharmacists now want to work there, even at a lower rate, as they know their day will be less chaotic.
- Maximising service opportunities with NMS and Blood Pressure as the main two.
- Patients are extremely happy. By using Analyst Handout the patients also receive a text message when their hub prescription returns to the pharmacy.
ACF has also ensured that they have time to deliver Pharmacy First services across the group, whereas many other pharmacies are struggling to find the time to deliver. Harvey adds, “December was an absolute breeze! Christmas has always been a time of dread, but the difference with ACF was unbelievable. An enjoyable Christmas for once. Most importantly, ACF has enabled Northwood Dispensing Chemists Limited to return to a profit-making business; without it, we often say, we’d be dead in the water.”
Get in touch to learn more about how Positive Solutions could help your pharmacy.
