Attract more interest by promoting pharmacy services

Consider the following scenario, demonstrating the value of promotion in attracting the interest of customers and helping to improve their health.

Sanjeev has recognised that MUR performance has declined for the pharmacy over the past 12 months, mostly because the team’s focus has moved on to other business activities. However, this is a valuable income stream and he wants to maximise it.

How can he achieve this?

• The first step he takes is to identify when different patient groups visit the pharmacy.
• He looks at the pharmacy data, looking for trends, and notices something. Over a four week period, it appears that prescriptions for patients with asthma are more frequent on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. With a little more investigation, he discovers that the asthma clinic at the local surgery now takes place on these days.
• Sanjeev installs a flat-screen monitor in the pharmacy near the prescription desk, which he attaches to a laptop. He creates a short presentation about using inhalers effectively and schedules this to run on a loop every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.
• He holds a meeting with the pharmacy staff to discuss promoting MURs for patients with asthma. They agree how they will approach patients after they have handed in their prescription.
• The promotion ran for four weeks. After a slow first week, asthma MURs increased by 10 per week for the remaining period.
• While the focus has now moved on, the team continue to identify suitable patients to approach for an asthma MUR.