Glad you liked the ideas, Brudenell! Now, MY question to you....when
will one of these wonderful pharmacies open near MY house?
I'm reposting my comment here:
==============================
Hi brudenell,
With so many good ideas already posted, I doubted I could think of
anything original! Most of my ideas came to me from having a husband
who is in and out of hospitals, and pharmacies!
How about giving away travel pill boxes or weekly pill boxes for
folks with numerous pills, like these, with your brand/logo on them?
http://www.911medalert.com/catalog.asp?action=showcat&id=111
Have ?band-aids? printed with your logo, and hand them out during the
grand opening. Sell boxes of these ?branded? bandages at a cost less
than commercial bandages.
A handout, with your logo and website address can be printed out by
the patient, or passed out by the pharmacy, showing the correct days
and times to take a medication. I know from experience that many
patients can get confused when the label says three times a day. A
handout that explains three times a day as being every 8 hours, or
something to that effect. Perhaps each customer can have a password to
access their personal drug information online,
E-mail refill reminders can be sent, using HTML format, with your logo
(of course) for patients that sign up for automatic refill reminders.
Set up a web page that features prescription information. Offer
coupons for the café, flowers, chocolates, etc. Have the site be the
home page on the in-house internet computers.
A prescription delivery service, for a small fee, like Pizza Hut! Many
seniors would take advantage of this.
Another idea for prescriptions: My husband has had numerous hospital
stays and surgeries. Each time he is discharged, we ran into the
problem of filling the prescriptions, or picking up medical supplies
such as catheters, TED hose, etc. on the way home from the hospital.
He was too uncomfortable to wait in the car while I went in and waited
for the prescription to be refilled, and it was difficult to leave him
alone at home while I went out to fill the prescriptions. Before his
last surgery and since he is a retired veteran, he went through
military medical insurance. Everything was done beforehand! The doctor
ordered all necessary medications and medical supplies BEFORE the
hospital stay. I was truly impressed. We picked up all the medications
he would need for the two weeks following surgery, a week before the
surgery. It was a lifesaver! --- Since the doctors will be
transmitting patient prescriptions to the pharmacy via PDA, suggest to
them that they pre-order pos-surgical meds beforehand. To avoid
patient confusion with meds needed after surgery and those they may
currently be taking, have the pharmacy deliver them when the patient
arrives home. (My husband would have confused the meds he needed after
surgery with the ones he took before, if I had not been there to
intervene) I would think many seniors would like this idea. Of course,
the bags and bottles will have your logo, but the personal delivery
service will make the ?branding? impression and build loyalty!
Carry a selection of specialty health care items that are hard to
find, such as arthritis aids, canes, etc. If your pharmacy is the only
one around to carry these items, your store will grab more business. I
don?t know about Canada, but where I live in the US, many of the items
that makes my husband?s life easier are hard to find. I find them
online, but I would like to be able to buy them at the corner
drugstore.
Have a soda counter in the café, with soda ?jerks??..some of my
fondest childhood memories are having a freshly made lime-aide, with a
cherry, while sitting on a stool that twirled, as my grandmother had
her prescriptions filled.
Sincerely,
crabcakes |
