Page 35 - Demo

34 THE PHARMACY STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT FROM PAG 33 ensure all your information is up to date and correct. E-commerce, on the other hand, is more of a challenge, as it relies on either your brand of franchise to ensure you have a good e-commerce experience, or a local technical ability to ensure that people can buy from your pharmacy online. A common misperception about e-commerce is that you need to be online for customers 24 hours a day. Your website can take orders as you sleep, so it’s important that as soon as you open your shop that you’re monitoring your requests and that you’re able to execute orders as they come in.5 Telehealth The genie finally appears to be out of the bottle for telehealth... Stymied by a lack of government subsidy for many years, things changed rapidly for this health service delivery model. First for GPs and now for pharmacists. With recent developments in electronic prescriptions, as well as the necessity to provide online healthcare services, most especially from general practitioners, the need for pharmacies to have an online or telephone consult with patients is becoming increasingly important. Many patients would happily receive their medications remotely and this is possible under current guidelines, though it’s essential that pharmacists are able to consult with every patient prior to a prescription being dispensed. If a pharmacy informs its patients that they will facilitate online consultations or on phone consultations based on appointments, then the market opens to a whole new world of convenience and safety for patients. In an article written in early 2019, publisher SmartCompany identified telehealth as a market disruptor. A year later everything would change and healthcare professionals would find themselves in a situation where they would have no choice but to be able to provide these services. Recent articles in the press have also highlighted concerns from health professionals that patients are not seeking their regular care and not fulfilling their prescriptions as regularly as they had been before isolation. In the first quarter of this year, 73,872 MBS telehealth services had been delivered already, compared with 54,141 in the same quarter last year. That is 36 per cent growth even before the peak of isolation measures were in place.6 Practical tip: Government subsidised health services delivered by pharmacists and provisioned by telehealth are currently being supported.7 Customers appreciate the convenience and the flexible delivery models that ensure continuity of care even in these TO PAG 36 Recommend Chemists’ Own® for antifungal treatment www.chemistsown.com.au RETAIL PHARMACY • JUL 2020 THIS MEDICINE MAY NOT BE RIGHT FOR YOU. ALWAYS READ THE LABEL BEFORE PURCHASE. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS FOR USE. IF SYMPTOMS PERSIST, TALK TO YOU HEALTH PROFESSIONAL.