What Independent Pharmacy Owners Must Know to Thrive in 2024 and Beyond

As an independent pharmacy owner, you know the changes and upheavals rocking the pharmacy industry in 2024. Navigating these choppy waters has never proven more challenging or essential to surviving and thriving. While the trials facing industry players can feel harrowing at times, they also offer opportunities for improvement and growth. 

Let’s look at ways to increase your independent pharmacy’s competitiveness while capitalizing on industry trends. Capitalize on Value-Added ServicesSignificant trends in the pharmacy industry have emerged in recent years, fundamentally reshaping how local pharmacies operate and how customers perceive the role of pharmacies and pharmacists in meeting their healthcare needs. 

Today’s pharmacists fill various new roles, from performing immunizations to participating in health screenings and coachings, adjusting medication therapy, complex nonsterile compounding, medication therapy management, and more. Currently, the pharmacies most likely to offer the services listed above are big-name, box pharmacies.

Why Value-Added Services Matter

Many community pharmacy owners have yet to fully explore the addition of these services due to concerns about perceived workload, time management, and facility limitations. However, as customers continue to expect more from pharmacies, capitalizing on these value-added services is an excellent way to forge stronger relationships and loyalty, ramp up revenues, and find ways to upsell repeat customers and their caretakers. 

A fine example is the addition of neuropathy therapy options to your pharmacy’s service listings. This condition impacts millions of Americans, primarily those diagnosed with diabetes. You fill their prescriptions for diabetic medications regularly, which makes starting a conversation about neuropathy and scheduling an assessment a cinch. 

The NeuropaCalm Care Program has taken the guesswork out of targeting neuropathy patients for you. We have the marketing materials, scripts, and wraparound system in place to help you generate more sales by spreading the word about neuropathy and effective therapeutic options. 

As a pharmacist, you are perfectly positioned to quickly and effectively target an audience that already looks to you as a trusted medical professional. There’s no better way to upsell current customers, increase loyalty, and forge lasting relationships. People come to your independent pharmacy for the personal touch you provide. Let us help you enhance it with the NeuropaCalm Care Program. ​

Offer Telehealth Services

The importance of providing remote healthcare services to patients was powerfully underscored during the COVID pandemic. Offering telehealth services remains essential for your pharmacy to capitalize on a changing market. Pharmacies that successfully leverage this service offering effortlessly increase their scope of services while enhancing patient engagement. 

Today’s patients are looking for convenience, accessibility, and personalization. By providing telehealth services at your facility, you accommodate these needs while continuing to scale up and expand your base of operations. You also elevate your practice to that of an independent pharmacy online, which indicates to customers your commitment to technology, convenience, and growth within the industry. ​

Why Telehealth Services Matter

The possibilities associated with offering telehealth services at your pharmacy are genuinely limitless. Not only do these opportunities extend into your facility’s broader reach, but they ensure patients receive necessary services, even in rural locations. Driving distance no longer becomes an obstacle to pharmacies and patients, which means a limitless expansion of your patient base. 

There are many ways that pharmacies can partner with providers to enhance their telehealth services, including turnkey solutions. Moreover, depending on your niche, you can utilize telehealth services in more innovative ways to accelerate your business and overcome regional limitations. 

For example, a compounding pharmacy that finds it difficult to get prescriptions from a local doctor can turn to a telemedicine provider to streamline its operations and process. Specific diagnoses like peripheral neuropathy provide another example where telehealth services prove vital. Pharmacies can use telehealth services to work directly with NeuropaCalm experts to ensure their patients receive the best interventions based on their condition and its progress. Telehealth services are also an excellent way to communicate with patients, monitor their progress, and answer questions and concerns. ​

Personalized Medicine and Pharmacogenomics

A groundbreaking shift in healthcare is taking place, and your pharmacy must gain ground now. The emergence of personalized medicine and pharmacogenomics is forging a pathway for medical interventions tailored to an individual’s genetic profile. The result? Safer and more effective therapeutic applications. 

Independent pharmacy owners can capitalize on this trend by focusing on optimized treatment. This approach allows for the most effective selection of medications based on an individual’s genetic makeup and medical history. Pharmacogenomics can also reduce the trial-and-error process associated with finding the proper medication for each patient. ​

Why Personalized Medicine and Pharmacogenomics Matter

As primary care decentralization continues, the traditional idea view of medicine as occurring between one doctor and one patient with a single point of coordination is vanishing. Nowhere is this evolution better underscored than in the expectations of Gen Z and Millennials. These two generations are far more likely to visit a local pharmacy than a primary care doctor for their health needs. Is your pharmacy equipped and prepared to meet their needs and expectations? 

Your pharmacy can enhanceits business by offering services focused on personalized medicine and pharmacogenomics. Consider ways to collaborate with genetic testing laboratories and healthcare providers. 

You can then offer therapy plans optimized around genetic testing. Best of all, a personalized medicine approach at an independent pharmacy can be integrated into the value-added services you offer and enhanced through telehealth medicine offerings. ​

Ensure Your Independent Pharmacy Thrives in 2024

Bob Dylan said it best: “The times they are a-changin’.” Nowhere is this more evident than the independent pharmacy world. But the changes and challenges of this period also offer unique opportunities to get ahead of the game. By adding value-added services to your pharmacy’s plate coupled with telehealth offerings and a personalized medicine approach, you can lay the groundwork for a vibrant future.

We’re here to help you get the ball rolling on one of the most disruptive, game-changing new value-added services on the market today, the NeuropaCalm Care Program. This at-home, cash-based therapy takes the guesswork out of getting started with value-added services. We’ve done our research so that you see optimized results. 

Peripheral neuropathy impacts up to 50 percent of the patients and caregivers who walk through your door every day. Provide them with the solution they need to get back to independent living. Innovative will ensure your pharmacy thrives in 2024 and beyond. Let’s connect to discuss your pharmacy’s needs and how we can collaborate to ensure 2024’s your best year ever.