Help Your Community and Increase Profitability

As COVID-19 continues to be an issue across the globe, there is an increased demand for testing.

Carolina Pharmacy Group recognized the need for the testing and the opportunity it presented to help their community and also increase their profitability. The pharmacy group started doing curbside COVID testing (both antigen and PCR testing).

Kavel Bhathela, PharmD and COVID Testing Lead at Carolina Pharmacy, said, “testing itself is very safe, as long as you have the proper training and PPE in place.” Proper PPE protocols and safety around testing show that the rate of transmission among COVID test administrators is low. They gained their team’s confidence by properly training them about the transmission of COVID, proper hygiene and PPE usage. The pharmacy also provided education on the different tests available to the public and their application.

The pharmacy team quickly experienced high demand and was able to bring in more hands to help. Vic Patel, owner of Carolina Pharmacy, reached out to his medical colleagues and was able to secure nursing staff to do the testing on a contract basis (1099). This allowed the pharmacy team to minimize disruption to their regular workflow.

The pharmacy saw immediate ROI. Since December, the Carolina team has done well over 6,000 tests. The tests are cash payment only and they are making a gross profit of almost $100 per test. They are helping their community, keeping their team and patients safe, and helping other pharmacies be successful.