“When I started, I just wanted to make a living…”
– Chris Cornelison

Every year, PDS recognizes entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence in all areas of pharmacy – from innovation and financial performance to personal commitment to their business and community. This year’s Pharmacy Entrepreneur of the Year Award went to Chris Cornelison – the owner of Iuka Discount Drugs and Saltillo Pharmacy and Solutions, who proudly received the award in front of more than 1,000 of his colleagues at the 2015 PDS Conference in Orlando.

What makes Chris Cornelison and Iuka so remarkable?

As a pharmacy owner, for the past 17 years, Chris’s main priority was to do everything possible in order to provide the best service to his customers. His dedication motivated him to develop and launch his own line of supplements called Solutions Rx, which also included a group of nutrient depletion products called Restore. “Drug nutrient depletion is when a prescription medication takes vitamins and minerals out of the body,” he explained. “The depletion of vitamins is what often causes the common side effects of medication. So we created a line focused on offsetting side effects and keeping patients healthy in four main areas – diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and birth control/hormones.”

The results were amazing: with currently80 customers in 35 states, and more than 5,000 bottles shipped, the demand for Solutions Rx keeps growing. And now, Chris plans to add 10 new products to his line in order to help even more patients overcome nutrient depletion.

Always Pushing to Do More

Steve Jobs once said, If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time. The success of Iuka Pharmacy didn’t come overnight either. When Chris Cornelison became a PDS member in 2008, he couldn’t dream about what he would achieve. With climbing cost of prescription drugs and declining third-party reimbursements, Chris struggled making his sales figures. His main goal was to increase prescription volume, so he could look ahead into the future with confidence.

With the help of his PDS Business Coach and Implementation Specialist, Chris focused on three fundamental principles: patient adherence, team motivation and customer service. The Iuka team worked very hard on implementing the cutting-edge programs to get the company vision across the finish line, and the results were truly astonishing:

Gained Solid Control over Patient Adherence

Never-ending workload and inefficient operations was a long-time struggle for Chris and his team. Customers with multiple prescriptions often called several times during the month, minimizing the ability of the pharmacy staff to build efficiencies that would free up valuable time to devote to customer service. The need to help patients easily manage their medication prompted Iuka to introduce the SyncRx program to both store locations. SyncRx became especially valuable with an added Dispill component that offered an adherence packaging solution to all of Iuka’s patients. This allowed them to capture and effectively serve more than 1,500 new patients in 2014 alone.

Improved Team Engagement and Motivation

Chris knew that he always had a great team beside him, no matter how busy their schedule would get. However, the need for operational efficiency and leaner communication between team members brought Chris the idea to implement the 4DI Process, so everyone could stay on track with the company goals and standards. In this process, his PDS Business Coach and Implementation Specialist helped revamp his company uRock program by encouraging more sophisticated ways for the team members to praise each other’s work. As a result of this investment, both locations experienced a tremendous increase in employee morale and customer satisfaction. So much so that, Saltillo Pharmacy & Solutions was voted “2014 Best Pharmacy of North Mississippi” by the readers of the North Mississippi Daily Journal.

Focused on Sales and Customer Retention

The team’s motivation for 2014 was “Don’t miss any opportunities to offer solutions that could solve patients’ problems and increase profits.” With declining sales and third-party reimbursements, Chris wanted to do everything possible to increase prescription volume and open up new selling opportunities. So they focused on removing low-profit margins on OTC products that didn’t sell regularly, and replaced them with higher profit opportunities. They also implemented a customer referral program offering coupons to off-site flu clinic patients. As a result of these efforts at the end of 2014, sales were increased by 20% and the net profit from new business went up by $27,000.

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Desire to do better and set higher expectations for the team is what makes Chris’s pharmacy so successful. “It’s been fun; it’s great,” he said. “But I’ve got a great team around me, good people who know how to do their job well and who work well together. It’s more than me. We’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

We are proud to provide continuing support in making great things happen for Chris Cornelison and his team and look forward to the future success of Iuka Discount Drugs and Saltillo Pharmacy and Solutions.

What were the most impactful strategies your pharmacy implemented that have produced powerful, measurable and tangible results? Let us know in the comments or submit your essay to inspire others.

Have you been thinking about implementing a new program or service in your pharmacy but have no idea where to start? Download our FREE ebook, The Pharmacy Owner’s Guide to an Exceptionally Effective Implementation today.

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 “If anyone did not find their $10,000 it is their fault for not paying attention. Now we have to turn the ideas into results.” 

– Gary Bowman Oxford, NC

For those who attended the Independent Pharmacy Business Growth Conference in Orlando – there were so many big ideas shared and worth implementing into real-world pharmacy strategies. While we can’t cover every concept presented at the event, in the coming weeks, we will be publishing a series of blog posts to lay out our view of the most actionable independent pharmacy ideas that were turned into real tangible results. This isn’t just hype: last year alone many pharmacy entrepreneurs were able to turn innovative ideas into robust strategies worth at least $10,000 of new profits. We are happy to share their success stories with you.

Tom Choquette

BERT’S PHARMACY

IF YOU DON’T MEASURE IT, YOU WON’T CHANGE IT

In January 2014, Tom Choquette of Bert’s Pharmacy bought out a business partner of 31 years and addeda second location to his existing pharmacy in rural Nebraska. The area wasn’t growing and his pharmacy had to compete with eight other pharmacies, including a Walgreens and a Walmart. Tom knew he needed to make a change, but wasn’t sure where to begin. He attended the PDS conference and brought home a handful of ideas he wanted to implement in his pharmacy right away. His best hope was to continue to grow, in spite of mail-order services and declining reimbursements. Tom’s entrepreneurial spirit and desire to succeed inspired him to become a PDS member and begin making baby steps toward his dream.

After the initial discovery call, Coach John Marshall and Implementation Specialist Lisa Baker identified 3 main improvement opportunities and deployed a comprehensive plan for getting Bert’s Pharmacy where Tom wanted it to be. They focused their attention on boosting employee engagement, implementing specialty pharmacy niches and revamping marketing. Additionally, John and Lisa emphasized the need to measure the progress in order to improve the results – because there is no change without measuring.

Employee Engagement

Tom knew he had an exceptional team of employees who were eager to embrace the change and provide support for the new program implementation. They just needed more guidance, so Lisa and John recommended turning what had been monthly birthday parties into “team meetings”, so everybody was able to collaborate on a vision, goals, marketing strategies and other tools needed to run the business more efficiently. As a result, Tom’s team became more productive and he was able to expand by hiring a marketing director and a store manager.

Specialty Niches

At the PDS conference, Tom heard many successful pharmacy entrepreneurs emphasize the importance of developing a “specialty” area to expand revenue streams. This idea prompted Tom to launch an immunization program at several schools in the area and, as a result, Bert’s Pharmacy went from giving no flu shots in 2011 to giving 1,300 in 2014. In addition to providing quality vaccines, Tom and his team implemented an educational program to keep school staff members up-to-date on all vaccinations they needed, including DPT, Pneumovax and Zostavax.

Pharmacy Marketing

As a tech-savvy entrepreneur, Tom understood the importance of incorporating technology into his marketing plan. In a short few months, he revamped his website and created a Facebook page to stay in touch with current patients as well as attract new business. He also added a text messaging service that notified customers when their prescriptions were ready, and the Rx-to-go app with Internet refill capabilities.

On top of the new technology, Tom’s team implemented customer service programs for building stronger relationships with the patients. They launched a Thank You program for sending letters to first-time patients welcoming them to the pharmacy and explaining customer benefits. A new customer birthday program has also been implemented as a way to encourage repeat business.

Progress Measurement

At the end of the first year, Tom was able to measure his pharmacy’s success and discovered that it was even more significant than he had anticipated! As a result of implementing new programs, improving team engagement and boosting marketing efforts, overall pharmacy sales increased by 19% and prescriptions filled were up 7%. In addition to the improved sales and prescription numbers, Bert’s Pharmacy raised enough funds to expand one of its stores into a bigger location.

Tom Choquette agrees that one of the greatest lessons he has learned as a PDS member is that measuring everything is the key to success. He will continue developing specialty programs, marketing, employee engagement and financial data usage; however, setting new goals and tracking the progress of his stores in each of these areas will remain his main focus in 2015.

What were the most impactful strategies your pharmacy implemented that have produced powerful, measurable and tangible results? Let us know in the comments or submit your essay to inspire others.

Have you been thinking about implementing a new program or service in your pharmacy but have no idea where to start? Download our FREE ebook, The Pharmacy Owner’s Guide to an Exceptionally Effective Implementation today.

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