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Terry White Chemmart

Terry White case study

Pharmacies are becoming community healthcare hubs, as this case study shows.

The trend towards more personalised healthcare services is just what the doctor ordered for national pharmacy network Terry White Chemmart.

“I think pharmacy has a bigger role to play and there is scope for pharmacies to become the healthcare hubs for local communities and lower the cost of healthcare delivery by relieving general practitioners of some basic health services,” chief executive Anthony White (pictured) says.

“With such a large number of pharmacies staffed by highly qualified healthcare professionals, there is an opportunity to better utilise these skills to support better frontline healthcare delivery,” Anthony says.

Enhanced sales

“I don’t see growth coming purely in the form of fees but rather through the better performance of products. For example, offering free pain management clinics to build better relationships with customers, which can often translate to enhanced product sales over time.”

Another opportunity for the Australian pharmacy sector is in the area of immunisation, building on the steadily increasing role currently played in delivering services such as flu vaccinations.

“We feel that the pharmacy industry can deliver a less expensive and more convenient option for administering vaccinations. We have already partnered with major employers to help make vaccinations available to staff, and there is strong potential to move into other areas of immunisation,” Anthony says.

Improved service

The company recently announced a partnership with software and virtual pharmacist app provider MedAdvisor.

“This will help improve our service to customers by offering advance prescription orders to reduce in-store wait times, sending reminders to take specific medicines and access to broader medical information,” he says.

The expansion of the company’s professional services offering to improve customer engagement is clearly well under way and with growth of 3.5 per cent last year, the results speak for themselves. 

The CommBank Business Insights Report (the report) has been published in 2016 and will be published in 2017 solely for information purposes and is not to be consumed as advice or recommendation. The 2016 report makes reference to data sourced from an online survey of 2,195 business owners, decision makers and managers conducted on behalf of the Commonwealth Bank by DBM Consultants between August and September 2016. The 2017 report makes reference to data sourced from an online survey of 2,473 business owners, decision makers and managers conducted on behalf of the Commonwealth Bank by DBM Consultants between August and September 2017. The Bank believes that the information in the insights is correct and any opinions, conclusions or recommendations are reasonably held or made, based on the information available at the time of its compilation, but no representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is made or provided as to accuracy, reliability or completeness of any statement made in the report. Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48 123 123 124.