Hi
I run a discounter model based pharmacy. Ask me anything
[AMA] I am a pharmacy owner, ask me anything
pharm86 on 07/11/2018 - 20:15
closed Comments
Given that you can get big discounts from suppliers, do you export Aussie vitamins / baby formula to Asia? That seems to be even more profitable than your own business, don't you think?
Any exporter(s) actually approached you for this niche?Because the profits are quite low for that market; much lower than news.com would have you believe
That is really encouraging pharma86, considering the magnitude of the drug problem in Australia, I had no idea such a place existed.
Here is what I do know, the TGA and many other drug addiction specialists have stated we are fast heading down the path of the US, GP’s are being cracked down on big time on the prescribing of opioid’s.
I also know that a lot of pharmacies don’t offer MAT because they don’t want ‘that type’ on their premises and I know first hand that some medical practices will not employ doctors who have ORT patients because once again, they don’t want ‘that type’ in their surgeries.
How do I know this? Because I am a registered drug addict who was on Suboxone for 3 years and 9 months and through the kindness of the head pharmacist who got to know me over a couple of years I now have been employed by said pharmacy for over 2 and half years handling, delivering and being responsible for every S8 drug imaginable.
Only yesterday I was handed, entrusted with and counted out 7 vials of dilaudid, 5 fentanyl patches and 22 tablets of oxycodone and then signed the nursing home DD book.
I don’t think too many pharmacies in Australia would employ a known drug addict, entrust them with every S8 imaginable and let them have the run of the pharmacy.Wow - that is really great to hear!
Thank you :-)
Good on you mate
Thank you :-)
From your experience, what would be a good way to educate kids about drug ab/use ? Is it nearly impossible for an average family to raise kids who wont be exposed to drug use ?
I will try to be brief as it is a very involved subject and I don’t want to hijack pharm86’s thread :-)
I currently run a closed support group for addicts but there is a public page with some really great information on every aspect of addiction https://www.facebook.com/codeineaddiction/?ref=bookmarks
For most, addiction starts with a legitimate injury and pain killers are prescribed.
These painkillers are highly addictive and it is only now that there has been a massive crack down on their prescribing, way too late for many - Oxycontin is what started the opioid epidemic in the US.
Once someone becomes addicted there is so much shame and stigma attached that the person suffering is shamed into silence and isolation.
It all really boils down to education on so many levels but I would have to say stigma is the biggest issue. People from all walks of life need to be able to safely put their hand up and say ‘I need help’
I’m quoting a snippet from a post I did in a new support group we have just started specifically for families affected by addiction.“It starts with the education system, which is based on a learning criteria to help students pass certain assessments and tests, and is not preparing people for the “real” world.
If they simply made 7th grade and 8th grade students take one semester of “Addiction Prevention,” which was taught with a method of truth, then if someone hands them a beer, a Vicodin, a Percocet, or any other drug, now they will know that taking that drug daily would lead to tolerance, dependence, addiction, brain changes that are long-term and difficult and timely to correct, and so on and so forth.”Its a brief answer but I hope it helps?
I applaud your effort mate
Demand for opiate related MAT is falling as people move to other drugs (like meth)
Awesome stuff marspike11!
How much is your electricity bill
Larger than my home electricity bill that's for sure
Would you share financials of a pharmacy ?
Capital : How much minimum investment is required ( in terms of liquid cash, loans, etc)
Skills : To run this business, do you need tickets/certificates of any kind ?
Income : What are the profits like (even approximates would do) ?Some of these are broad - depending on location etc - but am after a back of the envelope calculation.
Cheers,
Capital: depends if it is profitable or green field
Skills: I wish I did an MBA at times for the management side of things
Income: variable year and year/pharmacy to pharmacy
How much are u making a year ie business and how much is your salary>
"it depends" :)
I cap my salary at 85k and the dividend is different each year
between $200K to $300K?
panadol vs advil for pain after running or playing basketball? what is easier on the body and doesn't do as much damage to kidney or liver or something?
Depends;go ask your local pharmacist regarding what is suitable for you
How do you cope with people during flu season? Like of course theres a lot of sick people, how d you manage your overall health?
Get vaccinated and stay fit
I'm gonna do that every winter just to be safe. thanks
Do you buy direct from smaller brand owners for non-medical and general retail items or is it typically through distributors?
Both direct and wholesalers, cant run a large shop without using both
Do your pharmacists get rest breaks? I know some people who work at chemist warehouse and they only get 1 unpaid 30 minute lunch break in an 8+ hour shift, AFAIK this would be against the law but maybe there is an exception in this field?
All breaks are given according to award
Does the pharmacy award include rent breaks or not?
30 minutes + 10 min breaks depending on how long the shift is
@pharm86: Just looked it up, seems like the usual of CW overworking their staff as expected.
All employees working 7.6 or more hours on any day will be entitled to an unpaid
meal break of not less than 30 minutes and no greater than one hour duration plus
two 10 minute paid rest pauses.
A big criticism i've seen of the busy discount pharmacy owners is that they have almost no responsibility when it comes to mistakes made, as far as I'm aware the owner can majorly under staff the dispensary, giving pharmacists almost no time to correctly check their work, just pushing them to dispense as quickly as possible but have zero responsibility for any mistakes made due to exhausted overworked pharmacists that could be career ending for them.
Is this a real issue in your opinion or something that people just blow out of proportion on the internet?
Does this make it harder to find good people willing to take up the Pharmacist in charge position? AFAIK it's a lot more responsibility and liability for not much extra pay.
I try my hardest to make sure this is not an issue at my shop, but cant speak for everyone else in the industry
Do you think it is appropriate for pharmacy's to be owned only by pharmacists? Why can't Joe Bloggs buy one?
Because they wouldn't care about the providing healthcare part
So a medical doctor (not a pharmacist) couldn't own one because they wouldn't care about providing health care?
I don't think only pharmacists care about health care.
Conflict of interest in this scenario
Do you get pissed off when people come in asking you to certify their documents?
https://www.findapharmacy.com.au/our-services/document-witne…
Only when you ask them to wait (because other people were ahead of them) and they stare at you impatiently
I know right! Doing a public service at no cost and they get impatient!
I worked in a pharmacy in Melbourne CBD. Lots of students in that area so constantly getting requests for ID photocopies and certifications and the owner was charging $2 per page for certifications lmao. It deterred ALOT of people from asking to certify documents. Believe it or not it's allowed and the post office in the city apparently charges $4 per page. But we did have to deal with the occasional angry local who thought it was illegal and threatening to report us etc.
I always tried to send people to the police station to do certifications so I could avoid spending 30 minutes signing documents but apparently some people are too rich to care.
@Astrohawke:
I always thought that that certification for a document can be charged as a professional, but certification as a JP couldn't be charged?edit: Misread that line that you said it was allowed.
Are generic drug brands (same active ingredient) normally as good as the originals?
They undergo testing to show they are bioequivilent meaning they are absorbed in the body to the same level
Any news when generic Cialis will be available in Australia?
http://www.commbarmatters.com.au/2017/09/04/amendment-to-cia…
There already kinda is, it's called adcirca, made by the same company, little bit cheaper marketed for heart conditions
Oops.
I'm not a pharmacist, but have looked at interest for many years from aside.
From what I'm seeing the pharmacy guild is one of the most powerful lobbyist in Australia and is run by baby boomers (Australia as a whole is managed by baby boomers)
The community pharmacy agreements favours the baby boomers at large and is setup so they can have a monopoly on the industry, the pharmacy that they own are their super/retirement fund.
It's setup in a way that it is unfair on pharmacist that want to own a pharmacy of their own. Due to the restriction placed on obtaining a PBS license, opening a new pharmacy without a license is not sustainable (no one will want to pay full price for subsidized meds).
Because of the restrictive community pharmacy agreement that's why phamarcy cost $1.5mil+ most of the costs in pricing are good will.
Do you think the agreement should change to allow new owners to have a fair go at owning a community pharmacy?
If it doesn't change then i think local community pharmacy will soon be like your local butchers, hardware and deli, they will disappear. The juggernaut discount stores will take over.
I'm not a baby boomer and I got in and am doing reasonably well for myself
It would be nice to think that you can remove restrictions on pharmacy ownership, and the "local small business" will return, but actually the opposite will happen.
The laws have all been designed to prevent corporate ownership of healthcare - restrictions on the number of stores one pharmacist can own, restrictions on opening new stores, restrictions on moving existing stores, restrictions on collocation with a supermarket.
They go on and on, but they still failed to prevent a group like chemist warehouse controlling 100 stores in the country. This is not the fault of chemist warehouse, but those who chose not to act when loopholes in the law were abused - The pharmacy (owners) guild.
The guild has always acted to help themselves first, campaigning to reduce overtime rates and sunday rates for pharmacists and assistants, preventing pharmacists from becoming health consultants by tying the payment of services to store licences, ignoring and contradicting the evidence that new pharmacy schools were oversuppling graduates - always blaming graduates for not moving to remote country towns.
The guild also acts to enrich itself.
The guild campaigned for electronic scripts, only after setting up and promoting their own escript company. This meant medicare did not set up their own system. They used their political ties to make the PBS (taxpayers) pay a fee for every escript, so they can sell it to pharmacy owners as a 'free' service.The guild campaigned for codeine to be recorded in a centralised system, rather than each pharmacist using their own software they already own. They set up their own centralised system of recording, (a basic website) fully intending to use their political power to make the PBS pay for every transaction recorded. On the DAY they discovered that the codeine laws would change (there was 6 months+ notice) they shut down their website.
There now cannot be a change in laws that causes hundreds of stores to be sold to return the industry to small independent businesses.
Relaxing laws will only accelerate consolidation , and the more ownership is concentrated, the stronger they argument that we should allow woolworths/coles to run their own stores. I'm sure the guild will support this as soon as their inner circle negotiates their sales contracts , leaving pharmacists like OP to fend for themselves
Relaxing laws will only accelerate consolidation , and the more ownership is concentrated, the stronger they argument that we should allow woolworths/coles to run their own stores
I agree, I just wanted to hear what the OP had to say now that he/she is on the other side of the fence as an owner. I see this is where the industry is heading, the community pharmacy is in a slow death spiral.
Retail pharmacists are devalued and commoditised, with pharmacy prices being so high these pharmacist will not have a chance of ownership and pharmacy being sold are taken up by large discount pharmacy brand, hence further concentrating the ownership.
You can now buy milk and bread at a pharmacy, it's only a matter of time until the lobby strength of the guild is weaken and the supermarket will be allowed into the industry.
I'm not a baby boomer and I got in and am doing reasonably well for myself
It's a high probability that you bought it from a baby boomer that wanted to retire with $2mil now in their retirement account.
It's also a high probability that community pharmacy that are being sold or will be sold are from old pharmacist that want to retire.
I will give respect to the OP to have saved/borrowed of families/leverage $400K in capital to buy a $2mil business, this is no easy feat.
I didn't have 400k, hence why I needed to get into a partnership. Where there is a will there is a way
That all sounds rather complicated. I can simplify this for you … when it takes a pharmacist 10-20 minutes to fumble around processing a prescription, then you know every stakeholder involved has screwed things up.
Hi pharm86, thanks for doing this AMA. I am an early career pharmacist and would like to push for more of a managerial role. Assuming you worked your way up, what qualities/skills did you think was most important to you when you were pursuing ownership?
If I had to name one skill it would be people skills
What's the difference between registered nurse and un-registered nurse?
What do you do exactly when fulfilling a prescription? Check the person's medication history? Do you know on a deep level how well most prescribed drugs work, or do you find yourself looking up references?
This is the doctor's job.
Check history, check interactions, check dosage, if it is new counsel the patient, answer questions (from the patient)
Sometimes when the question relates to something I dont know off the top my head I will have to check reference texts, but this will rarely happen
Thanks for the info. Do you go to reference because the drug that's prescribed is a rarer drug or something?
Yes, I would rather take a few extra minutes and give out the correct information.
Your business (or peer average) R.O.E or R.O.C if you do not mind. Thanks.
I always wonder how profitable is this business.Some times when I come to the pharmacy there is a furtive looking man or woman in the corner waiting eagerly for the pharmacist, and when he/she is noticed they are discreetly taken to the side and given something to take…. This, I have noticed happens in many pharmacies…. what is the story? Is it drugs, ie junkies on their methadone? If so, are they able to drive on it? 99% jump in a car straight after and drive off…
CheersShould be perfectly fine to drive (their dose shouldn't be intoxicating for them).
That said: if they have an interlock system in their car they could blow a false positive.
What's your take on the Guild losing the tender for provision of services through the CPA?
I dont really have a huge love for the guild so I dont care too much…. that being said, better the devil you know…
What is your opinion on armaforce supplements?
Neutral: the reps come in and tell me there is heaps of evidence etc… I personally dont actively push it because we price it in a share we make about 20 percent off it (so we undercut the market)
Is this a first for OzBargain for a thread to hit mainstream media? https://ajp.com.au/news/ask-me-anything/
No I dont. To be quite honest I don't really have a lot of demand for it in my area