If your pharmacy layout hasn't been changed for years, it's time to redesign and update it; doing so will improve customers' shopping experience by focusing on convenience and aesthetic appeal. More importantly, you'll need to make sure your pharmacy design complies with the new, stronger HIPAA patient information privacy and access requirements that went into effect on September 23, 2013.
How the new HIPAA privacy requirements affect the redesign of your pharmacy
There are strict new requirements in place to protect patients' health information and privacy, as well as their rights to be given access to that information. Your pharmacy redesign must therefore be done with accuracy, security and privacy as your primary considerations. In addition to protecting patient data and privacy via established protocols, it's also important to design your pharmacy with patient security and safety in mind:
- Protect and store medications
Thefts of medications like OxyContin are a constant threat. With your redesign, make sure to use pharmacy shelving and fixtures that allow you to lock items up so that they can only be accessed by trusted personnel.
- Streamline prescription filling procedures
Use pharmacy shelving and fixtures to reduce inefficiencies of time, motion, and storage space. With this, filling prescriptions becomes a much more streamlined process and reduces pharmacist fatigue.
Once you have made sure your redesign will support new and stringent HIPAA regulations, you can move on to redesigning your store so that you increase customers' ease, comfort, and enjoyment as they shop.
Redesign your store with the customer in mind
- "Freshen" your look and make your store more inviting
It's relatively easy to update your store's look. Use modern pharmacy shelving that blends into or accents your decor. Choose from a variety of colors and materials that will complement your decorating choices. Repaint walls, replace institutional tile flooring with soothing, inviting carpeting and/or faux or real wood flooring. Replace the harsh glare of fluorescent lighting with indirect but bright lighting that makes it easy for customers to see and yet is easy on the eyes.
- Change your layout
Place your pharmacy counter at the back of the store in a central location so that customers can easily access it even as you can easily protect sensitive data and drug inventories.
Establish your store's layout with a central footpath that winds counterclockwise around your store, starting at the front door and then circling around the store's perimeter. Individual departments should be clearly labeled with easy-to-read signage so that customers can leave this footpath to browse in departments, or step off to more closely investigate displays.
- Use eye-catching and enticing displays throughout the store
Displays of seasonal or bestselling items should be clearly positioned throughout the store so that they are visible from the central footpath. You can also place department-specific tabletop and endcap displays of products where they can easily be seen, and then utilize retail shelving within each department to keep items in stock.
Place displays of seasonal or high-volume items throughout the store instead of keeping them within their respective departments. This allows customers to easily buy the items they need from several locations, so that they don't have to make the effort to go back and search for these items in their respective departments.
- Place comfortable seating within each department and at strategic locations along the footpath
Because many of your customers may have difficulty walking long distances, it's important to provide seating throughout your store. You can place chairs at the end of aisles, near endcaps and other types of retail shelving, and in comfortable groupings near the pharmacy, accented with soft lighting.
