SHELF OBSESSED

According to the NIH, prescription errors are a relative rarity. However, when they do occur, they often have grave consequences. Patients can experience severe side effects, medication injuries, and even death when the wrong medication is dispensed, the dosage is wrong, or if the label contains errors. Even in the best-case scenario — the pharmacist or patient catches the mistake before the medication is taken — those errors erode trust and can even expose your pharmacy to lawsuits. As the above-cited NIH study states, error prevention matters “because pharmacies dispense such high volumes of medications that even a low error rate can translate into a large number of errors.”

So how can your pharmacy protect itself and its patients?

The pharmacy design services offered by Shelving Design Systems are a bit art, a bit science, and just a dash of Nostradamus. We find ourselves learning from past designs, true, but we also spend a lot of time looking ahead to the kinds of trends shaping pharmacy design. After all, nobody wants a design that will be dated no sooner than the last shelf is installed or the last screw turned. So what, and for whom, will we be designing in 2019?

Running a pharmacy can feel like being on a small boat in a storm. You’re buffeted on all sides by competition, high overheads, inventory challenges, regulatory pressures, and fickle consumer tastes. It’s easy to look for a silver bullet or quick fix — a big, bold solution to your problems — but all of us at Shelving Design Systems have found over the years that taking care of the fundamentals is what really ensures long-term viability and profitability. One of those fundamentals that’s capable of forming a solid foundation for many of the others? Efficiency.

As an independent pharmacist, your first priority is to serve your customers to the best of your ability. To that end, you may think that your pharmacy fixtures should be functional and practical – and that's true; but they should also be attractive and aesthetically pleasing. When you focus on both, you make your store attractive to customers and make it easy for them to shop, too. First, the elements of functionality: