If someone were to ask you if your pharmacy business could be replaced, what would you say? "Sure, just drop in any old pharmacy in this spot and my customers absolutely won't notice!" Not a chance right? Because your business is unique and the relationships you build with patients are powerful.

There is always an aspect of every independent pharmacy business that is unlike any other. Which means that every pharmacy will be faced with distinctive challenges and have individual needs.

This also means that the solutions for these challenges are not one size fits all. And they never have been. But many pharmacies struggle with point-of-sale systems that expect them to be like every other pharmacy - not adding value beyond the ability to process customer payments. But it doesn't have to be that way. 

We can all think of negative customer service experiences. Times when a brand or company didn't live up to our expectations or needs. It's frustrating, because even if you don't need support through 99% of a products life, that 1% of the time when you need it can shape how you feel about a company, regardless of how wonderful a product or service is.

It seems like such a short time since Memorial Day celebrations marked the beginning of summer. Suddenly it’s almost Labor Day. How did that happen?

Of course, my fingers are crossed that the sunshine ignores the date for at least another few weeks, but Labor Day is always a sign that the summer is coming to a close. Soon we’ll be planning for flu shots, putting a fresh coat of waterproofing on our boots and, like it or not, entering the months of pumpkin spice everything.

Whether you’re savoring every sunny day on the calendar, or wistfully thinking of exchanging your t-shirts for sweaters, Labor Day is the first reminder that Fall and Winter are on the way. Bringing rain, wind, snow and well, who knows what else. This year, weather forecasters are already calling for a colder than normal winter and an active hurricane season.

So, while Labor Day weekend is a wonderful time for one last summer fling, it’s also a good time to review your disaster and severe weather preparedness. Here are a few tried and true tips for pharmacies to keep in mind.

Every pharmacy is familiar with HIPAA. It's a fact of doing business in the health care sector and is ingrained in your day to day processes and procedures.

But even the most thought out and detailed policies can leave room for HIPAA violations. Bringing with them hefty fines and damage to the relationships you work so hard to build with your customers.

With the importance of HIPAA and a growing emphasis on privacy, it can't hurt to put your pharmacy under the microscope. And, as the article 7 Pharmacy HIPAA Violations That Might Surprise You discusses, your careful attention to HIPAA may still leave you vulnerable.

The article is a great, albeit sobering, reminder that HIPAA violations can come from anywhere. From mishandled paperwork and pill bottles to employee errors.

The lesson learned here is that when it comes to HIPAA, there's no single solution that will remove all of your risk. Instead, you have to cover bases in every facet of your organization, including point-of-sale. And you can cover those bases in more ways than you might think.

Every day, everyone at RMS gets together for a quick 5 minute meeting. We take turns hosting. Sharing articles, thoughts, and experiences that everyone can use to learn, grow and be just a little bit better than we were the day before. This daily "standup" has become a big part of who we are as a company and every day I look forward to learning from my peers here at RMS. This week, I wanted to share a talk given by our Director of Operations, Brandon Bieleski. Happy reading! 

A few weeks ago I met a man named Rudy. Rudy is from a small village just north of Liverpool... England.... He's been in the United States for 32 years, 22 of them here in Washington, but you couldn't tell that from his accent. Rudy talks as if he's spent the whole of his 54 years in that small village. And yes, he prefers tea over coffee, which he reminded me of with uncanny frequency.

I met Rudy in the parking lot at the Paradise visitor's center in the Mt Rainier National Park. He was a tag along to our normal hiking group. That day, along with the rest of my hiking group, we would spend the next 5 hours making our way up to Camp Muir. We were all expecting a challenge -- our journey would start at a higher elevation than we'd even finished at on previous hikes. It would take us from sunshine and 70 degree temps into the clouds with 15 feet of visibility and a chill so sharp I would end up layering every piece of clothing I had in my pack.

In 2018, more than 14% of retail sales in the United States were completed via Ecommerce. With 15% growth from the previous year and more growth expected, Ecommerce has become the big bad wolf of retail competition.

The bottom line, if you're a retail pharmacy with a large and diverse front end, online competition might be taking a bite out of your profits. So how can you operate "three little pigs" style and build a house strong enough to weather all of the huffing and puffing that so many retailers are finding difficult to withstand?

The easiest answer lies in the old saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em". Which is exactly what the newest integration from RMS aims to help retail pharmacies do.