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By Bill Letendre, MSPharm, MBA, PCCA Vice President of Pharmacy Management Services
It’s that time of year again — time to work on your business. Based on what you have accomplished and what the market has provided your pharmacy this year, it is time to recalibrate expectations and set your goals for next year. This is especially important given how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly all aspects of our lives and businesses this year. When setting goals, I begin the process by reviewing what was created last year at this time to determine what I achieved and what I left unfinished. I post those unfinished goals from last year on the top of the list for next year. This is because if the uncompleted goal was important enough to make the list last year, it most likely should be posted for completion in the coming year.
But this is just the start. Here are the steps I recommend to draft your compounding pharmacy’s goals for next year, as well as some ideas for annual goals that your pharmacy may want to consider for 2021:
5 Steps for Annual Pharmacy Goal Setting
1. Ask the question, “Did we meet expectations this year, and if not, what were the barriers that prevented us from doing so?”
a. List the expectations that fell short of your goals
b. List the activities you need to complete to meet the expectations
c. List the resources you need to rely on to meet the expectations
d. Determine what is required to tap into those resources
e. List an option to overcome each barrier and commit to completing that activity using the required resources
2. Once you have listed those leftover goals, begin identifying new goals based on the current marketplace conditions. I suggest you set no more than five goals for the year
3. Use the SMART goal-setting approach to ensure that your goals are most effective at improving your pharmacy. This means that you goals should be:
a. Specific: State exactly what you want to accomplish (who, what, where, why)
b. Measurable: How will you demonstrate and evaluate the extent to which the goal has been met?
c. Attainable: Stretch and challenge your pharmacy, but the goals should be within your ability to achieve the desired outcome. And keep in mind — what is the action-oriented verb in the goal?
d. Relevant: How does the goal tie into your key responsibilities? How is it aligned to the larger objectives of your pharmacy?
e. Time-bound: Set one or more target dates, the “by when” to guide your goal to successful completion (include deadlines, dates and frequency)
4. Make a list of the resources each goal will require in order to be accomplished
a. Identify how and when each resource will be required
b. Designate the staff person who will be responsible to access the resource
5. Develop a timeline for each goal. I suggest you allocate two to three months to achieve each goal, with a target of accomplishing all goals by the end of the year
To help you draft SMART goals for the next year, you can download an easy-to-use pharmacy goal worksheet that walks you through the steps above.
Read more about SMART goals on The PCCA Blog .
What Annual Goals Should You Have for Your Pharmacy?
The goals that I suggest you consider adopting are those that return the greatest profit performance for the time, energy and effort required to accomplish them. Some examples of goals that high-performing compounding pharmacies have set in the past include:
See how you can implement a patient follow-up program on The PCCA Blog.
There is an unlimited number of realistic goals that you can set for your compounding pharmacy. This month, get started by allocating some of your time to work on your business. It will be the best time invested with the greatest return that you can make at the end of the year.
Bill Letendre, MSPharm, MBA, PCCA Vice President of Pharmacy Management Services, has been honored as a Fellow of the American College of Apothecaries (ACA), the American Pharmacists Association and the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding (APC). Past president of the New Hampshire Pharmacists Association (1981), the ACA (1982) and the Texas Pharmacy Association (2003), Bill currently serves as the treasurer of APC, a member of the Board of Commissioners for the Accreditation Commission of Health Care and a member of the National Community Pharmacists Association Compounding Steering Committee. Bill previously owned and operated six community pharmacies, two home infusion pharmacies and a home care supply company located in the state of New Hampshire.