“It’s made us totally rethink business strategy. Now we’re set to buy high dispensing pharmacies, a move which would have been impossible – ludicrous even – until working with HubRx”
Mark Mosey, pharmacist and owner of MoJo Pharmacy, shares how working with HubRx hasn’t just transformed branch dispensing and helped the team generate more clinical service revenue. It’s led to him shopping for new, high dispensing pharmacies – a move which Mark admits he would have considered ‘ludicrous’ before, but now ‘just makes sense’.
Speed, service and stock availability
Mark owns three busy pharmacies across the Wirral. Dispensing demand has grown considerably over the years, with one branch alone dispensing up to 10,000 prescription items each month. For Mark he knew something had to change, but previous attempts to introduce hub and spoke and dispensing automation had failed to deliver.
“You’d be mad these days not to use automation to help with dispensing volumes, and we’ve tried plenty of different ways in the past to introduce it, but nothing really worked for us,” says Mark. “I’ll admit that did give us some hesitation and scepticism about working with HubRx. But honestly, we’ve been blown away by it. The team at HubRx have absolutely nailed speed, service, ease of use and stock availability.
“Now, the idea of not having HubRx feels terrifying.”
Increase time, reduce stock holding
Mark didn’t just need to free up dispensing time; he also needed to reclaim space for patient care. “Pharmacies need to deliver clinical services. But when prescription volumes are so high it can feel like an impossible ask. Staff don’t have time to deliver them, and even if they did, there’s hardly any consultation space because we need to carry such large volumes of stock.” But thankfully those barriers have now been removed for Mark and the team at MoJo Pharmacy. “We now send pretty much all our repeat prescriptions through to HubRx from our highest demand branch.
“The service is first class. We process the prescriptions before 3pm and most – if not all – of the orders arrive before we’ve opened the pharmacy the next day. Dispensing is done mostly before I’ve even arrived at work and that alone has made a huge impact to my stress levels.
“Our branch team is exceptionally good, but even they couldn’t manage that level of service.”
Mark adds: “It’s also allowed us to massively reduce our stock holding. Space we’ve now turned into consultation rooms. It’s meant we’ve been able to expand our clinical services with new private treatments and a travel clinic.”
Confidence boost
As well as helping Mark create capacity and space for clinical service expansion, he also says it’s given him a greater level of certainty and confidence. “It’s become easier to manage workflow. Before, our mornings were pretty much written off for anything other than dispensing – leaving just afternoons to try to squeeze in clinical services. “But now that’s being handled by HubRx we can offer services to patients with more certainty and confidence.
“I don’t need to ask patients to call back in the afternoon to see if we can fit them in, we can just book them in or see them there and then. It’s helping patients become more confident that we’re here when they need us.” Mark adds, “It’s also meant we’ve been able to adjust staff working patterns so they’re not so dispensing focused.”
As all pharmacy owners know, the skill of being able to spin many plates is essential, but this newfound certainty and confidence have helped take away some of Mark’s stress, especially when it comes to staffing pressures. “Crisis mode has gone. Covering the work of a member of staff who wants to go on leave, or who calls in sick is no longer such a headache because we know dispensing is sorted.”
Seamless onboarding
While the idea of introducing any new way of working and technology can come with teething problems, Mark adds that it’s been ‘surprisingly straight-forward’ with HubRx. “The idea of changing how you work can be daunting, but the staff have taken to it very quickly. It’s actually been seamless. “Some of the team are more tech savvy than others so we were expecting it to be a slower process, but it’s been a very easy switch for everyone.”
Rethinking business growth
The impact of working with HubRx has been so great says Mark that it’s made him rethink his business strategy. Embarking on a move that even he admits would have felt ‘ludicrous’ before now. “I would have never considered the idea of buying pharmacies with large dispensing volumes. It would have been ludicrous. But now with HubRx in our armoury that’s exactly what we plan to do.”
And Mark isn’t letting the grass grow under his feet. After just two months working with HubRx he’s put in an offer to buy pharmacies that will see his business double in size. “We see our business’ future differently now that we have something in our back pocket that can handle dispensing.
“I can’t recommend HubRx enough to other independents. We’ve tried lots of different ways to get on top of dispensing and honestly, this is the best. Speed, accuracy and service – they’ve nailed it.”