One of the student health centers with which I’ve been working plans to begin offering pharmaceutical dispensing to students beginning this Fall. In this particular case, her enthusiasm got me thinking about what we do and the value we provide to our clinics and their patients. This particular clinic serves about 2,500 students in a small town. The Nurse Practitioner with whom I’ve been working has asked many intelligent questions regarding medications, paperwork, inventory, timing etc. We walked down the medication dispensing process but she didn’t stop there. "How do we make our program successful?"
In a recent email from this NP, she asked me about promoting the new program. What? Don’t they just show up? Sure they do. But this NP saw an opportunity to promote the student health center and the good work they do by communicating this wonderful new service to the campus. Our primary goal with any clinic customer is to make sure their dispensing program is successful. This might entail training for staff, brochure development, flyers and/or discussions regarding the dispensing process within the clinic. I am always encouraged to speak with a staff member who takes ownership of the clinic’s interests; not only in how patients are served but also in the business/operational health of the clinic. Adding prepackaged pharmaceuticals is one small element of the overall value you provide to your patients. Communicating that value to the campus population can reap huge rewards in awareness for patients as well as school staff.
Now, we are working on a number of promotional pieces the College can use to communicate this great new service to students. This customer is giving us an opportunity to extend our value as their pharmaceutical distributor to an active part in helping them make this program successful in their student health center. Ultimately, we are in this together and I always enjoy partnering with enthusiastic people to reach goals. Your goal is helping your student patients get better; our goal is to help you make the difference. Thank you for the chance to play a part in your mission.
