Clinical services expand margins, improve patient health

As pharmacy margins continue to shrink a little each year, a pharmacist in Seattle has discovered how to expand pharmacy margins through the incorporation of clinical services from Cardinal Health while shrinking something else — her customers’ waistlines.



And it’s not just the overweight or obese this Seattle pharmacist is targeting — there are significant health gains that can be realized with the loss of 10 pounds whether a person is overweight or not. “There is a huge population out there who is well and wants to stay well,” Beverly Schaefer, owner of Katterman’s Sand Point Pharmacy, told Drug Store News. “Think about the people who I am attracting who don’t have chronic conditions,” she said. “It has the potential to bring in an entirely new client base — healthy people who want to stay healthy, and those people don’t often go to the drug store.”



Schaefer invested $10,000 in a medical grade body analysis scale that she uses to help educate and motivate her patients to make healthier choices in life. The scale conducts a full body analysis, including the measure of extracellular water, which is the water outside of your cells that represents roughly one-third of the fluid in a person’s body; intracellular water, which is the other two-thirds of fluid located within cells; visceral fat; and percentage of fat.



The cost of the 20-minute consultation is $49, and she expects to recoup her initial investment in the BMI scale by the end of the calendar year.



The populations who may be interested in such a clinical service are broad and diverse, Schaefer said, including seniors, extreme athletes, body builders and beach-goers — or, just about anyone who could stand to lose 10 pounds, which is just about everybody. “To lose 5% of your body weight, that drops your hemoglobin A1c, it has the potential to drop cholesterol levels, it has the potential to improve diabetes metrics,” Schaefer said. “I’m looking primarily at blood pressure, hypocholesterolemia and glucose,” she said. “For a person who weighed 200 lbs., losing 10 pounds would change all of those numbers.”



In addition to the cost of capturing BMI measurements and a consultation, Schaefer also is beefing up her front-end mix to support the weight-loss endeavor. “We’ve added a little bit of sports nutrition to our front end. We have protein bars, cleanse powders, protein powders,” she said. “We’re going slow. My customers will tell me what they want as we grow this service.”



By exploring clinical services through her partnership with Cardinal Health, Schaefer helped realize significant benefits to her pharmacy operation, she said. “It enhances our reputation for offering unique, cutting-edge patient services,” she noted. In addition to BMI, Katterman’s Sand Point Pharmacy offers a comprehensive travel vaccine service, which is another clinical service supported by an expanded selection of front-end products.



These expanded clinical services also drive increased engagement with local practitioners “with patient benefit being the focus of what we’re doing,” Schaefer added.