It’s no exaggeration to say that at a time when hospitals, GP services and other healthcare providers were stretched in ways they could never have anticipated during the COVID-19 pandemic, community pharmacies rose to the challenge and enhanced their support for those members of their community who needed them.
Feedback from pharmacy users is vital in order to help pharmacy businesses develop and improve their services and facilities. Here, we will explore why empowering pharmacy users to provide feedback is integral to business growth, and how We Love Surveys can help make this happen.
The value of the community pharmacy
In 2017, Public Health England published the report ‘Pharmacy – A way forward for public health’. This was designed to provide recommendations on how pharmacies could support the overall goals for health improvement in England.
The report focused on the trust that people have in their local pharmacy, and that these local hubs could have a real impact on the health of their communities. With more than 438 million visits to community pharmacies each year, the introduction of services such as vaccination clinics and health checks meant a trusted alternative to the GP was readily available and that pressures on GP services could be alleviated.
Our solutions that support community pharmacies
At We Love Surveys, we’re proud to offer clever patient feedback solutions for our pharmacy partners. Our project with pharmacy chain Avicenna enables them to continuously review and improve their patient services through the feedback collected.
The Buzz Box devices we provide allow patients and customers to give in-the-moment feedback during their visit to an Avicenna pharmacy. Both positive and negative feedback at this crucial time is acknowledged and utilised to improve the customer experience, both locally and across the organisation.
“The pandemic certainly bought more people to their local pharmacy when GP services were reduced, and they are a central part of any community. Implementing Buzz Boxes in every site gives us a clear understanding the impact of what we do as a business or what we are going through as a society. We do not use the feedback to find out what is going wrong, we use it as a positive tool. This drives engagement in the team and, as a result, drives patients and customers to give their feedback freely and frequently,” said Avicenna COO Nick Clark.
You can learn more about the work that we do with Avicenna on our website.
The patient experience is paramount
In a recent survey commissioned by PAGB, nearly one in three people said they are more likely to visit a pharmacy for advice before seeking help elsewhere than they were before the pandemic. This is a significant shift in behaviour and suggests 30% more people will be accessing their local pharmacy as a first port of call for minor concerns.
With this expected increased number of patients accessing pharmacy services, patient experience will become more important than ever for community pharmacies, where the decisions made about service offerings and local support will have a direct impact on people’s health and wellbeing.
There are a range of benefits to collecting feedback and insight from pharmacy users. With an increasing focus on service quality for funded activity and the requirement for every pharmacy to undertake and evidence feedback from a nationally mandated survey each year, it is clear that a shift to better ways of measuring service quality alongside understanding patient outcomes from pharmacy intervention will be more important as time passes. Every piece of feedback given by a service user matters, and if you add great analysis of the results into the mix, feedback really can lead to clear and actionable insights that makes a difference to the quality and impact of the business decisions made.
The importance of taking time to act on feedback
A core driver for generating further feedback from participants is the transparency of the actions that have occurred following previous comments. When decisive action is taken and respondents see changes implemented, it reassures them that their voice is valued and an effective process in place.
“Working with organisations like Avicenna makes it clear to me how vital the services we provide are. Without the quick and easy solutions that we provide, our partners would be basing business decisions on limited customer information. We are proud to be able to deliver insight that has a long-term impact for our partners and their customers,” said We Love Surveys CEO Helen Dargie.
It’s important that the services pharmacies provide to their communities are shaped by feedback from those who use them. For example, if there is an evident need for more blood pressure or diabetes checks within the local community, pharmacies can take this evidence to build a case for change and evolve their service offer accordingly.
Final thoughts
Our community pharmacies have provided outstanding, essential support to patients during a time when our healthcare service was stretched beyond what was ever thought possible. By adapting to a changing need and reducing pressure placed upon GPs and hospitals, it is clear they have made, and continue to make, a huge difference.
Securing community pharmacies as the first port of call for minor health concerns or queries will mean a long hoped for step change in how health services are delivered to patients. We Love Surveys firmly believe that a robust process for gathering feedback will allow each pharmacy in the UK to tailor their service offer based on unique local circumstances and clear evidence of needs, providing benefits for years to come.
Our team can work with you to find the right feedback solution for your pharmacy business and start your journey to better, informed decision making with your patients and customers at the heart of what you do.
To learn more about us and how we can support your business, get in touch today.
References:
https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/news/nearly-a-third-of-people-more-likely-to-visit-their-pharmacy-first-following-covid-19-pandemic#:~:text=Professional%20skills-,Nearly%20a%20third%20of%20people%20more%20likely%20to%20visit%20their,elsewhere%2C%20a%20survey%20has%20found.