The HIP Model
The Health Information Pharmacy (HIP) group was founded in 2002 and now has about 30 pharmacies around Australia.
The group is a franchise with a focus on high service and is designed to offer an alternative to the discount pharmacy model, and a model that will survive and prosper should the pharmacy industry be deregulated at some point in the future.
The group is guided by five company philosophies:
- Reducing medication problems
- Empowering people
- Working with the local community
- Helping the less fortunate
- Providing health solutions
These philosophies, or values, stand behind the systems and programs that run in every HIP store. All HIP stores operate three core systems which are unique to the group:
1 ChemConsult®
Our exclusive medication consultation system Chemconsult® can detect allergies, interaction and wrong dosages in the medications that have been prescribed.
The program was developed in an attempt to reduce the number of hospitalisations that occur due to medication errors and is exclusive to Health Information Pharmacy.
Our pharmacists are trained to use this program and all results are tracked. We have found approximately 1 in 6 consultations have detected an intervention of some sort and some of these interventions have actually been life saving.
This along with comments such as “It’s the best consultation that I have ever had” tell us that the program is working.
2 Teamaximiser®
Teamaximiser® is an incentive program for the team that works at an HIP store. It is an honesty-based program that rewards individuals for their efforts and also offers rewards to the team as a group when a set of targets for the pharmacy is achieved.
3 Platinum Care Club
The Platinum Care Club is the HIP loyalty club. In addition to standard discounts the club offers many other benefits, including 24/7 access to a pharmacist hotline.
The HIP model is also designed to help HIP store owners implement good business practice by focusing on all aspects of the business.
There is particular focus on
- Business systemisation
- Incentive Management
- Cost effective marketing
- Effective branding and positioning
- Business mentoring
Implementation of the model
Many franchises, both within and outside pharmacy, fail because they are not implemented well. Health Information Pharmacy addresses this issue by focusing a great amount of effort into the implementation program.
All pharmacy owners who join the group must attend a 3-day residential induction program to understand the philosophies and workings of the group. At this induction program they also receive their operations manuals which detail all systems and processes which should be followed in the pharmacy.
These systems and processes – there are over 100 of them – detail standard operating procedures for everything from in-store operation to buying, marketing, HR and finance and accounting.
A new owner is also allocated their own business development coach who facilitates the implementation program at their store over roughly a three month period. Once their they and their team have been trained in HIP systems, the business development coach is able to work with the owner to help them achieve their business goals.
Accelerated Ownership Program
HIP set up the Accelerated Ownership Program in 2004 to help pharmacists who wanted to own a pharmacy with HIP find and purchase a pharmacy. Assistance is given in finding and negotiating the purchase as well as on the finance side.
Simon Reinhard and Sal Torrisi were the first members of the program when it started in 2004. They are now the joint owners of HIP Narrabeen on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and have just opened their second HIP a few kilometres down the road in Dee Why. Read Sal’s story here.
For more information on the Accelerated Ownership Program contact the HIP Development Team.