Service Design for a Pharmacy
By Shalini G.N and Sanjana Koti
Generally pharmacies are seen as a minuscule part of the health care industry or within a hospital, whereas a pharmacy is the lifeline for the medicines. There are many services involved in setting up a pharmacy, that are invisible to our eyes. These include intangible structures such as the role of a salesmen, distributor, manufacture that all contribute to the whole system of a pharmacy. In addition pharmacies are important as they provide quick access to health care without going to a hospital.
This project revolves around enhancing the service design for pharmacies. Through research, findings and analysis the project embeds few scenarios and problems faced by the pharmacies and its customers and solving them through simple design thinking techniques. This was an effort to understand the basic needs of the people and improve the working condition of the health care sector initiating at a smaller scale.
UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT
Pharmacy is the scientific method of preparing and dispensing drugs , it is a profession by itself and is linked to health care and chemical science. Pharmacy in general terms is recognized as a Medical store that provides you with various medications involved in curing the health problems and diseases. The medications are generally provided based on the doctor’s prescriptions. There are also pharmacists in these stores who provide and advice general medications for common sickness such as cold, cough and fever. There are pharmacies that are linked to the hospital itself which are more advanced in there storage of clinical and surgical equipment’s which are most commonly not available in a normal pharmacy outlet.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
The distribution and sale of medicines through the vast network of pharmacies gives rise to several service systems at various levels that all contribute to creating an effective health care service.
This service system (pharmacy) is vast in nature as it involves the manufacturing of medicines by the pharmaceutical companies to the last end user who is buying and consuming the medicine.
All the stakeholders in a pharmacy such as the manufactures, distributor, pharmacy, pharmacists, staff members all work together within their own service systems in collaboration with other to provide one main goal, which is providing immediate service to health care.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Done at — Cash Pharmacy
Location — St.Marks road, Bangalore
Research method — Contextual enquiry
HIGHLIGHTS OF RESEARCH
The pharmacy is about 100 years old.
The pharmacy prepares different types of oils and lotions for skin diseases , unlike any other pharmacy.
The pharmacy has two qualified pharmacists who advice the customers about the dosage and usage of medications provided to them.
The pharmacy does not give any medications (apart from the general medicines for common cold and fever) without the doctor’s prescription.
The medicines are arranged/ organised in an alphabetical order and segregated company wise. This makes it for easy access when customers drop in.
EXPLORATION
Ecosystem map
The ecosystem mapping was made based on the information gathered from primary research, like what are the entities required to establish a pharmacy , people associated with the pharmacy, how medicines come to the pharmacy , how are the stocks maintained , etc.
The ecosystem consists of — Government, Doctors, Manufacturer, Distributor, Sales man, Bank (accounts), Patient(customer), Owner, Staff members
The ecosystem map shows connections and inter — relations between different entities and people associated with the pharmacy.
IDENTIFYING THE PERSONA
After the ecosystem map, we started identifying the persona and building on the journey map.
Persona
Manju — He is a 49 year old male, he is married and has 2 children. He is a laborer at a construction site in Bangalore. He is from Hassan, now in Bangalore for few months for work. He is the only earning member of the family. He cannot understand English.
JOURNEY MAPPING, PAIN POINTS AND TOUCH POINTS
We came came up with different incidents and a story line for the persona. The journey map of the persona has been divided into stages of doing , thinking and feeling. Along with the journey mapping we also identified the pain points and touch points.
Journey map
Incident — He has had a fall in the construction site and has hurt himself, he goes to a clinic to get treated. The doctor treats him and gives him prescription for medications that he has to take in order to control pain.
The journey is divided into stages and it begins from here where he catches the bus and goes to a pharmacy in order to take medicines, but the main medicine that controls pain is not available, the pharmacist hands over his card to him in case of emergency, Manju takes the card , ignoring the availability of medicine and returns home thinking about his family as its very late in the night. But in the later night he gets an unbearable pain and finally he contacts the pharmacist and asks his help, the pharmacist helps him and he gets the medicine to Manju’s home. Here is where the story ends.
Identifying Pain points
The journey has many pain points such as :
- Manju travelling around different places for medication all by himself , though he is hurt
- Unable to understand the prescription
- The main medicine not available
- Suffering from unbearable pain
- Unable to contact pharmacist in the first try
- Communication with the pharmacist
Identifying Touch points
Touch points were identified based on the categories : media , graphics, communication, services-cape, ephemera.
Few of the touch points identified in the story were :
Prescription, Medicines, Pharmacy card, Phone, Communication over phone
PATTERN LANGUAGE
After the journey mapping, identification of pain points and touch points, we went on to identify and use pattern language that would help us facilitate the problems and come up with new solution ideas.
Some of the pattern language used were:
Noticeable empathy, Reversible acts, Extra, Human touch point on stand by
IDEATION
While coming towards solutions , we thought of few solutions which would initially prevent the whole scenario. We also thought of few possible solutions in the later stages which could help in facilitating the problem. These solutions are non digital as that was the criteria given to us.
The solutions to this journey map was given stage wise. Initial solutions provided where it could have stopped the happening of the whole scenario. Few solutions were:
- Providing protective gear for the laborers at the construction sites
- An emergency first- aid kit available at the construction sites
- The main pharmacy in Manju’s locality which can provide 24 hr of emergency service
- Manju could have asked his neighbors for immediate help
- The pharmacist could have advised few traditional methods such as an ice pack or hot water bag in order to reduce pain until he arrives.
FINAL CONCEPTUALIZATION OF SOLUTIONS
Few solutions were combined from the initial proposed solutions at different stages of journey map that could go hand in hand and finally consolidated into practically possible solutions.
SERVICE BLUEPRINT
Before coming up with a service blueprint, the services provided by medical stores and other pharmacies along with the primary research insights were researched and noted respectively. A collective service blueprint of a pharmacy was made and studied, in order to come up with a more defined and improved service blueprint for pharmacies.
SERVICE VISION
“We want to create/enhance Pharmacy service experience because of the challenges faced by the pharmacies due to non — availability of certain medicines in emergency situation using inter connectivity within pharmacies”.
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
For the implementation plan, few solutions that could be easily implemented and would serve as major change for the pharmacies were picked up and detailed out.
END NOTE
We being two individuals have tried our best to provide solutions for the betterment of the pharmacy services to the people. This was an effort to help people who are in need of medicines at emergency situations, and often do not receive it due to certain scenarios/ situations.
I hope you liked our project and the entire design process journey. Your feedback are most welcome, so please do share your thoughts.
You can contact us on shalinign.vasist@gmail.com or sanjanadkoti@gmail.com
Thank you!
