Neighborhood Community Pharmacy

Neighborhood Community Pharmacy

Medication On Time delivered via UberRx

A Business Proposal/Plan

400 Goody’s Lane

Knoxville, TN 37922

(865) 555-1234

Developed by: __________

Date: April 26th, 2019

**In this example pages will not line up with table of contents due to removal of student

CVs to protect identity**

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1

I. Executive Summary ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2-3

A. Mission Statement and Analysis…………………………………………………………….. 2

II. Business Description……………………………………………………………………………………………..4

III. Service Description………………………………………………………………………………………………..5

IV. Market Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………….6-7

V. Marketing Plan…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 8

VI. Financial Projections…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 9

VII. Management Team………………………………………………………………………………………….10-11

VIII. Operations………………………………………………………………………………………………………12-13

IX. Supportive Documents…………………………………………………………………………………….14-25

X. References………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 26

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Executive Summary

Mission Statement: Neighborhood Community Pharmacy strives to offer our customers the best

patient care in order to optimize health goals by providing friendly service and convenient access

to their medications through Medication On Time delivered via UberRx.

Vision Statement: Neighborhood Community Pharmacy strives to help our patients achieve their

health goals by optimizing accessibility and adherence to medications through Medication on

Time delivered via UberRx.

Medication adherence is a huge concern in today’s health care. Medication On Time

(MOT) delivered via UberRx is a new innovative way to make it easier for patients to have their

medication packed all in one bubble pack in order to be able to take it at the correct time each

day. Patients can even break off that unit dose for the day and take it with them if they are on the

go. Along with this new service to increase patient adherence, Neighborhood Community

Pharmacy is also partnering with Uber, called UberRx in order to be able to deliver patients’

medications to them if they are unable to make it to the pharmacy during business hours.

Our main target market is the growing elderly population, but for the busy working

professionals this will be a convenient service for them as well. Our new service is open to any

of our patients, new or existing, who are interested.

Patients interested in MOT, will preferably have all of their medications filled at

Neighborhood Community Pharmacy. MOT staff will package all of the patient’s daily

medications in bubble packs for each time of day that they take their medications (AM, Noon,

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PM, etc.), which will be color coordinated to match up with the dosing schedule time. Once their

medication is packaged, UberRx will deliver the bubble packed medications to patient’s home,

place of work, etc.

Initial cost of investment is expected to be 500,000 to cover startup expenses of

programming, equipment, supplies, staffing, and training. We project that it will take

approximately 3.5 years to see a return on our initial investment. Within 5 years, we expect to

see a 55% return on investment. After expenses are deducted, we expect to see an annual net

profit of 250,000 from UberRx and MOT.

Neighborhood Community Pharmacy aspires to be the number one pharmacy providing

these services to the greater Knoxville area.

One of Neighborhood Community Pharmacy’s major strengths is that it is already an

established pharmacy filling approximately 400 prescriptions each day. Due to our patient

focused care, most of our patients exclusively fill their medications at our pharmacy. Due to this

loyalty, we believe that with the new services of MOT and delivery via UberRx that our business

will continue to thrive and expand to even more patients. We may face challenges such as

competitors mimicking our services, or new regulations requiring stricter security measures on

who may deliver or accept a patient’s medications. Due to customer loyalty, we believe that we

would be able to overcome these challenges.

With Medication On Time delivered via UberRx, Neighborhood Community Pharmacy

will become the leading innovators for patients achieving medication adherence.

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Business Description

Background

Currently Neighborhood Community Pharmacy is an established, locally owned

pharmacy devoted to providing the best patient care. Hours of operation include Monday through

Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m., Saturday from 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., and closed on Sundays.

Neighborhood Community Pharmacy is located at 400 Goody’s Lane, Knoxville, TN with a

current population of 187,500 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The pharmacy is also

located within five miles of General Medical Center that provides acute and chronic medical care

for the community, as well as within three miles of two assisted senior living centers. Among our

staff includes two full-time, licensed pharmacists, one part-time pharmacist, and five certified

technicians. Currently this pharmacy’s prescription volume annually is around 140,811, which

averages to about 400 prescriptions dispensed each day of operation. The pharmacy encompasses

an area of about 2,000 square feet that includes a drive thru, two pick-up areas, a drop-off

window, and a waiting area. A USP <797> and USP <795> compliant compounding area and

two private consulting rooms are also located in the pharmacy.

Neighborhood Community Pharmacy is an all-encompassing pharmacy that dispenses

prescription medications, prepares compounding services, and provides immunizations, blood

pressure screenings, and products for self-care. An area of improvement this pharmacy needs to

address is patient adherence. Neighborhood Community Pharmacy plans on utilizing two new

services in order to improve upon patient compliance to their current medications. Medication on

Time, which can be delivered via UberRx, is proposed to help patients of all ages, background,

and disease states maintain adequate adherence to prescription medications.

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Service Description

Patient adherence is a major problem that affects patient health nationwide, subsequently

influencing the treatment/failure of disease states. In order to help make our mark on the

improvement of compliance in our community, Neighborhood Community Pharmacy plans on

implementing Medication on Time (MOT) bubble packs into our dispensing system, as well as

offering a second delivery service provided via UberRx.

The first service is utilized in many community pharmacies but is a service this pharmacy

has never utilized before. MOT bubble packs are an easy way for patients to remember which

medications they need to take on which day/time. An aspect no other pharmacy has utilized

before is the second service we plan to provide, which is the delivery of MOT via UberRx by

establishing a partnership with the current company, Uber™. UberRx is a delivery system for

prescription medications specifically directed at two target populations. This includes millennials

who favor using apps or online services to order products, as well as the elderly who may have

difficulty making it to the pharmacy to get their maintenance medications on time. Although

some pharmacies do provide mail ordered medications, these services do not provide real-time

delivery at the convenience of the patient. Creating a collaboration with Uber, an already

established application, would significantly impact the delivery system of medications.

Monitoring the utilization of the MOT bubble-packs and the use of the UberRx program monthly

will help the pharmacy determine if these services are useful to the community in improving

adherence. Everyone struggles with adherence, so the MOT bubble-packs, along with real-time

delivery of medication through the easy of an app will help patients of all ages who require

multiple medications or several regimens that may be hard to remember.

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Market Analysis

The target audience for MOT bubble packs are those individuals who are constantly

struggling to stay adherent to their medication regimen, especially those patients in nursing

homes and long-term care facilities. MOT bubble packs provide patients with a thirty-day supply

of unit dose cups that contain their daily medications. Each unit dose cup contains the name of

the patient, date, administration time, and contained medications printed on the label. This label

is color coded to help distinguish administration time. For example: Green is to be administered

in the morning, Yellow for the lunch/afternoon, Orange for the evening, and Blue for

bedtime/nighttime.

On the other hand, UberRx’s target audience is those individuals who have difficulty

picking up their prescriptions each month. This service is here to ease anxiety and worry of those

who cannot make it to the pharmacy during business hours. A potential target market for these

services are the Elderly population. These customers make up a significant portion of our

population, and also required extra attention in order to maintain an adequate quality of life. In

2017, the United States Census Bureau confirmed the aging population dependency ratio of 23:1.

(2). This concludes that sixty percent of the Knox County population was sixty years of age or

older. Since our services aim to make medication adherence easier, this could be a profitable

market for targeting for the elderly population, since the baby boomer generation is reaching

retirement age.

Neighborhood Community Pharmacy is located at 400 Goody’s Lane, off of Parkside

Drive in Knoxville, Tennessee. The pharmacy is also located within five miles of General

Medical Center, and three miles of two assisted senior living centers. There are roughly twenty-

four pharmacies that reside within five miles of Neighborhood Community Pharmacy, and a few

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of them even provide some sort of delivery service, but mainly focus on attracting individuals

with competitive prescription prices. However only one other pharmacy, National Rx, provides

both a delivery service; as well as, MOT bubble packaging. (3). This could be considered a

threat, since they are already an established business. They have an estimated revenue of 133,000

dollars annually. Their hours of operation are Monday – Friday, 9am-7pm, and Saturday from 10

am – 3 pm. National Rx operates with only three staff members. Therefore, a couple of

weaknesses our company may face are additional training hours, salary, and adequate staffing.

Although they may target the same audience as we do, our extended hours of operation, and

unique delivery system, UberRx, should provide substantial opportunities over our competition.

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Marketing Plan

Neighborhood Community Pharmacy will advertise and promote these defined services

not only to the elderly, but to all individuals. We strive to better serve our community by

ensuring safe and convenient systems to help better promote medication adherence. Advertising

& promotion strategies include the following:

1.) Attaching flyers of our services to our current patients’ medications

2.) Advertising in local newspapers weekly, about our services and upcoming promotions for

transferring meds

3.) A billboard on I40 to advertise and promote our services, and 10% off each medication if

you transfer your prescription to our pharmacy.

4.) Monthly Facebook/Instagram videos on medication adherence and the value of MOT

bubble packs and delivery service

5.) Monthly emails of ongoing promotions and creative ideas on how to improve medication

adherence, as well as, opportunities for improving lifestyle choices.

6.) Annual give away drawing for our loyal customers that will provide free MOT bubble

packs and free delivery for six months

7.) Contacting and meeting with local Long-Term Care facilities to promote MOT bubble

packs and provide 20% of delivery services for the year.

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Financial Projections

Neighborhood Community Pharmacy has excelled in prescription sales, and has provided

a steady profit margin, over the last five years. An investment was made to provide MOT bubble

packs to our current dementia patients who reside at SunnySide long term care facility. This

investment has procured a stable growth rate in market share, since 2015. We plan to continue to

increase availability for MOT bubble packs and delivery services.

To provide adequate funding for these services, we will use 500,000 dollars in startup

costs. This will help pay for contracts with Uber, establish a patent for UberRx, buy equipment

needed to ensure MOT bubble pack safety. These costs will also be utilized for iPad’s used by

uber drivers containing certain patient information, like delivery address. Yearly projected

expenses are estimated at 200,000 dollars, which should decrease 2-5% each year.

We anticipate that most of the revenue acquired will come from our patients buying MOT

bubble packs, as well as, signing up for our delivery system. With our current consumer market,

we hope to continue our steady revenue increase, and establish enough profit from the sales of

MOT bubble packs and our delivery service.

From 2017-2018, Uber increased its revenue by 43% making 11.3 billion dollars last

year. (4) MOT bubble packs did not have an established revenue just yet, but PillPack a company

closely related to MOT, has an estimated annual revenue of 8.7 million dollars. (5) Therefore, we

project our return on the initial investment of 500,000 will approximately take three to four

years. The percent return after five years is projected to be 55%. Best case scenario, UberRx &

MOT bubble packs bring in an annual net profit of 250,000 after expenses are deducted.

However, worst case scenario is that the services provided flop, from lack of delivery or service.

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In this case, we will discontinue our services if our projected outcomes are not sufficient to

maintain the service.

Management Team

-Student Name, CEO- Chief Executive Officer- Ensures that everything throughout the

business is running smoothly; In charge of hiring and firing members of the management team;

In charge of every employee in the business.

-Experience: Has been a pharmacist for 20 years and had 10 years of experience as a

pharmacy manager before becoming a CEO; Has a PharmD and MBA.

-Student Name, COO- Chief Operating Officer- In charge of the complex operational details of

the business; Ensures that the operations in the business are flowing the way they are supposed to

be; In charge of everyone below them.

-Experience: Has been a manager at several other pharmacy chains over the past 15

years; Has an MBA and PharmD.

-Student Name, President- oversees the staff functions; helps CEO and COO with their duties

as well.

-Experience: Has a PharmD. Has been a pharmacist for 6 years.

-Student Name, CFO- creates the budget and financial strategies for the business; In charge of

the finances for the business.

-Experience: Has an MBA and CPA; Has been a CPA for 5 years.

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Name, PIC of MOT- This is the Pharmacist in Charge of the MOT department. This person’s

job is to make sure everything involved with MOT process is going correctly, and they check

every MOT bubble pack to make sure it is correct before giving it to the patient.

-Experience: Has a PharmD; Has been a pharmacist for 5 years where he worked at a

previous pharmacy that provided MOT.

-Name, PIC of UberRx- This is the Pharmacist in Charge of the UberRx department of the

pharmacy. This pharmacist’s job is to oversee everything involved with UberRx to make sure

everything is running smoothly, make sure deliveries are being made in a timely matter, and

make sure all of the prescriptions are correct and correctly packaged before being sent out for

delivery.

Experience: Has a PharmD; Has been a pharmacist for 4 years.

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Operations

The services that are to be provided will begin with the patient filling out appropriate

paperwork to give the pharmacy permission to dispense their medications in MOT or to deliver

their medications to them by UberRx. The pharmacy will then receive the patient’s prescriptions.

If the patient requests MOT, then we will fill all of their medications in MOT packaging, label

the packaging appropriately, and have the MOT ready to go for the patient. The pharmacist will

them check each bubble pack to make sure it is correct before giving it to the patient. If the

patient requests delivery of their medication by UberRx, there are two different options for this

to take place. The patient can call the pharmacy requesting to get their medications delivered via

UberRx, and whoever is working can input the patient’s information into the UberRx database

and schedule a time for their medications to be delivered. The other option for the patient is that

the patient can get on the UberRx app on their phone and request their medications to be

delivered themselves. When prescriptions are being delivered via UberRx, they will also have to

have slightly different packaging than normal prescriptions. The delivered prescriptions will

have to be packaged in a tamper proof bag or envelope that does not say what is in the package

other than the patient’s name and instructions for delivery. The prescription will also be checked

by the pharmacist before it is given to the UberRx delivery person. The delivery person will pick

up the prescription for delivery from the pharmacy by signing for it and scanning it into the

system. The delivery person will then deliver the prescription to the patient where the patient will

then sign for it.

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The addition of these new services would require us to designate a section of the

pharmacy for the packaging of MOT. We would also have to purchase a machine to seal the

MOT packages as well as purchase the packaging for the MOT. We would also need to receive

access to Uber’s software they use in order to be able to send out delivery information to their

employees.

Currently at the Neighborhood Community Pharmacy we have 2 full time pharmacists, 1

part time pharmacist, 3 full time pharmacy technicians, 2 part time pharmacy technicians, 1 full

time operations/business manager, and 1 full time employee who is in charge of the durable

medical equipment sales and rentals and is responsible for purchasing all of the out front

merchandise of the pharmacy. For the management team, we have a CEO, COO, president, and

CFO. With the addition of MOT and UberRx, we will have to hire more employees to perform

the tasks needed to provide these services. We will need to hire 1-2 more pharmacy technicians

to package the prescriptions for MOT in the beginning, and we have already hired 2 more

pharmacists to be in charge of UberRx and MOT. We can hire more employees in the future, if

needed.

References

[List references used in the document, number sequentially.]

1.) U. (n.d.). U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Knoxville city, Tennessee. Retrieved from

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/knoxvillecitytennessee/POP060210

2.) Worldpopulationreview.com. (2019). [online] Available at:

http://worldpopulationreview.com/us-counties/tn/knox-county-population/ [Accessed 26

May 2019]

3.) Nationalrx, I. and Nationalrx, I. (2019). Nationalrx, Inc.. [online] Buzzfile.com.

Available at: http://www.buzzfile.com/business/Nationalrx,-Inc.-865-392-1770

[Accessed 26 May 2019].

4.) CNBC. (2019). Uber’s growth slowed dramatically in 2018. [online] Available at:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/uber-2018-financial-results.html [Accessed 26 May

2019].

5.) Crunchbase. (2019). PillPack | Crunchbase. [online] Available at:

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/pillpack/ [Accessed 31 May 2019].