To find out what really works in the marketplace, we have decided to do a
series of guest expert commentary blogs. The first installment is about a subject that is often overlooked in the everyday course of running a pharmacy. Scott Cave with Atlantic Business Continuity Services has graciously shared some of his knowledge below. We hope you find the information useful.
Waypoint: Why is it important for community pharmacy owners to have a disaster recovery plan?
Scott: Community pharmacies serve a critical role in our communities. Their ability to provide services to their customers on a continuous and reliable basis is essential for the community, especially during a disaster. The hard lessons learned weekly from regional events such as Superstorm Sandy, local tragedies like the Boston Marathon bombings and school shooting incidents, and numerous other incidents in our daily news is that disasters and crises can occur anywhere, their timing and impacts are highly unpredictable, and that smart leaders today are preparing their organizations to respond and recover from these events. Community pharmacy owners who want to distinguish themselves in their community and among their peers should take the initiative to prepare their business for a range of crises that could impact their ability to provide services to their customers.
Waypoint: What should a pharmacy owner envision their disaster recovery plan being like?
Scott: A disaster recovery plan, also known as a business continuity plan, should cover four key areas:
- Mitigate - identify the risks and vulnerabilities of their business and develop simple actions to mitigate these risks.
- Prepare - identify the critical functions the business performs, the downtime tolerance for each function, and the required resources to complete each function.
- Respond - develop the initial response procedures to address the top risks and vulnerabilities while protecting employees, customers, and assets during an emergency or disaster.
- Recover – develop the long-term action plans to recover the business operations following a large-scale disaster, including staffing, technology, facilities, inventory, and operations.
Each pharmacy is a unique business in a unique setting and the most effective plans are tailored to the specific needs and attributes of that business. Once this information is developed, assessments are made, and a plan is in place, the plan needs to be practiced through training and drills, as well as updated on a regular basis. Keeping plans current is vital, as every business and the environment it operates in changes regularly.
Waypoint: What is the easiest way for them to get started on a disaster recovery plan?
Scott: Generally the first decision a pharmacy owner must make in this area is to evaluate whether they have the internal resources and time to develop the plan themselves or if they would be better served using the resources and experience of a certified professional. Whichever path they choose, the best way to start developing a plan is to review a history of the types of emergencies, disasters, and everyday disruptions they have already experienced. Then talk to other local business owners and peers to gain additional insight into the types of crises others have experienced. By developing this list of likeliest threats, many pharmacy owners will find that planning for just a few, but diverse, threats will create a resilient infrastructure that will allow the pharmacy to respond effectively to a wide variety of threats, including some that they probably didn’t even consider.
Waypoint: What are a few roadblocks you have seen that prevent business owners from writing a disaster recovery plan and how do you overcome them?
Scott: Time and commitment are the most common roadblocks that we often see when owners start to develop a plan. To develop a proper plan, and ensure that plan is well trained, tested, and updated, requires a long-term commitment to resiliency by the pharmacy owner. Effectively preparing to respond to and recover form disasters and everyday disruptions an ongoing process and should never be seen as a one-time project. Doing so requires time and effort, and we often see that owners have difficulty maintaining the momentum necessary to complete an effective plan and keep it updated. That is where the experience and assistance of an outside consultant can overcome these challenges and help the owner stay on track and to prepare their business, employees, and even their customers to be prepared when needed. The value of an outside consultant is that they have the advantage of ‘seeing the forest and the trees’ – that is, they are not caught up in the daily operations of the business, and they can be focused on making sure pharmacy owners can feel good about their answer to this question -- If something bad happens, will my business be able to serve my customers, remain economically viable, and maintain our reputation in the community?
Waypoint: What do you see as the future for disaster recovery planning?
Scott: Progressive business and community leaders are increasingly paying attention to disaster recovery planning largely for two reasons—first, more than ever before in history, we are connected to the larger world around us economically and technologically and second, the unpredictability of natural and man-made disasters and crises is teaching us that preparedness is one of our duties as members of larger communities. That’s exactly why the future of this type of planning is through interconnected plans that weave together to form greater community-wide preparedness and resilience. A plan for a business must be integrated with employee preparedness, including their families and homes, customers, key vendors, local governments and emergency responders, schools, and other key members of a community. This heightened awareness is prompting an emerging web of preparedness that is in its early stages, but will evolve to become part of routine community planning as we all strive for resiliency in an increasingly unpredictable global environment.
Meet Scott Cave:
Scott Cave is a Certified Business Continuity Consultant with more than a decade of experience in
plan development and maintenance in South Carolina. He received certification in 2006 through Disaster Recovery Institute International.
Scott is a member of:
- Business Continuity Planning Council of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce.
- Contingency Planning Association of the Carolinas (CPAC) – an organization of Professional Contingency Planners focused on needs in North and South Carolina.
- Tri-County Recovery Communications Network (RCN), associated with the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) – a committee dedicated to strengthening communication channels needed to support rapid recovery from a disaster event
Where does this wisdom come from?
The content of this blog is inspired and substantiated by our experience helping independent community pharmacists enjoy financial independence during and after their life in pharmacy. When a pharmacist reaches out to us for information and help, we endeavor to give them as much free value as is possible. In addition to providing educational and strategic planning tools (like Scott's Disaster Recovery Assessment), we invite qualified pharmacists into our formal discovery process.
The first step of the process is completing The Inspired Goals Workshop. This 90-minute session enables us to deliver a detailed and personal Inspired Independence Blueprint. The blueprint provides a personalized roadmap for achieving your goals and enables you to fully understand the value of joining The Inspired Independence Program.
If you wish to learn more about any aspect of our work, the free value we offer, or to be considered for The Inspired Goals Workshop, visit our web site at www.waypointus.com or call 843.873.4420 and ask for Ben or Matt Coakley.
At Waypoint Pharmacy Advisors, we take care of you!
