How does an independent drugstore offering HME compete with the large chain drugstores in its marketplace? Max Care did it by building a state-of-the-art, 13,000-sq-ft store in Atascadero, Calif, a town of 40,000 people about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The company installed a robotic prescription filling system, the latest in disease management systems, a complete line of HME, a respiratory therapy department, an educational resource center for customers, and a DME repair center.

“This is the type of store you’d expect to see in a huge metropolitan area,” says Max Care’s director of sales and marketing, Christopher L. Depew. “Some people did not think it would work in a small town. The architects who designed our store now use it as a model. Pharmacists from other states like to see what we’ve done and copy our ideas.”

Since Atascadero’s population is small, Max Care looks beyond the town’s borders for customers and markets itself as a one-stop shop for maximum health. The company provides delivery service for home health equipment and prescriptions to all of San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties. In addition, next door to Max Care is its referral-only pharmacy for IV therapy services. Max Care also has opened a smaller satellite store, primarily for medical equipment, about 50 miles away in Santa Maria.

By building the Atascadero facility nearly 2 years ago, the company consolidated three business components—the warehouse, showroom, and office space—into one location and made Max Care more efficient. “It was difficult having billing in one place, the store in another, and the warehouse at a third location,” says company president Kirk Pearson.

Greater size also helped distinguish the company from its competition. “The concept we had was to treat the new store like a retail department store,” Pearson says. “With 7,000 square feet of the building being used as the showroom, we wanted to be able to show off the HME department; 30% of the showroom is now devoted to home health products such as scooters and wheelchairs.”

Selecting the right site was key. The Atascadero facility is the anchor store in its strip mall, the Max Care sign is visible from the freeway, and the mall parking lot has space for 90 cars. In short, customers can’t help but notice it. “The result of this move has been that our business has grown 90% in some of our rentals and DME sales,” Pearson says.

You’ve Come a Long Way
Rapid growth is challenging, but for Pearson, a hospital pharmacist for 10 years, it has been a way of life since he first decided to strike out on his own in 1982. That year he purchased Elliot’s Pharmacy, a small Rexall drugstore. He did well and in 1990, Pearson moved to a new location and expanded the drugstore to include HME. By the mid ’90s he had outgrown that space as well and began looking for an even larger space.

It took 3 years to plan and execute the move. Pearson considered everything from how to integrate all the different aspects of the business to practical matters, such as the location of the offices, the configuration of the store, development of a good traffic pattern, allocation of space for the different departments, and better merchandise display.

As moving day approached, it became evident that customers needed to know that the new store was really the Max Care of old. Depew developed a marketing campaign to make customers aware of all the features in the store, such as the resource center near the pharmacy lobby. The center has chairs and a computer for individual customer research. In addition, customers can find out about products in Max Care’s manufacturer catalog library. Patient information sheets and videos are also available.

Upstairs is a conference room that can hold up to 50 people. “We have a diabetes support group that meets there on the second Tuesday of every month,” Depew says. “We bring in speakers, such as physicians, ophthalmologists, and vendors, to discuss various products.”

Having a diabetes support group leads to more business, Depew says. While people are at the store, they will buy something. “Because we don’t have an elevator system to the conference room, we use a stair glide to assist disabled people or those who have difficulty with stairs,” says Depew. “Now that people see how the system works, we are selling the stair glides too.”

Max Care may start other management groups for diseases such as asthma, Depew says. It already has a license to perform cholesterol tests in the pharmacy area.

People Power
Service is not Max Care’s only selling point. From Pearson, the president, to the delivery technicians, every employee has some previous health care experience. “We are unique in the fact that we have both pharmacy and nursing profession knowledge, which allows us to better identify and serve our client and referral source needs,” says Teri Weitkum, RN, BSN, executive vice president of Max Care, who has 21 years of pharmacy experience in addition to her nursing experience.

Insisting that even delivery drivers have prior health care experience, such as laboratory or emergency medical technician work, may seem excessive, but Weitkum says it gives them an advantage with patients and referral sources. “Many patient needs are identified in the home,” she says. In one case a husband told the technician that his wife was falling a lot. The technician realized she needed a walker, and by consulting with Weitkum and the wife’s doctor, they were able to get her the equipment she needed to prevent dangerous falls.

Hiring highly qualified staff can be a challenge, but because the company has a low turnover and a reputation as a good company to work for, Weitkum can afford to be choosy. “The team here really is a team, and they actually like each other and work well with each other,” she says.

When needed, everyone jumps in to help, including Weitkum and Pearson who often lend a hand in the pharmacy if they are exceptionally busy or short-staffed. “We are in the trenches with [our employees],” she says. “We don’t just sit at a desk.”

Looks Matter
The attractive design of the store also helps keep customers satisfied. For high traffic areas, Pearson ordered concrete slab flooring dyed to look like marble. The rest of the store has earth-tone carpeting. Halogen lights drop out of the high ceiling.

The pharmacy, which is 40% of the store, is in the back and the home health department is in the front. One staff member is available to help anyone who stops in, and four people handle the phones. Throughout the store there are slat walls for setting up shelving at different heights or using hooks and hangers. Low counters allow people to reach products. The aisles are spacious for customers who use wheelchairs, scooters, or walkers.

If you are thinking of building a new location as Max Care did, first have a business or marketing plan in place. Figure out how long a process the construction will be. Assume it will be necessary to continually check the site to make changes. Plan your move so it does not interfere with business. During the move, never suspend operations and always continue your deliveries. Max Care moved over the weekend and after hours.

“Because there are always buyouts and mergers, the most important factor is to make sure referral sources and customers know the same people are running the company,” Depew says. “With this new store, we are not thought of as a mom-and-pop pharmacy anymore. We have developed so much business by making the move that now we can compete with the big boys.”

Vicki Gerson is a contributing writer for Dealer/Provider.