Page 2 - GTA South BU Newsletter - Issue 4

Dave Puri,
VP
GTA South Operations
Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a good holiday season and a healthy start to the new year. Last year challenged us in different ways and pushed us to work in different ways. I’m proud of the way the Associates in our BU rose to the challenge and led their teams through the pandemic last year. Some of you had COVID positive cases amongst your staff at your stores. This was difficult to handle but you did not stop or waver when it came to providing much needed healthcare services to your communities. Despite the challenges faced last year we had 89% of the stores in our BU beat their profit plans – an all- time record! Thank you for your leadership in 2020 and for keeping your staff engaged throughout the pandemic.
The big focus for us this year is to help bring our health & wellness strategy to life by becoming the front door to the healthcare system. We have a new marketing campaign that will support this messaging to consumers across Canada. What can you do to help support our strategy in 2021? Embrace and lead the charge with the delivery of professional services. From the delivery of virtual Medication Reviews to vaccinations – your Pharmacy teams can have a tremendous impact on our healthcare system. Last year our BU had 10 stores participate in the “start at pharmacy” pilot program. This year we will be scaling this program to all pharmacies across Ontario. This will include tools and best practices to hold regular diabetes clinic days along with A1C testing in your stores. We will be scaling up our central fill vial program to most stores in Ontario this year. This will help to free up capacity so that your Pharmacy teams can focus more time on the delivery of professional services.
VP Address
Have you downloaded the PC Health App yet? This is part of our omni-channel strategy to engage with patients in different ways. I would encourage you to download the app and have your store Pharmacy staff do the same. Your patients will be using the app so it’s important that we are all well versed with the current service offering.
Last year in Q4 we ran a pilot program at SDM1287 in our BU called the “customer service desk”. You may recall that this program entailed reconfiguration of the checkout experience with the addition of incremental SCO units. The pilot program was a huge success so we are getting capital approval to rollout 100 stores across Canada in Q3-2021. As a leader in Canada, our BU will represent one-third of the initial customer service desk rollout this year. This is great news for our BU as it will help drive front end efficiency while offering a quick checkout experience for your customers.
As the pandemic continues into 2021 we are currently in a state of emergency within the province of Ontario. We have the right COVID protocols in place to meet public health guidelines and keep both your customers and staff safe. Your field Ops resource team has adapted to the virtual environment and I want to thank you for your patience as we get through this pandemic together. Due to the current state of emergency your Field Ops resource team will continue to provide both business building and back to basic meetings in the virtual format. We currently anticipate your Field Ops resource teams will be back into stores on February 11th to support you and your teams in person.