From Scripts to Spaces: Marta Stybowski’s Fusion Health Vision for Pharmacies

November 23, 2023

Play episode

In this episode of Pharmacy View Podcast’s Full Scope Pharmacy Leadership stream, host, Chantelle Turner, a Pharmacist Leadership and Business Coach at TURN Pharmacy Leadership, engages in a dynamic conversation with Marta Stybowski, Pharmacist, Director & Founder of Fusion Health Space, and Director of Friendly Pharmacy (Vic). In this episode, Marta shares their extensive experience in Community Pharmacies, talks about their passion for redesigning Pharmacy spaces beyond conventional norms, emphasizes the holistic approach to design, and offers valuable insights into the complexities of optimizing physical environments for operational success. Join the discussion as they explore the unique challenges of Community Pharmacies, the importance of tailored design solutions, and effective communication strategies for project success.

Pharmacy View Podcast · From Scripts to Spaces: Marta Stybowski's Fusion Health Vision for Pharmacies

Marta’s passion lies in redesigning Pharmacy spaces, moving beyond conventional floor plans. They emphasize a holistic approach to Pharmacy design, considering operations, people, and functional aspects. With over ten years of diverse experience in Community Pharmacies across different locations, Marta shares their journey, including pursuing an MBA and working as a Consulting Pharmacist. This journey eventually led to the founding of Fusion Health Space, focusing on workflow and operational consulting.

Marta highlights the term “fusion” in their approach to Pharmacy design, emphasizing the blend of regulatory, building code, consumer expectations, and operational logistics. They discuss the unique challenges of Community Pharmacies and stress the need for a Tetris-like design puzzle to harmoniously blend these diverse elements. Marta advocates against a one-size-fits-all approach, underscoring the importance of understanding each Pharmacy’s unique needs, from team dynamics to business objectives.

Communication emerges as a crucial factor in successful Pharmacy design projects, according to Marta. They stress the need for clear communication from Pharmacy owners and leaders, conveying the vision, objectives, and reasons behind the changes. Effective communication helps build positivity, alleviates fears, and ensures every team member is informed and excited about the transformations.

Marta delves into the intricacies of strategically placing the right people in designed spaces for optimal functionality. They provide an example of aligning design with actual utilization, emphasizing the need to consider skills and services required to meet community needs. Marta also explores the integration of processes and technology in Pharmacy systems, using prescription processing as an example. They highlight the importance of adapting processes to evolving technologies and assessing physical space to accommodate these changes.

The episode concludes with Marta discussing the challenges of incorporating team input into Pharmacy design projects. They value insights from the broader team, emphasizing the importance of balancing input with efficient decision-making. Marta shares successful experiences of well-communicated processes, staff engagement, and collaboration with leaders in achieving project objectives.

Topics Covered

Holistic Pharmacy design with Fusion Health Space
Marta’s diverse Pharmacy experience
Marta’s passion for workflow optimization
Unique challenges of Community Pharmacies
Need to avoid the one-size-fits-all approach
Importance of effective communication
Strategic staff placement
Need for the integration of processes and technology
Challenges of team input
Success through collaboration

Key Quotes (Time Stamps)

“I started Fusion Health Space earlier this year, returning to an area of Pharmacy that I am super, super, super passionate about—and that’s working with Pharmacies to try and redesign their layout, rework their workflow.” (1:37 – 1:54)

“There’s much more to it, I guess, than just looking at a floor plan and a design, which is what most people think about. When you talk about the design of an internal space, it’s looking at the holistic view of the operation, the people working within the space and the functional things that the Pharmacy wants to do, the services it wants to provide, and how we put the Tetris puzzle of what the physical environment needs to look like to support and optimize that operation.” (1:55 – 2:19)

“I really enjoyed Rural Pharmacy. That was probably one of the highlights of my career.” (2:57 – 3:00)

“My passion was really closer to Pharmacy workflow, operational consulting aspect, training aspects, and working with Pharmacy teams.” (3:44 – 3:52)

“And whilst I appreciate the economies of scale and efficiencies around standardizing, one Pharmacy is not the same as another Pharmacy, even sometimes within the same group, same ownership structure, same banner. And I think it’s really important when you create a space or work with a particular Pharmacy to understand the layers that make that Pharmacy up.” (6:26 – 5:51)

That’s where we feel our point of difference is because we’ve come from so much work within the Pharmacy space, knowing to ask those questions, to understand what happens in that business today, but also where the owner wants to take that business.” (8:05 – 8:20)

“There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all. So, I’m never too keen when people say we want something that we can then replicate ten times. You can create elements that you can replicate. But I think it really is an individualized approach that we prefer to take each time.” (10:05 – 10:20)

“If I reflect back on all the years that I’ve been kind in and around this space, the most successful projects that have hit their ground running from day one of opening and have been really quick in getting all the successes and business benefits that some of these things and to achieve have been the ones where the owners or leaders within that business have been great at communicating.” (11:49 – 12:12)

“There’s such a huge gap in customer awareness of what Pharmacy does. So, I think any opportunity we have to lead a customer into conversation and basically market what you’re doing with your business is fantastic, but that can only happen if that junior who only works on Saturdays has been part of that communication and is on board and along for the ride.” (16:00 – 16:21)

“But I think there’s also a lot of opportunity and a lot of positive things on the horizon for the industry. So, the ‘why’ should be around the positivity and the opportunities, and we’re doing this because we want to create a better place to work, a better place for our patients to come, and patient experience, customer experience, call it what you want, is such an important factor for any business in any industry.” (18:46 – 19:11)

Social Media Clips (Time Stamps)

Beyond Blueprints: The Tetris Puzzle of Pharmacy Design with Marta Stybowski (1:26 – 2:19)
Tech, Business, and Pharmacy: The Birth of Fusion Health Space (2:34 – 5:04)
No Cookie-Cutter Designs: Marta’s Prescription for Customized Pharmacies (5:06 – 10:20)
From Whispers to Wow: Marta’s Approach to Inspiring Pharmacy Teams! (10:22 – 16:21)
From Concerns to Opportunities: Marta’s Take on the Future of Pharmacies! (16:22 – 19:11)
Community Connection: Marta’s Passion for Informed Pharmacy Spaces! (20:19 – 23:14)
Tech Meets Rx: Marta on Revolutionizing Pharmacy Processes! (23:39 – 27:51)
Navigating Team Dynamics: Marta Stybowski’s Tips for Pharmacy Design Success (28:58 – 36:19)