JULY ,Edition # 29, 2001

EDITOR'S NOTE:
In the last edition, Roy Stevenson began the documentation of a major incident he encountered while working on a locum assignment.
In essence, the pharmacy he was managing became fire damaged, due to a fire starting in one area of a shopping complex, eventually extending to the pharmacy.
To complicate matters, the owner of the pharmacy was overseas at the time.
Because this was a very unusual occurrence, Roy documented the events that unfolded in some detail, so that other pharmacists, could take heed and incorporate some sort of disaster strategy into their own environment.
If you missed the first part to this story, or would like to review the previous article before reading part two, please follow this link.
Pharmacists are encouraged to print copies of these articles, using the print button in your browser, for future reference or for pass on to others interested pharmacists.
Roy's observations of some of the marketing impacts for the pharmacy, the centre and other shopping centres in the region, are particularly interesting.
The Guild Insurance Company's involvement is given a five star rating for its performance and help.
Roy continues his narrative:

"Ours is a three sides, square shopping centre - shops on the ground floor and offices above.
The fire started in a solicitor's office in one corner.
Fire and smoke seem to behave very stangely.
The shops furthest away from the fire copped the worst smoke damage.
The fire was stopped directly above us, but we suffered minimal smoke damage, and minimal water damage.
A concrete slab ceiling saved us.
You will probably find that people will have already made appointments to meet with you, on site, at the earliest opportunity.
You will have to seek someone (the electrician who will inevitably be on site) out to reconnect the electricity if this is possible. Make sure you understand what you can do, and what you should not do with electrical equipment.
Guild Insurance and the assessor will be two of the first people on site.
You will have to decide if/when you can trade.
Be sure to involve the staff in this decision.
Your insurance company will coordinate who is responsible for what - just let it all happen. Tell them what you think needs to be done, and let them do it.
You might need to be patient - there will be a list of priorities.
If you cannot trade, and you are not trashed, you will be high on that priority list. If you can trade, you might be a low priority.
If you have suffered water damage, work will start quickly on removing that water. Water will be rolled/squeezed/sucked out to the carpet.
They will use big fan driers.
The biggest problem with carpets in that you have to get the water out of the slab under the carpet, or it will go "off" before it dries. They will either lift the carpet, or use dehumidifiers, which work best when the doors are closed.
They are big machines 1000x500x500, and I am told they can suck 70 litres of water out of the air in 24 hours.
It is probably practical to leave any bundles of soaked paper where they are.
We did this inadvertently, and found that the dehumidifiers dried all this as well. The paper was a bit crinkled, but that was all.
Water damage is also a bit insidious.
With the use of craft wood and pine/chip board as shelving and fittings, the damage might not be immediately apparent. The water will cause the wood to swell, and it will have to be replaced.
Be also aware that such damage will weaken the timber, and a shelf might later collapse.
We were also caught out with these little plastic trays we all use.
Some were above eye level, and we did not see immediately that they were full of water.
Smoke damage can be devastating.
We observed other shops in the centre with smoke damage.
Even small shops took up to five days to clean.
Contract cleaners will be brought in.
They will try to salvage the carpet by cleaning first, but you should reserve the right to ask for it to be replaced.
The contract cleaners will also clean the stock.
This is reasonable, and is the reason why you are insured.
You should be allowed to direct all your time to trying to maintain your business, and to plan and implement a strategy to minimise the inevitable reduction in trade.
During the initial recovery phase, Guild Insurance will be as involved, or not involved as you need/want them to be.
Kim, from Newcastle, spent a lot of time on the site seeing for herself what needed to be done.
However, the "machine" swung into action so smoothly, that we realised we could cope with it all with just a little bit of Guild support.
It was very much an ego-boost for me, to be able to literally snap my fingers, and even the smallest little thing was DONE, immediately!
Well done Guild Insurance!
We decided fairly quickly, that the gods had looked after us, and we had been spared the devastation suffered by many businesses here.
We were able to decide that we should be seen to be back in action as quickly as possible, and to be quickly seen to be operating as normal again.
We think this aspect should be addressed very quickly.
With help, you might be able to get up and running again quite quickly, if you have only suffered smoke and/or water damage.
You will not be required to do very much of this except supervise.
You should quickly start thinking of strategies to minimise your loss of trading.
We would offer the following advice based on experience
We lost the Post Office the Baker, Dentist, Solicitor and four other offices.
The local surgery have (7 days after the fire) told us that they have had at least fifty calls from patients asking for replacement scripts for the ones we had held in the Pharmacy for them, and had been destroyed in the fire.
NOT TRUE!
People - normal people - have a resistance to being seen as interrupting us in the post-fire period.
I remember three or four years ago being in Coffs Harbour immediately after a major flood. Creeping past these miserable looking traders, (who really only had wet carpets), but were being more miserable because people like me would not come in to buy.
I felt that they might think I was just being nosey.
GET YOURSELF BACK ON TRACK AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE:
* Pay your staff extra money to just smile!
* Stand at the front door as much as you can, and drag people in.
* Never just say "Oh I have business interruption insurance".

This is YOUR business at risk, and while insurance will help you in the short term, don't just sit on your hands. You should find out how long access to your shop will be restricted, in terms of barriers and cordoned off areas, car parking restrictions etc.
You need to demand that your customers are allowed access as soon as possible - this will probably happen anyway, but another thing you need to consider is that the various tradespeople will occupy parking spaces for some time.
Talk to the centre management, and ask them to request/require that all staff and tenants do not take up parking spaces which should be available to your customers.
Get the place cleaned as quickly as possible.
We "sacked" our cleaners, because they were just in the way!
It also gave the impression that we were struggling to get back in business, and we shouldn't be interrupted.
We pushed to have the carpet cleaned, so that we could get everything back on the floor.
In summary …. we did everything we could to get back to where we were before the fire.

You will have to make your own decisions about stock write-offs.
We had very little of this, but I spent a fair bit of time researching the viability of fridge lines. We had been without power for about 30 hours. The temperature in the fridge had gone to 12ºC. The fridge had defrosted and there were a few wet boxes.
Insulins will still last to their expiry date even if they have been stored at 37ºC for 1 week! They will last to their expiry date even if they have been stored at 21ºC for 2 weeks! So my 12ºC was not a problem. The same temp/storage life applies to most vaccines.
As you will know, once the fridge is up and running, the boxes will dry out.
Being realistic, we lost very little fridge stock.
Even packs of paper bags stored on the wet carpet, dried out with the de-humidifiers.
Being an honest Scot, I was not quick enough to dunk my laptop in the water!

This shopping centre has suffered a big hit - two major drawcard businesses have been destroyed, and will be gone for at least eight to nine months.
You MUST do EVERYTHING you can to stop your customers drifting off elsewhere. What you do in the early stages of recovery is vitally important.
There is another aspect to this incident.
We are starting to hear complaints from other businesses who are not in the centre, and were not involved in the fire.
They are suffering loss of business, but their insurance will not cover them, of course.
This would be hard to take!
One shopping centre near us, took out a half page ad in the local paper - just to say "business as usual".
We thought this advert was a bit "rough" until we realised what was behind it.
We had a 3 x 1.2m banner made (insurance pays) to hang above the front of the Pharmacy - just with "Pharmacy Open" on it.
We had two "A" boards with the same words - get them done professionally - a Texta hand done sign, only portrays the image you are trying to avoid.
One thing we could have done (but didn't) was to print up flyers to hand out in the shop, just saying we are still happening, thanks for your custom, we appreciate your support, and tell the story of the fire.
We tell that story twenty times a day, to people who do ask, but it might be good to tell the ones who don't ask.
We took a quarter page ad in the local paper. We thought it best to include a staff photograph - something which would catch the eye, of people who know us. Remember, this is an advert aimed at retaining your EXISTING customers - not get new ones.
Involve your staff fully in all this - get their input - have them do some/all of the work. They need to be a part of the recovery process.
In my opinion, fire can totally destroy your pharmacy physically.
What happens to your business depends on YOU, and you only have a very short time to act.
Hope this all helps someone."
Ends
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Editor's Note:
Many thanks to Roy for the above contribution.
I might add that he has just sent a full page of jokes to put in future articles, so his sense of humour must be returning after such a devastating assignment.
He certainly lived his brochure claim "I deal with everything".
With a unique brand of humour, a capacity for expecting the unexpected and a high degree of professionalism, it is obvious that Roy is providing a first class service as a locum.
I am sure there are a number of prospective employers who would like to meet him. He now has a website located at:

http://www.computachem.com.au/locums/RoyStevenson.html

You can arrange more information, and a locum booking, from this site.

Roy S.Stevenson Ph.C. M.P.S.,
Locum Pharmacist
40 Northminster Way
RATHMINES 2283.
Tel 4975 5548 Mob. 0402 406 691 Fax 0249 75 2334
ABN 11 585 465 385

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