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TriNity Medical Pharmacy is growing in revenues, employees, locations and target markets. And its chief executive officer, Krutika Patel, says it doesn't plan on slowing down.
The 54-year-old CEO says she always wanted to get into retail. From England, Patel was sponsored to come practice as a pharmacist in the U.S. more than 20 years ago. Today she leads the New Port Richey-based pharmacy, which specializes in compounding medications, or creating a customized medicine for patients. Starting in a 3,000-square-foot facility with three employees in April 2012, the pharmacy now covers 12,000 square feet in TriNity Medical campus, and its 115 employees provide medications to 10,000 patients in a dozen states. With annual revenue around $15 million, Patel expects revenues to grow an additional 10% this year.
Opening a compounding lab in addition to the full-service pharmacy in September 2012 is what made the pharmacy really take off, Patel says. “We were filling up that void that a lot of other medications don't.” Compounding pharmacies allow pharmacists to create special medications for a patient, for example a smaller dose for a child, alternate ingredients for those with allergies, or substitutes if there's a shortage of manufactured drugs.
That's why she's looking for additional ways to grow the business — she wants to find other competitive niches into which she can expand. Patel says she's “narrowing down the business opportunities to continue our growth laterally and vertically.”
For example, over the last three months, TriNity Medical has acquired three pharmacies: Custom Pet RX near University of South Florida, which specializes in pet prescriptions; Family Pharmacy in Wesley Chapel, which specializes in pediatric formulations; and Sarasota's Florida Wellness Pharmacy, which specializes in sterile wound treatments. Each of the three compounding pharmacies addresses specialized needs “to have the gloves fit the hand, and not the other way around,” Patel says. Though she declined to share specifics on the acquisitions, Patel says each acquisition was attractive because it served a specific niche.
One of the biggest challenges has been doctor and patient education, Patel admits. “Initially there was resistance from physicians because they don't want to change. They like the same routine medications.” But once they start using the customized medications and see the results, that's when they convert, she adds. More than 3,000 doctors are now using TriNity's dermatology, migraine, oncology, orthopedic, pain, psoriasis and wound care medications.
To build trust and credibility among doctors, TriNity invests time and money in continuing accreditations to ensure they are following stringent policies and best practices. The pharmacy is one of two pharmacies in Florida to have a dual accreditation from the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board (PCAB) and the Healthcare Quality Association (HQAA), a six-month independent certification that is burdensome, but well worth the investment, according to Patel. Only 118 pharmacies in the U.S. are PCAB accredited.
The pharmacy also works to stand out from the competition by offering additional levels of service. For example, it provides free bedside delivery for patients who are being discharged from the TriNity Medical campus. Pharmacy staff also talk to each patient at least twice. Every medication has a follow-up phone call from the pharmacy's 45-person customer service department to ensure its efficacy.
“Compounding has been around for decades, it's an old art,” Patel says. “Sometimes the traditional drug manufactured medicine may not work.”
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