Success Factors and Performance Measures of Retail Pharmacies in Sri Lanka

Improving the quality and performance of the healthcare environment can assist service providers in developing reliable, cost-effective, and long-lasting healthcare processes, allowing them to improve care delivery and patient outcomes. In a healthcare environment, retail pharmacies play an important role, mainly supporting the coordination of the supply chain because, in addition to the government sector, retail pharmacies are the point where people get medicines. Because of the increasing demand for the retail pharmacy sector, there is an urgent requirement to improve their performance to offer a better service. This study aims to identify key success factors associated with retail pharmacies in Sri Lanka and determine the impact of identified success factors on the performance measures. A literature survey and experts’ opinions identified the key success factors of Sri Lankan retail pharmacies. There was a total of 21 key success factors identified. A survey was done with 45 retail pharmacies in Sri Lanka, conducting interviews and questionnaires mainly with pharmacists, pharmacy owners, and pharmacy assistants. This study shows the relationship of key success factors with operational performance, financial performance, and customer satisfaction. Despite analyzing the success factors and performance measures separately, identifying the direct relationship between key success factors and how they have impacted the retail pharmacy performance based on the different aspects of indicators in Sri Lankan retail pharmacies is not yet considered in the literature published in the last decade. This study’s findings will help increase the overall performance of retail pharmacies in Sri Lanka, enabling patients to experience a better service.