McCabes Pharmacy has revealed a “transformative” digitisation drive has saved the business thousands of staff hours, protected €100,000s of stock, and improved quality and patient care.
With 110 locations across Ireland, McCabes Pharmacy is the country’s largest pharmacy provider. The company has served customers for more than 40 years, becoming known for its patient-centric approach and online services.
After its acquisition in 2024 by PHX Ireland, McCabes Pharmacy undertook a company-wide digitisation drive using workplace operations platform SafetyCulture – including auditing, asset and stock monitoring, customer service, internal communications and major projects.
Moving from manual twice-a-day recording of fridge temperatures to 24/7 sensor-based monitoring has saved more than 3,000 staff hours and protected €100,000s of stock, according to McCabes Pharmacy.
Auditing and compliance also improved significantly after stores moved from separate paper- and email-based processes to one company-wide platform. Rather than errors being manually logged in spreadsheets and reviewed annually, issues are immediately visible to managers, actions are assigned to the correct person and can be acted on in real time.
Jan Pieter Hallema, managing director at McCabes Pharmacy, said: “This has been a transformative way of working for us. Linking all our stores through one platform means we can spot trends, track resolution times, and improve our quality of service for every patient.
“In terms of asset monitoring, we can see straight away which fridges need fixing or replacing if the temperature goes out of range. Each fridge could be stocking as much as €30,000 worth of medication, so the potential loss across 110 sites is massive.”
McCabes Pharmacy also uses SafetyCulture to manage major projects, such as the rebrand of 80 stores to align all 110 pharmacies under the one name. It has enhanced internal communications by enabling one-to-many alerts – or ‘Heads Ups’ – to be sent directly to colleagues’ devices.
The pharmacy’s sister company United Drug – which provides pharmaceutical distribution services – also implemented the platform, halving onsite injuries and improving health and safety across its warehouses.
Following the initiative’s success, McCabes Pharmacy intends to roll-out the SafetyCulture platform across all support office functions, further develop its asset monitoring across facilities, and enhance its analytics capabilities.
Hallema added: “Ultimately doing things the same way wasn’t going to work anymore. The new approach is simpler, faster and easier – and it’s also providing the best possible data to report back to HSE. We’re an innovative and ambitious team, and we want to keep improving month after month, year after year. We’re championing progress not just to improve things for our company, but for patients and the whole healthcare sector too.”
SafetyCulture’s mobile-first platform is also used by retailers Card Factory, Dunelm and JD Sports, as well as by thousands of UK and Irish companies in hospitality, manufacturing and other frontline sectors.
For more information about McCabes Pharmacy, visit www.mccabespharmacy.com
