Why it’s time to say goodbye to APHS

APHS has been around for 28 years and a part of Stuart and my daily existence since we merged our pharmacies into the group in 2002 as part of the founding partners’ succession strategy.

Since that time, the four original partners have all long retired and APHS’ brand and footprint has expanded widely, not only into additional states, but also into new markets with the creation of successful spin offs in the manufacturing and cancer care sectors.

The one constant through that time has not only been the name APHS, but the question that accompanies every time – ‘what does that stand for?’ This is compounded by the proliferation of similar acronyms throughout the pharmacy industry in Australia; so it’s time for us to stand out from the crowd and move forward with a new name that captures our spirit, values, passion for what we do, and absolute determination to continue to reshape the way healthcare is delivered in Australia and beyond.

Next Tuesday (9 September 2014) sees the launch of our new brand and a whole new look. This doesn’t discount our past, and all the things that have made us a strong and successful business for the past 28 years, in fact, it uses these very strengths as a springboard into our future. It expresses how proud we are of our people, our reputation for excellence and how excited we are about where we see our future taking us.

Not only are we launching our new brand, but also the plans for our next venture; a bold move into the digital healthcare space. No business can ignore the digital transformation sweeping the world and we believe there is so much value that this revolution can add to healthcare.

The value of digital comes from providing the empowered patient improved access to information and better enabling them to be an active participant in their own health outcomes; to opening up and improving communication between providers; to ensuring our internal processes happen in an integrated, scalable and sustainable manner. In line with this we will be introducing a raft of new solutions, not only to our own business, but the broader health arena.

Our rebrand process has provided the perfect illustration as to how embracing new digital businesses and processes can deliver fantastic outcomes, while reducing costs and timeframes to execution.

Our new logo was crowdsourced, costing a fraction of what a traditional agency would charge, and was finalised within seven days of the initial brief. In addition to these benefits, the process attracted ideas from all over the globe, giving us a much wider range of options to consider and explore.

Another example is the custom fabric for our new uniforms. After working with an amazing designer to create our new fabric and uniform styles (more on that in a coming post), we were able to print a short run of our bespoke fabric design using an online service from Sydney (thanks Maria, you’ve been fantastic!). We had this in our hands in just five days, allowing the uniform samples to be constructed ready for the big reveal on Tuesday.

We  have a fantastic day of activities planned for next Tuesday, not only at our launch event in Brisbane but at our sites all around the country.

We can’t wait to #farewellAPHS and say hello to an exciting new name and future!