In order to have a successful independent or community-based pharmacy, you must optimize your operations to remain profitable and competitive. Inventory management is a crucial area that can have a big impact on the bottom line. You may improve your return on investment (ROI) and streamline your business processes with an advanced pharmacy management solution. We’ll look at seven elements in this article that your pharmacy inventory system must have if you want to improve your bottom-line profitability.
Real-Time Monitoring and Tracking
To properly track and optimize your inventory levels, real-time tracking and monitoring are crucial. Real-time inventory monitoring, reorder points management, and carefully tracking expiration dates are imperative. A feature packed pharmacy system will help you avoid overstocking or running out of stock, which can result in needless expenses and missed sales. The ability to track historic usage and forecast inventory needs will help understand when to place new orders, and how much to order. Datascan’s Winpharm pharmacy software has all of these capabilities and more, including separating and managing multiple different inventories.
Automatic Re-Order and Price Shopping Capabilities
Manual tasks take a lot of time, can be error-prone, and lets face it—time is money. By generating purchase orders based on reorder points and other criteria, an automatic reordering tool can aid in streamlining this procedure. Winpharm can help suggest re-order points based on historic usage, as well as reorder with set re-order points. Our pharmacy software synchronizes via EDI with wholesalers (both large and small) across the pharmacy industry to allow for ordering, the ability to electronically receive orders to update inventory levels, as well as automatically download updated pricing on your drugs. With this, the pharmacy system can help shop for the best prices across your wholesalers to save you money.
Easy to use Barcode Scanning
When managing inventory, barcode scanning that is fully integrated into your pharmacy management system is a critical tool that can speed up the process and increase accuracy. You can use this tool to scan objects as they come in or go out, automatically updating your inventory levels. You can decrease the possibility of errors and increase the efficiency of inventory management by doing away with the necessity for manual data entry.
Point-of-Sale (POS) System Integration
A seamless and efficient workflow can be achieved by integrating your POS system with your pharmacy management software. With a true integrated interface, you can create purchase orders based on sales data and automatically adjust inventory levels when transactions are made. Integration means knowing when there are other prescriptions in the store waiting for pickup. The ability to require RX verification in order to complete the checkout process, and for the system to make sure insurance-based prescriptions received a paid claim (or require a switch to cash for denied claims) is easy to manage when the pharmacy system and the POS ‘speak’ to one another seamlessly. Datascan built our own pharmacy point of sale from the ground up, and we make certain both software products operate together to maximize profits, prevent losses, and give the customer a better overall experience. Our customizable rewards program can track spending and offer rewards differently for RX vs OTC items. The POS separates and manages your OTC inventory, offering the same functionality that Winpharm offers for prescription drug inventory. The technology is always advancing to stay cutting edge so your pharmacy can operate in a more automated fashion.
Tracking Expiration Dates and Restock of RX’s Not Picked Up
Expiration dates of prescription medication are important to monitor to avoid additional losses, as well as following PBM contract rules for the reverse/restock of prescriptions not picked up within specified time frames. Fines and legal repercussions can occur with regards to prescription medications, and PBM audits can wreak havoc on your bottom line if you operate outside of your contractual obligations. Datascan makes sure that we track drug expiration dates along with Lot #’s, have the ability to run reports and stop usage of expired drugs. We also track and place into a workable queue, prescriptions that go beyond a specified number of days past the fill date, but have not been picked up. This is just an example of more tasks our pharmacy software offers to help automate processes that were once manual in nature.
Reports
Within our pharmacy software you can create reports that are based on particular criteria, like sales information or inventory levels. You may get information about your inventory performance and make data-driven decisions by having access to personalized reports. Many of our reports can also be scheduled to auto run/print through our scheduler.
If you want to run a successful independent pharmacy in todays challenging environment, this list of seven essential capabilities will enable you to streamline your processes, cut waste, and increase your return on investment. Using the technology built into any robust pharmacy system will help you cut costs, save time, operate with less staff, and offer your patients conveniences they expect. Remember that selecting the ideal pharmacy system necessitates an analysis of your specific requirements and long term goals. You can maintain your competitive edge and achieve long-term success if you have the correct structure in place.
Kevin Minassian is the President of Datascan Software. Under his leadership, the company rapidly expanded to provide pharmacy management software on a national level. Over the last 15+ years, he has ensured that Datascan has continuously evolved to offer innovative solutions for independent pharmacies while still offering world-class customer support. He is passionate about helping independent pharmacies to remain competitive, achieve success, and offer the very best service to their communities.
