Running a profitable and efficient pharmacy is not an easy task these days. That is where technology can assist in meeting these goals. The best pharmacy software on the market will give you the opportunity to leverage a myriad of data points and historical data within your pharmacy to help make decisions, limit losses, and build profitability. Your data within the pharmacy system can help identify patients that are non adherent which can hurt star ratings, assist in making sure your prescriptions aren’t being reversed/restocked, help manage inventory so your not sitting on expired drugs and so much more.
Patient Profit Picture:
Filling prescriptions at a loss has unfortunately become more common these days. Running a pharmacy is not a charitable event, nor should it be. Your pharmacy computer system should help to identify patients that overall, are providing your business with losses. Datascan has built into Winpharm our patient profit picture. This will help identify the overall profitability of a patient by looking at all prescriptions being filled over a period of time, also mixing in OTC sales, and the same for linked family members. This helps an independent pharmacy owner make decisions on what prescriptions are still worth filling, even at a loss, because of the big picture relationship with each patient.
Employee Performance:
Underperforming employees is a waste of money and resources. Additional training can sometimes help to build a more efficient worker, but first you need to know who needs that additional ‘push’. Pharmacy management software, along with a robust pharmacy POS system can report on employee performance. The ability to see how long tasks take to be completed such as time to fill or enter a prescription is valuable. Analyzing these reports can help build a better more efficient team in your community pharmacy.
Prescription Logs:
Software for pharmacies exists to do so much more than fill prescriptions. Having prescription logs that identify rx’s that have not been picked up, and the ability to auto message patients about these prescriptions helps lower restock rates, build adherence and raise prescription numbers/profits. Inventory based logs in pharmacy systems can help eliminate expired drugs that need to be discarded, as well as help with managing your inventory levels by looking at historic usage levels for each drug. Inventory is one of your largest investments within a pharmacy and optimizing inventory turn over is key to keeping cash in your accounts and not sitting on your shelves. The best retail pharmacy software on the market can help you handle all of these tasks by offering these reporting tools.
Adherence Reporting:
With CMS star ratings we see the need more than ever for keeping patients adherent to their medications. The top pharmacy software systems on the market will provide you the tools necessary to manage patient adherence. For example, in Winpharm the system will notify you when you are filling the last refill on a maintenance medication and offer you a quick click of a button to send the Dr a refill request. Lets say a technician was not sure if they should do this, we have a maintenance medication utility that can scan through all patients, identify such medications that need refills, and auto send the doctors requests, keeping your patients refills ready for filling. The pharmacy management software also has built in adherence reporting tools to identify proportion of days covered, and those patients that come close to, or are non adherent running out of their medications. This offers you the opportunity to be proactive and assist these patients in making sure they never run out again.
Tracking Physician and Patients:
Pharmacy software systems and all of the historic data they store, can help you identify those patients and even doctors that are doing a lot of business with you, and even those that have maybe fallen off over time. This is an opportunity for you to reward or thank those that are continuing to do great business with you, but also one to reach out and possibly offer incentives to do more. With regards to Doctors, while you cant pay them for prescriptions, you can certainly do things like buy the office lunch, or better yet, let them know of the technology you harness and how you can work together in symphony to better your mutual patients health. Patients of course, you can offer incentives to such as discounts, free consults, and so on.
Your pharmacy software has a lot of data sitting in it, and the question becomes, are you going to harness it and make it work for you. Filling prescriptions is a small part of what an independent pharmacy does day to day. An owner needs the ability to pull themselves away from the day to day, and run reports in their pharmacy system to get a better picture of the inefficiencies in their business, as well as find opportunities to save money. You pay monthly for your pharmacy management software, so get the most out of it and make it work for you.
