Most patients see their physician about once a year while on average, they see their pharmacist about 12. That means pharmacists have far more opportunity to engage patients and help build enhanced clinical care programs to support healthier outcomes. Despite having more face-to-face time with patients, it’s still not enough to ensure they’re staying compliant with their medications and also taking advantage of the resources available from their pharmacy. Through technology and working together with your pharmacy software partner, you can connect with patients more often.
Datascan makes it easy to engage patients through mobile applications, text messaging, and emailing which can be done manually OR automatically through our scheduler and via utilities.
What types of messages can I send to my patients?
The flexibility of Datascan’s patient messaging is limitless. This is most certainly not a one size fits all feature, allowing you to tailor this program to the specific needs of each patient. Patients can be opted into SMS text messaging or email, and can receive automated message reminders for things like refills due, ready for pickup or out for delivery, reminders to pick up, adherence alerts, and even birthday messages. Patients are even able to reply to reminders letting you know in the pharmacy if they’d like a prescription filled, or if they still plan to come in and pick up a medication that’s waiting. Each pharmacy can customize the automated message templates to help you put even more of your pharmacy’s personal touch on your messages. Prefer to send messages manually? That’s ok! You can choose to send a reminder message anytime from a patient’s profile. Additionally, pharmacies can send 100% custom messages to any patient opted into messaging. As patients receive refill and restock reminders, they can reply to the message letting you know if they’d like to refill their prescription or cancel the request, and can even let you know if they plan to come in for prescriptions that have been waiting or if they’d like them canceled. This works just like appointment confirmation reminders from your doctors office or even local restaurants!
Can my patients text the pharmacy?
Absolutely– welcome to the digital age of pharmacy. Nowadays patients are looking for the ease and flexibility a text messages brings. Often patients are more easily reached via text message as opposed to by phone, and having the option to engage in a 2-way text chat opens the door to even more opportunities for counseling, questions, and prescription specific reminders. Independent pharmacy owners have a major advantage over the chains. By offering more personal and flexible options, your pharmacy is even more likely to help patients improve medication compliance and live much healthier lives. All of this in turn results in better star ratings, lower DIR fees, higher reimbursements, and bigger profits.
Is there an app for patients?
Datascan offers a patient mobile app that’s available in the App Store for Apple iOS, and also in the Google Play Store for Android. The app allows patients to create an account which will then allow them to view their profile and prescription statuses, view pill images, and even create and schedule medication reminders. Notifications can be sent to the app for refill reminders and ready for pick up alerts!
How will this help my pharmacy make more money?
Ensuring patient medication adherence and compliance has become the responsibility of the pharmacy. Independently owned pharmacies are uniquely poised to be an integral part of patient’s overall health. Through persistent communication and engagement, your pharmacy can help make sure patients are taking their medications properly, routinely filling maintenance drugs, and picking up or setting up home delivery of their prescriptions. This in turn results in better performance and compliance, lower DIR fees, and increased profits in your pharmacy.
How can I get started?
If you are using a pharmacy software system that does not offer patient messaging you are doing yourself and your patients a disservice. Talk with our team to find out about how you can make the move to Datascan, starting with a free one-on-one demo. Datascan pharmacies can reach out to our team to request information and get started using text messaging and email notifications at any time.
