Todays independent pharmacy needs to offer more than just prescription filling and standard OTC items. A modern pharmacy will offer everything from compound medications, to DME goods, a wide array of front end retail items, and of course, offer immunizations. Both chain pharmacies and independents alike have been offering regular flu season shots for years now. With Covid came more attention to pharmacies and their ability to offer all kinds of immunizations year-round. With the increased demand for these services, pharmacies need an easy way to manage it all.
The best pharmacy software on the market today will help you bill for immunization services, track the history of what patients received, remind patients or offer them the same services when the next immunization would be due, and so much more. Your pharmacy management system should track your patient history beyond regular everyday prescriptions to give you a more detailed health profile. Tracking what immunizations each patient received, the ability to make notes, bill them out for proper reimbursement, as well as trigger these offerings at later dates is important. For example, a patient that receives their flu shot prior to flu season, your pharmacy management software should track this activity and send out a reminder to these patients a year later when the next shot would be due. This helps with patient convenience as well as pharmacy bottom line profits.
Pharmacy software systems are there to help you manage your entire business, and that includes alternative programs you may be offering your patients. Using the pharmacy computer system to its full advantage or getting the most out of the technology offered by your pharmacy software vendor is in your best interest. You are paying monthly for the software, so why not let it help you in every way it can? Does your retail pharmacy software offer you scheduling to help manage immunization appointments? Pharmacy software systems are being designed to streamline all these processes. When you make an appointment for a patient for these services, it can show up on a calendar. You can plan your day(s) out in advance by knowing how many of these you have scheduled for any particular day or week. The system should then be able to remind patients of these appointments through texting, and any mobile applications that tie into the pharmacy software.
The best pharmacy software companies will offer a mobile application for patients that will allow the to do everything from view their profiles, to refill medications, and even set reminders for when to take said RX’s. Beyond that, the mobile applications for pharmacies should be heading in the direction where patients can also send messages to the pharmacy, receive messages, and even schedule immunization appointments. If these 2 programs are synchronized as they should be, when a patient goes to schedule an appointment in the mobile app, it will show them available times, as well as once selected set that appointment back on the pharmacy software side.
A modern community pharmacy will offer all of the conveniences and services they can to their patients to keep them coming back and loyal. While adding more work for the staff to manage may seem overwhelming, using your pharmacy computer system and the technology packed into it can help manage the additional work. Those independent pharmacies we see embracing the technology within the pharmacy software are putting the systems to work for them and getting more than their monies worth. Offer your patients different immunizations throughout the seasons and let your technology within the pharmacy management software help you better manage and organize it so you can focus on patient care and profits.
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.
