Many community pharmacies continue to operate under severe financial pressures.
Funding cuts and price fluctuations mean many pharmacies are selling medicines at cost, or sometimes at a loss, pushing some to the brink and forcing a rethink of how they operate, and the services they provide.
While new services are offering some respite and the opportunity to diversify revenues, many pharmacies struggle with the time to deliver them, or to properly chase up reimbursements.
New pharmacy management, services and intelligence platforms are providing more opportunities for pharmacies to relieve financial pressures by reducing costs, lessening losses and delivering services more efficiently.
In this blog we look at some of the ways community pharmacies can gain a competitive advantage with new technology.
Automated dispensing has fundamentally changed one of the primary roles within a pharmacy.
Instead of the pharmacist manually finding the medication, counting pills, checking patient records for other current medications and packaging prescriptions, the process is now completed quicker, and more accurately.
Robotic dispensing reduces the time it takes for medicines to be dispensed so patients get their prescriptions quicker.
As well as the time saved, automated dispensing systems increase accuracy and reduce the potential for dispensing errors.
It also gives pharmacists more opportunity to spend time with patients, either to ask questions about their condition and provide advice about taking the medication, or to promote related products and services.
In our new docuseries, The Game Changers of Community Pharmacy, we introduce Gurminder Singh, a second generation pharmacist on a mission to transform his already successful family business by introducing new technology and services.
He highlights how technology like robotic dispensing has opened the door for pharmacists to spend more time with patients to deliver services.
“Robotic dispensing is something that’s changed with pharmacy, so those physical and clinical aspects of pharmacists thinking and gauging how a patient is feeling [are more important].”
While pharmacies are able to offer a much wider range of services, raising awareness of them can remain a challenge.
As Gurminder says in his Game Changer episode, pharmacies are now a long way from the old method of printing and passing out leaflets in the community.
“Everything’s going a lot more digital now, so you almost have to be a digital marketing expert. You have to know about websites, about search engine optimisation, and pay per click on Google. You have to know how to start doing social media and trying to be a bit different as a pharmacy.”
As well as digital marketing tactics, in-store Digital Displays are proving successful for community pharmacists.
These displays can be used either in-store or used as window displays. Actively promoting new products or offers, or pointing patients in the direction of additional services.
And they’re a proven tool for driving additional revenue and gaining a competitive advantage.
Adding digital signage as part of in-store marketing has been shown to increase overall sales volume by up to 31.8%.
It can also increase the average purchase amount by up to 29.5% and increase repeat buyers by up to 32.8%.
When margins are tight and resources finite, having a full picture of your business’ operations is essential for identifying areas of improvement or reducing waste.
Pharmacy Intelligence platforms provide real time metrics of everything from store-level activity, financial performance, stock and order management and dispensing statistics.
This data is critical when it comes to making improvements.
For example it can be used to identify popular medicines to ensure stock levels remain high.
Similarly it can identify stock that isn’t moving, reducing the risk of medications being overstocked and going past their usable date.
Having oversight of performance helps pharmacy managers answer one key question - what is happening in their store.
Plus, it provides the opportunity to predict future trends based on historical data, allowing pharmacy managers to properly plan ahead and make more informed decisions about their business.
As an example, these systems could help you spot and grab NMS opportunities by giving you an accurate view of your current performance and progress.
Whether it’s scheduling follow ups, completing services or identifying at-risk NMS, pharmacists have a real-time view of how the pharmacy is functioning.
Identifying NMS opportunities is something specifically highlighted by Gurminder in his Game Changer episode.
He comments: “There’s a big help at the moment with New Medicine Service NMS in that it identifies the patients who may be eligible for the service, then it can target those patients because the label automatically comes out from the dispenser then you can stick it on the bags and identify that patient when they come in and ask them if they’d like us to do the New Medicine Service with them and start that process.
“And it’s easier to chase that person afterwards and complete the service.”
New technology provides a foundation for pharmacists to understand what is happening in their business, make improvements and give them time to focus on patient care and services.
Whether it’s automating manual tasks, providing real-time insights into key performance data and using technology to identify patients who are eligible for additional services, pharmacists are able to create a competitive advantage in what is already a highly competitive market.
This is a key theme in Game Changers - The Visionary - featuring Gurminder.
In the episode we go behind the scenes of his family’s pharmacy business started by his father 40 years before as Gurminder strives to introduce new technology and services to off-set the pressures caused from ever changing market conditions.
To watch the full episode and see how real-life pharmacists are stepping up to remain profitable and grow, click here.