Unlocking Pharmacy Revenue with Pharmacy Manager - Customer Success Stories

Community pharmacies continue to face a fierce combination of financial and operational pressures.

Consistent decreases in funding over a period of nearly a decade, coupled with market instability relating to the supply and pricing and medicines are regularly ranked by pharmacists as among the biggest pressures facing their business.

With so many external pressures, it is essential that community pharmacies focus on effective revenue and reimbursement management to survive.

How pharmacies can increase revenue

Maximise over-the-counter sales

Understanding the current market to determine which over-the-counter and retail products are selling well can help independent pharmacies focus their offering to match consumer needs during certain times of the year.

Leveraging market data can help pharmacies reduce waste and help them compete with products customers are actively looking to buy.

Focus on product placement

Why make it difficult for customers to find the products they’re looking for?

Once you understand which products are trending these should be placed in plain sight so it’s easy for customers to find them.

It’s also useful to consider where you place related products. Customers are more likely to make additional purchases when products are grouped together on the shop floor (rather than trying to find them individually).

Don’t overlook cross selling or upselling

Building relationships with customers provides a great opportunity to recommend additional products based on what your customers are looking for.

For example if a patient comes in with a cold they may ask for a specific product, like Beechams. Having a conversation with the patient about their condition can open opportunities for additional sales by asking things like:

• Have they had their flu jab?
• If they’ve tried any immune boosters like Vitamin C

Properly displaying offers

Effective in-store displays are a great way to promote discounts or offers that customers may not have considered when they walk into the pharmacy. These can be particularly effective for seasonal products, like deals on allergy medication at the start of hayfever season, for example.

How pharmacies can deal with reimbursements

Community pharmacies are expected to play a much bigger role in patient care than they historically have whether it’s through tele and digital pharmacy services or providing community education.

With this higher level of responsibility comes additional challenges for pharmacy management, particularly when it comes to billing and reimbursements.

Understand the billing process

Achieving successful reimbursement for services requires pharmacists to develop a strong foundation of billing processes and codes to ensure they bill for the right services.

Use technology to track services

Community pharmacies need a reliable method of tracking what products and services are provided to patients.

Managing documentation for services and keeping accurate records can be a significant challenge for pharmacists, but new technology can help streamline these processes to reduce errors and improve efficiency.

Stay up to date with guidelines

Billing and coding errors can often come from lack of training or irregular auditing.

This is often exacerbated by the complexity of NHS requirements and processes.

Understanding and adhering to guidelines, while using advanced pharmacy management systems to automate and streamline processes can reduce the chances of errors.

How can technology help with revenue and reimbursement challenges?

Making better use of technology can not only help community pharmacies survive by safeguarding profits and improving operational efficiency, but thrive with the use of management software to uncover opportunities for additional sales and growth.

Better oversight of income

A pharmacy’s PMR system is vital in gaining insight into overall income estimates from the NHS and can help pharmacies monitor income accordingly and ensure there are no unexpected discrepancies.

Generate additional revenue

A PMR system can be used to segment patients to identify those who could benefit from additional local services - like flu vaccines.

Understanding what services are commissioned in your area and combining this with your PMR can quickly uncover opportunities for additional revenue streams.

Increasing opportunities from retail sales

Understanding profitable and popular retail products is something we’ve already touched on, and is another area that technology can help with.

Technology integrated with your electronic point of sale can help pharmacies analyse sales data to uncover trends or identify which products are popular and which are proving less profitable.

Having access to this information can help improve stock management by ensuring more items relevant to patients are stocked and reducing money being tied up in unwanted stock.

Make purchasing more profitable

Order management systems can streamline processes and remove inefficiencies.

For example, Pharmacy Manager can automatically flag when a product on order is expensive and its pack price is above the set threshold. Alerting pharmacists to this can reduce wastage that arises through unnecessarily ordering expensive items.

How RD Hill Chemist enhanced their New Medicine Service (NMS)

When RD Hill Chemist identified NMS as a commercially beneficial service, as well as one that would benefit patients, they knew they needed a robust method for clinical interventions.

They found the answer in Pharmacy Services and the NMS Module.

The system has successfully allowed RD Hill Chemist to consistently deliver a high volume or NMS services and maximise payments, with an average performance over 65% in the first 12 months.

“We had to bring in a process for identifying and recruiting patients onto NMS,” said Stephen Pollock, the Pharmacist Manager at RD Hill Chemist.

“Pharmacy Manager prompts highlight the patients who have been started on a relevant new medicine. Using the two systems together has made that really easy. When we sign up a new patient we schedule the first call for a week’s time. The scheduling part of the NMS module makes that really easy on Pharmacy services.”

The results of the technology have been impressive, with 16% growth in average monthly revenues and exceeding NHS service delivery target by 71.3%.

You can read more about their success here.

Why a focus on optimised revenue management is needed

With pricing and regulatory challenges increasing, the benefits of focusing on optimising revenue and improving reimbursement management for community pharmacies cannot be underestimated.

Improved billing

By streamlining and automating billing processes, pharmacies can ensure that services are billed at the right costs and that reimbursements can be more accurate.

Reduced wastage costs

Stock management can help reduce overstocking and understocking of certain products, ensuring pharmacies are focussing on profitable stock.

Reduce errors

Automating medication processes is a simple way of ensuring the right drugs are dispensed to the right person and greatly reduces costs and inefficiencies from inaccurate dispensing.

More effective dispensing

By streamlining drug dispensing - automating the process through a PMS - can spend more time on patients and creating opportunities for sales, rather than searching shelves.

Improve your pharmacy’s financial performance with Cegedim Healthcare Solutions

Community pharmacies play a critical role in the healthcare of patients.

With continued pressure from cuts, staffing and costs, it’s essential that news ways are found to effectively manage your pharmacy business to reduce waste and increase cost efficiency.

Find out how Cegedim can help your pharmacy increase your profitability and enhance your overall financial performance by booking a free demo.