Pharmacy software helps the contemporary pharmacist keep better track of inventory while improving the customer experience and enhancing productivity.
Pharmacy software enables the pharmacy owner to automate time-consuming tasks, fill e-prescriptions and enhance the efficiency of their operation.
The list of benefits produced by pharmacy software is a long one, so let’s get straight to it.
25 Benefits Of Pharmacy Software
The following list comprises the major benefits of today’s best pharmacy software.
1: Pharmacy software improves the operation of your pharmacy.
A pharmacy is a business. And like all businesses a pharmacy needs to be as efficient as possible. Pharmacy software enables pharmacy owners to reduce the time spent on tedious tasks like inventory control, insurance checks, and financial management and to focus instead on providing a better customer experience.
2: Pharmacy software enables efficient inventory management.
There are few businesses where inventory management is as vital as it is in a pharmacy. People’s health, and perhaps even their lives, depend on the stock being up to date and viable (1). Pharmacy software helps you keep track of expiration dates, warns you automatically when you are running low on a particular product, and can be programmed to reorder certain drugs automatically.
3: Pharmacy software enables easy electronic prescribing.
E-prescribing saves a lot of time and hassle for both the store manager and the customer. The system is fast, efficient, and eliminates problems that result from misinterpreted handwriting and lost paper prescriptions. It also eliminates delays caused by everything from weather, to faxing prescriptions to the wrong pharmacy.
4: Pharmacy software provides access to relevant drug databases.
The best pharmacy software is capable of detecting potential drug interactions instantaneously. This helps ensure that the pharmacist does not dispense a potentially lethal cocktail (2) to a patient. The potential interaction can be reported to the relevant physician and alterations made before anyone suffers unnecessary harm.
5: Pharmacy software brings your pharmacy into the 21st century.
Although we are well into the 21st century where self-driving cars, trains, and airplanes are becoming commonplace, many pharmacists still count and dispense drugs by hand. Such a system is rife with the potential for error. Pharmacy software, robotic dispensing, automatic inventory updates, and more can streamline pharmacy operations and bring them into the 21st century.
6: Pharmacy software provides relevant reminders.
Keeping track of everything going on in a pharmacy is a complex, time-consuming job. Pharmacy software provides timely reminders when stock is running low, drugs are about to expire, interactions may be present, and more. These are the kind of relevant reminders that can take a lot of pressure off the pharmacy manager, while at the same time ensuring a better customer experience.
7: Pharmacy software enables comprehensive reporting.
Pharmacy software continuously collates information relative to pharmacy operations and provides detailed reports. These reports detail sales, inventory flow, and revenue while also providing information on which products are trending upward, which are trending downward and which are not producing.
8: Pharmacy software saves you time and money.
Until now, pharmacy owners and managers spent much of their lives sifting through accounting ledgers, sales slips, inventory logs, paper prescriptions, and other pieces of business ephemera trying to maintain a clear picture of the workings of their pharmacy. Pharmacy software frees them of this type of drudgery and enables them to focus on things like the customer experience.
9: Pharmacy software typically provides critical supplier data.
It is vital to understand who your suppliers are and which ones are critical to the operation of your pharmacy. In most cases, a small number of suppliers provide an overwhelming percentage of products. By providing a crystal clear picture of the supplier pecking order, pharmacy software can help you devise effective supplier management techniques.
10: Pharmacy software helps you minimize errors.
Erasers exist because humans make mistakes. That old adage may be comforting to students, but human error (3) has no place in the business world of the 21st century. Razor-thin margins and fierce competition means eliminating human error is a priority for all business owners, including pharmacists. Pharmacy software helps you avoid errors at every stage of your business process.
11: Pharmacy software enables you to quickly establish new customer files.
When someone comes to the pharmacy for the first time, pharmacy software allows you to quickly set up a new patient file by simply scanning the barcode on their prescription. This will instantly populate your customer form with relevant information, save you time, and ensure that future transactions proceed seamlessly.
12: Pharmacy software keeps you up to date on newly introduced drugs.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most dynamic, fast-changing industries on earth. It can be difficult to keep up with all the change (4). But keep up you must if you are to better serve the interests of your customers. Many pharmacy software systems automatically update when new drugs are introduced to the market and alert you to their presence.
13: Pharmacy software alerts you when stock is getting low.
The last thing you want is to have to tell someone who shows up to collect their prescription that you are out of stock. On top of leaving the customer in a bind, it does not reflect well on your operation. Pharmacy software will help eliminate this type of occurrence by providing automatic reminders when stock is running low. Some will even automatically reorder for you.
14: Pharmacy software reminds you when drugs are about to expire.
Running out of important medicine is embarrassing, puts your customers in a bind, and may cause them to switch pharmacies. But expired stock is just as big an issue. If you go to fill a prescription but discover your stock is past the expiration date, the effect is the same as running out. Pharmacy software will provide timely reminders when things are about to expire.
15: Pharmacy software helps ensure accurate billing.
Most prescriptions are paid for using insurance, and insurance companies are notoriously nit-picky when it comes to claims, especially those related to healthcare (5). It is all too common for a claim to be denied because some essential information was overlooked or improperly entered. With an automated pharmacy software system, those kinds of errors are all but eliminated.
16: Pharmacy software facilitates the payment process.
With pharmacy software, it is easy to process credit card and debit card payments, record cash payments, process checks and even process gift cards and coupons. You can also set up automatic payments from the customer’s preferred card for future refills.
17: Pharmacy software allows you to analyze all aspects of business performance.
The detailed reports generated by the pharmacy software provide unparalleled insight into the workings of your business. As a result, you have a clear picture of which aspects of the business are producing and which need fine-tuning. Some pharmacy systems enable integration with other business management software as well.
18: Pharmacy software POS systems provide real-time sales information.
Many types of pharmacy software offer POS systems that track every important metric of every exchange and make it readily available to you either through the computer screen in your pharmacy or through your smartphone. You get real-time data on who is buying what, what payment method they are using, their previous purchases, and much more.
19: Pharmacy software alerts customers their prescription is ready.
This is yet another feature of pharmacy software that saves you time and improves the customer experience. Simply indicate that the prescription is filled, and the system automatically generates a text message to the customer telling them they can come pick it up. Systems that feature robotic dispensing (6) can automatically generate the message without any input from you.
20: Pharmacy software programs conduct regular backups of your data.
The big fear when it comes to digital data is that something will happen to the computer, and all your records will be lost. The solution to this unnerving possibility is the backup. Pharmacy programs conduct automatic backups of your data to ensure you never suffer a catastrophic loss of data. How often these backups occur will depend on the program.
21: Pharmacy software provides promotional opportunities.
With some pharmacy software solutions, the user can create and execute promotional campaigns, offer loyalty rewards to customers in the database, and send automatic reminders to customers that it is time to refill their prescription. The end result is increased sales and an enhanced customer experience.
22: Pharmacy software is cost-effective.
Pharmacy software costs anywhere from about $100 per year to more than $200 per month, depending on the feature set. However, when you consider how much more efficient your pharmacy will be, the number of claims that will not be denied, and the number of customers that will not leave unhappy, it turns out to be a very cost-effective way to improve your bottom line.
23: Pharmacy software enables you to capture electronic signatures.
Electronic signatures (7) are mostly used for signing electronic business documents remotely. But they are also useful to the pharmacist. Once the signature is captured, you have legal authorization to dispense the medicine, and a record of exactly when and where that signature was provided. This can sometimes be helpful in the event of disputed claims.
24: Pharmacy software benefits are not bound to the PC.
It’s great to have so many productivity tools at your fingertips when you are in the pharmacy. But the benefits of pharmacy software do not end at the front door. Most pharmacy software solutions offer a mobile app that enables you to keep track of everything going on in the pharmacy, even when you are half a world away.
25: Pharmacy software produces satisfied customers.
In recent years, the healthcare industry has been focused on improving the patient experience (8). That focus extends to your customers as well, as pharmacies typically represent the final stop in the healthcare process. Pharmacy software that allows e-scripting, rigorous inventory control, drug interaction warnings, and more goes a long way toward ensuring your customers walk out the door happy.
Conclusion
Pharmacy software enables the pharmacist to enhance the efficiency of their operation, keep more accurate track of inventory, enable e-scripts, track customer data, generate reminders and facilitate the payment process. And that’s just for starters.