It may not be at the top of your to-do list (or on your list at all), but inventory management is a critical component of your pharmacy’s workflow. It’s one that can propel you forward as an accessible healthcare hub for your patients.
Do you have a handle on your inventory?
Visibility into your pharmacy’s inventory ensures you are meeting your patients where they are by expecting their needs in advance, and exceeding their expectations. As pharmacies continue to face challenges brought on by COVID-19, it becomes doubly important to ensure you and your staff have a strong grasp on the needs of your patients. By taking the temperature of your patient population, you are setting yourself up for success and ensuring you can capitalize on appropriate clinical services and products.
Understanding demand is crucial to the success of any business, and community pharmacy is no exception. In fact, an effective inventory management plan is critical to not only business longevity but also patient health.
Here are three steps you can take to ensure you are “taking stock” of your pharmacy’s inventory:
Make the call for will-call
How many times have you seen medications sit in the will call bin? Ensure that medications actually reach the hands of your patients by letting them know their prescription is ready for pick up! This simple practice will allow you to take a more accurate reading on supply and demand, leading to more informed purchasing decisions.
Implement a med sync program
A medication synchronization (med sync) program enables pharmacies to engage their patients in a convenient and consistent manner. In addition to improved patient adherence, you can also experience a better understanding of demand through a med sync program because patients are scheduled to come in on a certain time and day.
Limit excess inventory
Be sure that you are not oversupplying. Excess product takes up shelf space and offers little value – expired medications can neither be sold nor used and therefore offer zero value! Instead, consider other ways that you can meet your patients’ needs through enhanced clinical services – such as vaccinations or COVID-19 testing (more on this below).
Ready to get started?
We can help. The PrescribeWellness solution provides your pharmacy with end-to-end support to help you effectively manage your inventory – all accessible from a single, comprehensive dashboard solution.
To cut down on medication left sitting in the will call bin, you can utilize PrescribeWellness patient communications to engage your patients through an OnDemand message. Select and schedule those patients who you’d like to connect with through an automated communication – it’s that easy. An OnDemand will call bin message not only helps manage your pharmacy’s inventory, but it also streamlines workflow by limiting the time you and your staff have to spend calling patients. Better engagement through patient communications also helps to improve the adherence of your patient population. That’s a big win-win!
Speaking of improving patient adherence, PrescribeWellness is an ideal partner for implementing and sustaining a successful med sync program. Pharmacists can use our med sync solution to easily identify patients on two or more active maintenance medications – prime candidates for having their medications synced. Next, recruit these patients by sending an automated voice or text message that highlights the benefits of having their medications aligned to a single pickup date. By allowing you to track the progress of synced patients, PrescribeWellness also helps ensure the sustained success of your med sync program. When a new medication is prescribed and added to a patient’s drug therapy regimen, pharmacists can intervene, and quickly resync patients to ensure continued adherence.
The PrescribeWellness solution can also help you limit excess inventory by tracking and forecasting demand for medication, as well as various clinical services your practice may provide, such as flu shots or COVID-19 testing. By having visibility into your practice’s medication dispensing history, as well as how many vaccines or tests you administered in the past, you can more accurately project inventory needs for the coming year, optimizing your business and the health of your patients.
For more information on how PrescribeWellness can help your pharmacy manage its inventory, get in touch with us today!
We look forward to hearing from you!
