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Have you ever experienced that frightful situation where the pharmacy is overrun with customers, staff are bordering on frantic, and the pharmacist is lucky to dispense prescriptions in time let alone counsel and oversee every scheduled medication sale?
In an ideal world with forward dispensing and technicians performing the mundane tasks that pharmacists currently labour over, this should not happen.
Having owned a forward dispensing pharmacy, I have experienced hands on the benefits of providing one on one counselling and achieving positive outcomes for my patients.
Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion the economic benefits are not as free flowing.
To allow the adequate time required to perform these tasks requires an increased qualified staff structure.
Finding pharmacists in this modern day is hard enough, let alone ones that will adhere to dispensing protocols devised via the banner groups for these models. The use of e-commerce platforms may go some of the way to addressing these issues.
Imagine how confident you would be in the sale of prescriptions knowing that the order has been screened for allergies, health conditions and drug interactions before you even start dispensing.
Then add in the fact that 100% of scheduled medications will be screened the same way ensuring that the one time you did turn your back to grab a bite an assistant doesn't sell a pack of Nurofen to on customer on warfarin.
Even that customer who did not tell you she was taking Prozac while she was purchasing a bottle of St Johns Wart will now be screened.
The statistics on errors due to re-keying data are frightening.
Seamless transfer of information via e-commerce systems will decrease the possibility of this event.
The doctor will produce the prescription which will be electronically transferred to your dispense system, which in return will screen potential interactions.
Patient compliance is an important factor in the viability of Australia's Health Care system and is enhanced with e-commerce platforms.
Our company is about to launch its third phase repeat reminder system.
Patients will be able to view their repeats online ensuring owing prescriptions are a thing of the past.
They will also receive emails reminding them in advance that it is time to re-order their prescriptions.
Patient support programs become economically viable for pharmacies as the process can become automated through the e-commerce system.
Systems and procedures developed via automated systems allow large volumes of orders to be processed with very small error rates.
An order in our system will be checked at least four times before dispatch by at least three different staff.
All orders containing scheduled medications will be checked by a pharmacist before dispatch.
Two separate pharmacists will check orders containing prescriptions.
These processes would not be viable in a normal retail environment due to logistic and economic reasons.
Correspondence with customers is now completely documented.
Email allows information provided to be recorded on the customers file and allows customers to participate in pharmacist-patient interaction.
I have found the customer becomes 10 feet tall when they can use an email as they do not have to front you face to face.
This allows them to ask those questions about their medications that they may have been hesitant to ask in the store.
It can also provide you with an avenue to provide more information to customers at your own time, with less cost.
The amount of repetition in questions a pharmacist would face each day either over the counter or via the phone is enormous.
Imagine a system where a large percentage of these questions can be addressed by a simple email from a pre-written template.
A template that you have written or have had supplied by reputable sources ensuring that information is not provided by one of your staff which is accidentally misinterpreted, leading to potential legal ramifications.
E-commerce cannot and will not replace the pharmacist.
One must be assured that the shortage of qualified pharmacists is not going to be rectified in the near future and the gross margins of pharmacies will not greatly improve if at all.
Pharmacists must consider options to ensure their customers have access to a cost efficient system that will ensure the safe delivery of health care. E-commerce is a step in the right direction and should be an integral part of any forward thinking pharmacy.

Best wishes for a prosperous e-commerce Christmas and New Year. Brett Clark

 

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