Pharmacy Growth Strategies Archives | Pharmacy Development Services

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Flu Season Essentials for Your Patients

Here at PDS, we take pride in highlighting some of our incredible exhibitors. We know these companies have the potential to revolutionize pharmacies just like yours through their products and services. We’re excited to introduce American Associated Pharmacies (AAP). Read on for their sponsored blog post about flu season essentials for your patients this flu season.

It’s that time of year where we experience an increase in cold and flu activity. Patients will be turning to your pharmacy for medication and remedies that they can rely on to get them through the winter.

Popular Supplements to Keep in Stock

According to the Nutrition Business Journal, the US supplement industry has seen an increase of 5-6% each year over the last two years, with growth expected to continue at that rate or higher until at least 2022. Make the most out of this opportunity for profitability by supplying your community with OTC products that carry valuable health benefits.

Elderberry

Elderberry syrup is growing in popularity as a powerful alternative to both prevent and fight cold and flu. It has been tied to a significant reduction in the severity and duration of symptoms in studies. Patients taking Elderberry syrup reported symptoms clearing up an average of four days earlier than those taking a placebo.

The syrup has been nearly impossible to keep on pharmacy shelves in recent flu seasons, and the market is expected to continue to grow at an accelerating rate of over 7% until 2022 at the very least. Don’t miss out! Your patients will thank you for keeping this new staple in stock.

Vitamin C

Studies have shown Vitamin C can boost your immune system, and possibly even help protect against heart disease, cancer, and stroke. This safe and effective supplement is a strong preventative for flu season. It’s recommended that the average adult receive at least 75-90mg daily for peak effectiveness.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is particularly useful in areas with harsher winter weather. When the sun is hiding behind clouds, it’s harder to soak up enough! Vitamin D is essential to the body’s immune system and bone strength, but our bodies cannot store it for extended periods of time. Supplements can help combat this and will also keep your patients happy and healthy.

Iron

Iron is another immune booster. It has shown to help keep energy levels up during short, dim days. Iron is essential to blood flow and oxygen transfer in the blood, making it a key component to heart, lung, and neurological function. Deficiencies are common even here in the US, with an estimated 8-12% of Americans not receiving enough iron in their diets. Women, young children, and patients with heart conditions are among some of the most likely to have these deficiencies and could most benefit from iron supplements.

Zinc

Zinc is known as another preventative supplement that can help to prevent the common cold if used regularly. Similar to elderberry, it strengthens the immune system and can aid in reducing the length and severity of a common cold. The average adult needs about 9.5mg a day, while women need about 7mg.

Cold and Flu Shots and Medications

While supplements are popular and can help prevent sickness or shorten a bout already underway, encourage your patients not to pass on a flu shot.

If your patients do come down with the flu, a cold, or a fit of allergies, you can be ready. Keep plenty of flu medication, nasal spray, and cough syrup on hand, as some of these–particularly a prescription like Tamiflu–can grow scarce as the season drags on. Stock up and stay ahead of the rush as much as possible to avoid losing potential income.

From AAP’s Member-Owned Warehouse for Cold and Flu Season

Find these remedies and more at store.apirx.com.

Supplements: Vitamins such as C, D, & E; Iron; Zinc; and more
Medications: Generic Tamiflu, Fluticasone nasal spray, Promethazine-Codeine cough syrup, Mucinex, and more
Other: Nasal strips, thermometers, socks, and other winter essentials

About the Author

As a cooperative of over 2,000 member pharmacies with an independently owned warehouse and specialty pharmacy, the nation’s 4th largest PSAO, and qualified preferred partners, American Associated Pharmacies (AAP) is so much more than a buying group. AAP provides the tools and resources needed for members to improve their bottom lines. Visit RxAAP.com/ProveIt to learn more.

Pharmacy Marketing: Attract New Patients from Store Closings

September 25, 2019/in All, Pharmacy Growth Strategies, Pharmacy Profits and ROI /by Matt Tompkins

Last month Walgreens announced the closing of 200 stores. Last April Fred’s decided to begin closing 159 stores and stated that they were getting out of pharmacy. We also heard about Shopko going out of business. These changes in the industry mean thousands of patients will be looking for a new pharmacy and YOU, the independent pharmacy, are their best option. Therefore it is time to kick your pharmacy marketing into gear.

Now that the closings are underway this presents an opportunity to attract those patients. We thought it would be helpful to remind PDS members and the independent pharmacy community at large about the first steps to reaching (and attracting) these patients.

Some of the action items below are repeats from our blog How to Leverage Big Box or Chain Store Closings back in in May of 2016 when Walmart announced their store closings.

At PDS we classify our pharmacy marketing efforts into three buckets: inside the four walls, outside the four walls and digital marketing. Within each of these groups, there are steps you can take to start attracting new patients.

Building these relationships and ensuring that your customers are happy within your own independent pharmacy business is very important. Below are three ways you can strengthen your skills towards more profitable relationships with your pharmacy’s customers.

Inside the Four Walls

Are you ready to take on more customers? If you were to bring in 100, 200 or 500 new patients, would you be able to accommodate them and provide excellent customer service? Your new patients need to see, feel and experience an unprecedented level of service. Make sure that you have a New Patient Process and New Patient Packet set up or updated.
Promote your Referral Program to your existing patients. Use your current patient base to promote the valuable services you offer.

Outside the Four Walls

As soon as you hear about a closing, make your first stop a visit the store’s management. They are probably concerned about their patients and by establishing a relationship with them, they will feel comfortable referring their patients to you. During your visit there may also be an opportunity to recruit some great talent.
Use traditional marketing techniques. Put up a banner outside your store stating that you welcome new patients. Send a direct mail postcard in your area.
There is some urgency to getting this done so lean into your local printer to get these materials produced quickly.

Digital Marketing

Use social media to reach new customers. Create a Facebook ad with photos of your team and your pharmacy that will be displayed within your target area. Be specific about the store closing and that you are welcoming new patients.

In your communication to these new patients, it is important to convey that their health and well being are your priority. Show them that you can offer quality care, convenience and competitive pricing. If you have an efficient medication synchronization program, promote the benefits it will offer them as a patient of your pharmacy. At a time when these patients need to make a switch, we have a great opportunity to show them that an independent pharmacy, your pharmacy, is the best place for them.

For PDS members, log into PDSadvantage to find the applicable pharmacy marketing resources in the Marketing section of the Knowledge Library that will help you win these new patients. The How to Develop Marketing Campaigns program, the New Patient Process, our Marketing Mastermind calls and the Make the Most of a Closing Competing Pharmacy are all available to you with additional detail so you can accelerate your implementation.

Using Adherence Packaging to Grow Your Independent Pharmacy Profits

June 25, 2019/in Pharmacy Compliance, Pharmacy Growth Strategies, Pharmacy Profits and ROI /by Ali Maiorana

Independent pharmacy owners can no longer sit on the sidelines when it comes to evolving and growing their services to compete with companies like Amazon, CVS and Walgreens. While there are many opportunities for you to grow your business and profitability, developing an adherence packaging program should be at the top of your list.

At the 2019 PDS Super-Conference, RxSafe assembled five independent pharmacy owners, with a collective 37 years of experience in adherence packaging, and asked them to share what they have learned. These pharmacists have tried all manners of adherence modalities before arriving at what really works.

Through a series of questions and answers in this blog, they’re going to give you their hard-won advice and insight.

The following people featured at the breakfast session:

Amjad Abukwaik, Sheefa Pharmacy in Paterson, NJ
Bruce Kocian, Gibson Pharmacy in Athens TX
Kyle Lomax, Southern Pharmacy in Jonesboro, AR
Ben McNabb, Love Oak Pharmacy in Eastland, TX
Neil Patolia, AUM Pharmacy in Anaheim, CA
Todd Eury (Moderator), publisher, Pharmacy Podcast Network

Q: [Todd Eury] What is patient awareness? Has Amazon talked about adherence and is PillPack being more aggressive towards your patients? Or has it been pretty much the same as it’s always been with Amazon?

A: [Ben McNabb] I’m seeing quite a bit more advertising in our area. I think they’re still acclimating themselves to the pharmacy industry. So, I think we’re only kind of seeing the tip of the iceberg here and what Amazon’s able to do with how they’re going to market it and how they’re going to push it out. I would probably say that they haven’t pushed it extensively, so I think there’s still a window of opportunity to try to be first in your marketplace. Try to get to your providers quickly, maybe you start advertising in your local area through social media and other means of advertising, to try to be first in line when someone sees a PillPack ad on TV, or through Google ad networks, and other things.

Q. [Todd Eury] Have you had experience with strip packaging and adherence packaging before purchasing the RxSafe RapidPakRx? If so, discuss that experience and tell us about what you’ve done and how you’ve managed it.

A. [Bruce Kocian] We do have a competing company’s automation for strip packaging. Before the strip packaging, you name it, we’ve probably done it: Medicine on Time, Doc-u-Dose, OPUS, cassettes. The experience as far as the automation goes was not a good one at first. With the previous machine, we had varied time and a lot of time constraints on the pharmacists themselves. We put a hold on our adherence packaging system until the RapidPakRx came out. I will tell you that the look on my techicians’ face when we say we have a new customer that’s going to the packaging as opposed to what it was before is completely different. I would want everybody to really do your due diligence on the automation as well as the company that you’re going to be in business with when you step down this path.

Q. [Todd Eury] How are you introducing adherence to your patient base and what’s their reaction? Is this being followed up with counseling and/or spending more time with your patients?

A. [Ben McNabb] Our marketing plan is very significant. I know many owners that have bought a packager and it just gets put in a corner and it’s not used. The packager doesn’t do the work. You still have to sell the service. So that’s extremely important. We started out with a lot of video and social media advertising. We got picked up by local news stations. That really got us out there very well in my area. I had people that have trouble remembering, and they’ve been mistaking their medications for years. Now the patients just tell me it’s life-changing in many ways.

Q. [PDS Audience Member] To fill, let’s say 11 prescriptions for that patient, how long does that take?

A. [Amjad Abukwaik] With the RapidPakRx, it just takes about 10 minutes per patient. The verification for a pharmacist is a minute or less. You don’t have to open the box, I just look at the screen where I actually see every single pouch. Usually, there’s no error, but if there is any you can see it right there on the screen.

A. [Neil Patolia] For us, it’s faster than it was. Before, it was around an hour to half an hour because the checking alone takes so much time with the [competitor system]. With the [competing system], you can buy a camera system, but the camera system costs thousand dollars more instead of a technician just manually checking it. So now it’s half an hour to 20 minutes. Not even that now.

Q. [Todd Eury] How many technicians are required for your packaging program and do you run the packaging system every day?

A. [Bruce Kocian] Currently there is one technician that runs the packaging program. She has help from the other technicians. We use RxSafe so obviously, the fill technicians on the RxSafe are pulling the SKUs out of the safe that go into the RapidPakRx. But it’s a single technician. We have about 150 people in the RapidPakRx. She runs that probably Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. By Thursday, Friday she’s working on the people for the next week, not actually running the packer. I see her easily being able to do 30-plus people a day by herself on the packer. It’s that efficient.

Q. [PDS Audience Member] With the non-adherents that we all have that just refuse to be adherent, have you had much luck putting those patients in the program and then just accepting it? Because those are the ones that, even if you’re in a sync program, they won’t pick up.

A. [Ben McNabb] That’s what I’ve found tremendous. Even with sync, some of these patients, they just will not take the medications appropriately or there are anecdotal issues with the physician telling them only take a half or whatever these issues are. When you’re reconciling the meds every single month, once a month, you’re forcing them to take it according to how the package is listed. If they miss a dose, they potentially put it to the side, and they continue trying to remain adherent on the dates and times. Over the long run, it trains them. It’s going to keep your scores moving forward the way it needs to go.

Q. [PDS Audience Member] I want to know what percentage of your patients are you having as a pharmacist to relook at because of potential errors when it checks it? How does the adherence system match if you need to fill 15 of one NDC and 15 of another? Does that confuse the system?

A. [Bruce Kocian] With the RapidPakRx, it’s minimal to none because of the technology. The RapidPakRx will not drop a pill to be packed if it does not recognize it. Before it ever drops the pill to be sealed, if it doesn’t recognize the medication, it alerts you on it. So it’s very, very minimal on the repacks.

Q. [PDS Audience Member] If the patient takes the 11 prescriptions per month, you probably can get compliance back. What is the net profit per patient?

A. [Ben McNabb] We use PDS RxAnalytics, but when we determined what we were getting, we were getting approximately $180 of gross margin before rebate per patient per month. You should consider it as a subscription-based model. I think that’s how Amazon considers this. This is a subscription that they’re paying their Amazon Prime fee for. They’re getting all of this included service. Don’t forget the tax benefits of bringing in this technology. Some of these tax breaks help pay off these technologies and really reduce how many patients you need to bring on to break even on the technology.

A. [Amjad Abukwaik] I’m sure all of you do marketing. Let’s say you let staff go out of their own pharmacy and out from behind the bench to go to doctors, adult daycare, and so on. If you bring in five to seven patients a month on this system, new patients, do the math. You give an average patient eight or 10 prescriptions, and hopefully, you’re making $10 per prescription. Let’s say 10 patients per month, new patients, brand-new patients, that’s 10, probably times 10- I mean, do the math. It’s almost like four or five thousand dollars extra income coming in. That would pay for your machine.

A. [Bruce Kocian] As compared to the competing company’s machine, when you do have 200-250 canisters, if you’re going to load that machine completely, you’re talking about a significant increase in your inventory. With the RapidPakRx, you have no increase in inventory other than your increase in patient volume.

Q. [Todd Eury] How are you marketing adherence technology to your customer base?

A. [Ben McNabb] I’ve been really impressed with the impact of social media. Especially, if you can get this social media presence out there as personalized as possible, you already have a well-built advantage. You can really get that message out there. Make sure you’re doing your research on effective social media advertising. Facebook typically doesn’t like the mass-produced or stock-image type of advertisement. It really wants it to come down to that local level. It wants it to come down to that relationship that exists between you and the customer, that’s a sincere relationship. So, if you can get that across, Facebook’s algorithms could really pick that up, see that it’s engaging content, and you can boost the heck out of it in your geographic area and really make a good go at it.

A. [Amjad Abukwaik] One of my stores packs all of their sync program patients on Monday and Wednesday. On the other days, they’re out seeing doctors and speaking about the sync program. They’re also talking about adherence packaging, and how that’s beneficial for their patients and their practice.

Q. [Todd Eury] Does offering adherence really grow your service area?

A. [Ben McNabb] Because of packaging, we’re able to service a much larger geographic area than what we have in the past. We went from a potential population reach of about 18,000 to 125,000 when you start looking at the map.

Q. [Todd Eury] How do you partner with other health providers?

A. [Amjad Abukwaik] Partner with your PBM. You have a lot of Medicare Part D plans, you know, reps, and they knock on your door. They ask about switching patients from plan A to plan B. Find a good one that is beneficial for you. They will be your best friend and will bring you tons of patients.

A. [Neil Patolia] We’re in a medical building, and next door, what they did was they had all the brokers come in. And whenever I talk to brokers, I’m like, “Okay, so you’re a broker, there are other brokers just like you. So, in order to differentiate yourself, why don’t you work with a pharmacy that has a packaging system?” It’s a win-win for you because you get the extra value that the other brokers can’t bring in.

A. [Bruce Kocian] Hospital readmissions is another venue. Go there if you have a hospital close to you locally. Their readmission rate greatly affects the reimbursement with Medicare now. We also have a nurse in the county that works for one of the insurance companies that refers patients to her. She’s not a home health nurse, she doesn’t work for the local home health agency, she works for one of the insurance companies. And she calls us on a regular basis with her high-med, difficult patients, to put them in our packaging system.

The above statements are simply excerpts from a larger discussion panel. To see the entire adherence breakfast session and hear even more from these independent pharmacy owners who are having success with their compliance and adherence programs, click here.

To learn more about the RapidPakRx and PakMyMeds, visit rxsafe.com/pds.

Using Adherence Packaging to Grow Your Independent Pharmacy Profits

Three Ways to Improve Your Cash Balance

June 13, 2019/in All, Pharmacy Finances, Pharmacy Growth Strategies, Pharmacy Profits and ROI /by Koreen Leavitt

If we were to ask independent pharmacy owners what makes their pharmacy run, many might say their inventory, their customer service or their rock-solid team who keep the ship afloat. While all of those are true, the undercurrent at the heart of these statements is money. Make no bones about it, your cash balance dictates your ability to pay your team (and by extension, their families) and whether or not you shudder at the thought of paying your wholesaler bill.

A large part of understanding the science behind profitability is knowing how your money moves through your business. Once you understand how it works and what financial statements you need to review then you will know what to do to improve your cash balance. Money in the bank means that you have a safety net to see you through those industry forces that impact your pharmacy today, such as lower reimbursements, DIR fees and GER contracts.

As a pharmacy owner, you should be confident in your ability to:

Pay your wholesaler on time, every time.
Sleep at night knowing that your cash balance is on solid ground.
Keep the fear of making payroll a thing of the past.
Know how your money moves through your business.

If any of these statements hit home, read on for a few tips to get you on the track to financial freedom.

Better Outcomes, Better Profits

If you’re to increase your cash balance, you must understand that profitability follows great patient care. This is not something we tout as a feel-good story. We mean that if you look at your dispensing data to find where there are more effective therapeutic options for your patients which also offer higher reimbursements, this is a win-win for you and your patients.

Real-Life Application: One PDS member pharmacy consulted with their patients and prescribers to help their patients get the most effective drug available with their insurance. Without any changes to the total Rx volume, this pharmacy was able to increase their gross profit by $25,000 – all from one drug!

As you continue to analyze your data, you’ll start to

Discover more profitable opportunities
Increase your average margin dollars per prescription
Earn more profits without filling more prescriptions
Mitigate low-yield prescriptions
Build trust as a thoughtful, dedicated healthcare advocate

PDS offers our members access to our proprietary platform, RxAnalytics, a tool that can help you revolutionize how you see patient care and profitability. Fill out the form to learn how you can get a pharmacy performance analysis to know whether RxAnalytics is the right place for you to start.

Synchronize Your Way to Money in the Bank

The foundation for a profitable, high-performing pharmacy is a solid medication synchronization program. Many pharmacies don’t implement this program correctly; therefore, don’t see the benefits of improved workflow, reduced expenses, scheduled staffing, improved adherence, and opportunities for healthy patient interventions.

There’s no magic involved. You don’t have to be a “special kind of owner” to achieve results that impact your profitability so you can rest easy knowing your cash balance is on solid ground. Besides the patient, workflow, prescriber, performance, and marketing impact you gain from implementing a successful synchronization program, the direct financial impact is undeniable.

Your synchronization program should be able to:

Deliver more prescriptions per patient
Lower expenses per prescription
Improve inventory management
Allow for more effective staffing

You’ll see all of these benefits in your financial statements, and the numbers don’t lie. PDS offers a comprehensive training to equip owners with the tools and knowledge they need to properly implement this program and synchronize their way to better financials.

Get the clarity you need to be sure that medication synchronization, and the PDS exclusive member program SyncRx, is the right place for you to start. Fill out the form to learn how to get started with a pharmacy performance analysis.

Understanding Your Money

In order to move from the unknown to the known, you have to understand the health of your finances. Stop worrying over how much money you have in the bank and start by creating a plan of attack. PDS is offering a pharmacy performance analysis from an experienced independent pharmacy owner. In this analysis, we’ll show you:

A snapshot of your pharmacy’s performance in four key areas
The eight KPIs you should measure
The tools you need to move the needle

Take the next step to secure your financial freedom and leave the stress of making ends meet in the past.

Learn About the Pharmacy Performance Analysis

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For over 21 years, PDS has helped Independent Pharmacy Owners thrive. We're a team of experts dedicated to your success and who focus on your entire pharmacy. Click below to discover your pharmacy's biggest growth opportunities.

Three Steps to Get Your Team On Board With A Systems Strategy

May 7, 2019/in All, Pharmacy Growth Strategies /by Koreen Leavitt

If you’ve ever rolled out a new program that involved a systems strategy or even a new process in your pharmacy, getting your team’s buy-in and commitment is crucial if the system will succeed.

Your team will be the ones who will put your ideas into practice, taking the policies and procedures that you have created for your business and turning them into a force for growth. Give them the tools they need to succeed by giving them an implementation strategy to get them on-board and aligned.

Give Your Team an Implementation Strategy

If you want to get your pharmacy team on-board with your decision, you should give them a business strategy of their own — a process that they can use to implement those changes without constant oversight. Here are three steps that you can take to motivate your employees:

Step 1: Give Them Instructions

Like many independent pharmacy owners, you work with your pharmacy team to complete the day-to-day tasks that come with running a business. Your employees rely on you for direction, guidance, and support as they fulfill their responsibilities — and that becomes even more apparent when you make a series of comprehensive changes to your pharmacy.

Those changes will have a significant impact on their attitude, performance, and career trajectory, so you must make sure that they have the information that they need to adapt. When you create a policy and procedures manual for your new system, they can follow the instructions that are laid out in your workbook without worrying about the implementation process.

Step 2: Give Them an Incentive

Change doesn’t come easily, and some of your employees will push back when you introduce your new systems strategy. At that point, it will be more important than ever for you to have a series of incentives that will motivate them to change their behavior. We recommend a combination of paid and unpaid rewards — including verbal praise, competitions with prizes, commission and bonus plans, and strategies like the uRock Rewards Program — to get your team to buy into your new vision for your pharmacy.

Step 3 – Give Them Your Time

When you roll out your new systems strategy, you need to make sure that you continue to talk to your employees about your goals for your business, their responsibilities, and the benefits that they will receive when the implementation process is complete. You can use team meetings to discuss their progress as a group, and one-on-one performance review sessions to go over their achievements and opportunities for improvement as they put your systems strategy into practice.

Are You Ready To Create A New Systems Strategy For Your Pharmacy?

Download our free, eBook Surefire Systems for Sustainable Growth, and you’ll have what you need to know why, when, where and how to implement a systems strategy for your pharmacy.

Click here or below to download today!

Download My eBook

3 Ways to ‘Cash-Flow’ Adherence Automation

April 2, 2019/in Pharmacy Growth Strategies, Pharmacy Profits and ROI /by Ali Maiorana

Lately, we’ve been talking with pharmacy owners from across the country who are not just surviving but thriving and expanding their businesses in today’s environment. They’re growing their patient base, boosting revenues and increasing profits, using one key strategy: adherence packaging services.

Here are three of their stories.

Starting from scratch

PDS member and Texas pharmacy owner Ben McNabb went from zero adherence patients in 2016 to more than 400 patients by the end of 2017. During that time, his pharmacy’s CMS “Star rating” went from three to five stars.

Ben was able to expand his pharmacy’s geographic reach from a 10-mile circle to a 50-mile circle, and increase his overall pharmacy revenue by 24 percent in the first 12 months.

How did he do it? He focused on new patient acquisition, and forged relationships with local home health agencies and physicians.

He advertised on Google and Facebook. He even ran local TV ads after Cowboys football games. It worked. For his achievements, McNabb was awarded the NPCA “Adherence Practitioner of the Year” award in 2018 by leveraging strip packaging automation.

For McNabb, it was simple math. His adherence packaging patients average 11 scripts per month. With an average margin of nearly $14 per script, he was able to bring in more than $150 per patient per month in profits, or about $1,300 per patient per year.

But what if margins at your pharmacy are smaller, or your patients don’t average 11 scripts per month? The math still works.

For example, let’s assume your average margin is only $10 per script. To keep the math simple, let’s say your adherence patients only average 10 scripts per month. That’s still $100 in profit, per patient, per month.

That means, with 10 new adherence patients, your drugstore would earn $1,000 per month in new profits. If you could add just 10 new patients per month, in three months, your new cash flow would more than cover the monthly lease on strip packaging automation. (30 patients x $10 average margin x 10 scripts per month = $3,000 per month). Put simply, with just 30 new adherence patients, you’re already cash-flow positive.

In the scenario above, by adding 100 adherence patients, you could achieve $10,000 per month in new profits, or $120,000 per year. With 200 patients, you’d reach $240,000 in new profits every year. With 400 patients, your new profits could climb to $480,000 annually.

“Adherence packaging has helped our business to be more profitable because we are maximizing reimbursements from Medicare plans, maximizing the number of prescriptions filled per patient per month, and capturing many new patients that have complex drug regimens,” says McNabb, pharmacist and owner of Love Oak Pharmacy in Eastland, Texas.

If you’re like McNabb was in 2016, and haven’t started an adherence program yet, don’t sweat it. Simply estimate the number of new patients you are likely to enroll in your pharmacy’s adherence program, multiply by your estimated number of scripts per patient, and average profit per script, and you can calculate how quickly you’ll get a return on investment with adherence packaging automation. For example, using NCPA averages for prescription margins, if you could add 15 new adherence patients per month, you could be cash ﬂow positive by your third month.

Moving from blister cards to strip packaging

When PDS member Kyle Lomax, pharmacist & owner at Southern Pharmacy, wanted to grow his adherence program, he realized that manually filling blister cards was a huge limitation.

“We were using a manual card-based system that was labor intensive,” Lomax explains. “We had reached capacity and needed automation to help us package adherence-based patients.”

Lomax purchased an adherence packaging system. Since then, he has improved productivity and also increased his pharmacy’s Star ratings.

“Using the automation versus card filling has cut down on our production time at least 50 percent,” Lomax says. “The visual inspection software included with the strip packaging system gives us the ability to verify packages very easily. The non-specific cartridges make it easy for us to change NDCs on the fly, and the small size in our retail environment has been a great fit for us.”

Based on NCPA averages, processing eight patients per day on a typical multi-dose blister card could cost your pharmacy $3,100+ per month. Using strip packaging automation, you could save $2,192 per month. Migrating from blister cards to a strip packaging system could triple your year-one adherence business, at no additional cost for labor and consumables, and you could achieve positive cash-flow in as little as two months.

Migrating from cassette-based to universal cartridges

Trey Crawford, a PDS member pharmacist who owns Diket’s Professional Drugs, started his adherence program in 2017, using a cassette-based strip packaging system.

“We were looking at our synchronization program and noticing that people were not getting their medications on time. When we looked at our Star ratings, we were seeing we were not where we wanted to be, and we saw adherence packaging as a way to get our adherence numbers where they should be.” Crawford says.

“Another reason that we decided to get a strip packager is because of PillPack. PillPack was bought by Amazon and we all know that Amazon is a real big player in the United States, and if you really want to compete with that giant, you have to be able to offer that for your patients so that you don't lose them,” Crawford explains.

Since purchasing the universal cartridge-based strip packaging system, Diket’s Drugs has been able to increase its trade area to a 50-mile circle, and has grown its adherence program to around 380 patients. With the new system, Crawford says he can run more than 50 completed jobs for adherence patients in one day, with 99.9 percent accuracy.

“The speed of the universal-based cartridge system is unbelievable,” says Crawford.

“There are no more trays that you have to load. No more cassettes. No more sending things off to get to another cassette because the NDC is incorrect. You have cartridges that you just pour the meds in and it makes life so much easier than what it used to be.”

If, like Crawford, you started with a cassette-based strip packager, please note: using universal cartridges means that you no longer have to store inventory in the adherence packager. Here’s how cash-flow could work for a pharmacy with 200 adherence patients, migrating from cassette-based automation. First, you could save as much as $80,000 to 100,000 by liquidating unnecessary inventory. Coupled with the improved speed of pharmacist veriﬁcation, higher capacity and lower cost of consumables, and taking advantage of Section 179 savings, you could achieve positive cash-flow your first month.

At the 2019 PDS Super-Conference, RxSafe announced the launch of RapidPakRx™ and the PakMyMeds Network. RapidPakRx is the first-ever system for adherence strip packaging designed specifically for retail pharmacies to fill a 30-day supply of multi-dose medications at the lowest possible cost. PakMyMeds Network is a new, no-hassle solution to connect independent pharmacy owners with local patients who want an easier way to take their medications.

Using sophisticated online and mobile ad networks, social media, and GeoMarketing, PakMyMeds Network will advertise -- in up to a 50-mile circle around participating pharmacies -- to patients who could benefit from improved medication adherence and/or are searching for adherence packaging services. Patients who opt-in will then be connected with a partner pharmacy in the PakMyMeds Network. PakMyMeds network is available—at no charge for the first 90 days--to any pharmacy that purchases a RapidPakRx.

To learn more about the RapidPakRx and PakMyMeds, visit rxsafe.com/pds.

How to Avoid the Top 10 Pharmacy Injury Risks

February 17, 2019/in PDS Super Conference, Pharmacy Growth Strategies /by Ali Maiorana

Here at PDS, we take pride in highlighting some of our incredible solutions partners. We know these companies have the potential to revolutionize pharmacies just like yours through their products and services. We’re excited to introduce Heffernan Insurance Brokers Pharmacy Insurance, read on for their sponsored blog post about avoiding the top 10 pharmacy injury risks. This post was written by Steve Boone of Heffernan Insurance Brokers Pharmacy Insurance Practice.

Ask one hundred people on the street to name the five most dangerous jobs, and “pharmacist” probably won’t be on anyone’s list. But ask any pharmacist and they’ll tell you a pharmacy can be a very dangerous place to work, with injury risks running the gamut from biohazards to back strains. Effectively managing these risks is key to protecting your staff and your bottom line.

Here are the 10 biggest injury risks most pharmacists face and how to avoid them.

Infection. One of your biggest risks is being in contact with sick patients who come into your pharmacy while sick with infectious diseases. Clean and disinfect work areas regularly. Wear protective gear such as masks and rubber gloves.
Slips, trips, and falls. These are some of the leading causes of injury in almost every workplace, and pharmacies are no exception. Keep work areas free of clutter, install and maintain non-slip flooring, ensure you have adequate lighting, and educate your staff on good housekeeping procedures.
Cuts and burns. Cuts can happen all too easily from sharp instruments, equipment, or broken glassware. Burns can happen when working with heat sealers and other equipment, as well as around electrical cords and appliances. Train your staff in safe work practices, require proper storage of tools, use protective clothing, and have a complete and easily accessible First Aid kit.
Repetitive motion. Typing and clicking a computer mouse all day can cause shoulder, elbow, and wrist injuries. Reading and writing at a workstation for long periods can cause neck pain. Awkward sitting or standing postures can lead to fatigue, tissue damage, and irritation of tendons and muscles. Poor workstation design can cause overextension injuries. Help fend off these repetitive motion injuries with ergonomically designed workstations, tools that automate tasks, and adequate safety training.
Fatigue. Pharmacists do a lot of standing and walking. Prolonged standing can cause fatigue, back pain, varicose veins, and other issues. Install anti-fatigue mats at fixed workstations, encourage the use of comfortable, closed-toed shoes with good support, and consider using stools to alternate between sitting and standing.
Strains and sprains. Slipped discs, muscle aches, backaches, and even hemorrhoids can result from lifting heavy objects. Practice safe lifting techniques including getting assistance from a coworker, using assistive equipment such as a dolly, or wearing a back brace.
Eye strain. Pharmacists stare at a computer screen for many hours on a typical day. Poor lighting, improper computer screen brightness settings, and poorly designed workstations can lead to eye strain, astigmatism, myopia, and migraine headaches.
Chemical hazards. If you’re compounding drugs, you’re exposed to medication powder, liquid spills, and hazardous vapors. Have safe work procedures in place to handle spills and other mishaps involving harmful substances, and always wear protective gear including eye protection, gowns, and gloves.
Biological hazards. Most pharmacies today offer flu shots and testing procedures that require skin piercings such as a glucose or cholesterol tests. This means exposure to blood and possibly other bodily fluids that can carry deadly bacteria and viruses. Be safe – always wear protective gear.
Psychological hazards. Pharmacists often work long hours and deal with a heavy workload, and they’re also subject to abuse by customers or fellow employees. To help alleviate these stresses, review your management and scheduling policies, consider changes to your work environment, and educate your staff about violence awareness, avoidance, and de-escalation.

Managing these risks can keep your pharmacy safe, while protecting your bottom line from unnecessary medical and legal costs, workers’ compensation claims, and higher workers’ comp premiums.

Did you know you can also save as much as 10 percent on your workers’ comp premiums just by having a safety manual? To learn more, contact Steve Boone with the Heffernan Insurance Pharmacy Insurance division today.

About the Author:

Heffernan’s pharmacy-specific insurance program is perfect for the independent pharmacist looking for an experienced insurance broker who can offer a single source package that is tailored for their unique needs.

We offer comprehensive insurance for pharmacy coverage including:

Broad Professional Pharmacist Liability Insurance
Property Insurance
Pharmacy Errors & Omissions / Malpractice / Druggist Liability Insurance
Pharmacy BOP (Business Owner’s Policy)
Lower Cost Option(s) for Rx Owners
High Limits

How to Use Persuasion to Increase Patient Buy-In

December 3, 2018/in PDS Super Conference, Pharmacy Growth Strategies /by pdsmarketing

Are you looking to increase your number of patient transactions? How about getting patients to take advantage of your unique products and services? The most straightforward and practical answer is to use the subtle art of sales.

There is often a negative association with the word ‘sales.’ Hearing the word ‘salesperson’ likely conjures up some particular images and ideas for most people. In the best light, they are of a typical salesperson, aggressive, pushy at one end, and ‘con-artist’ or manipulative at the other.

If you’re thinking that you’re ‘selling’ to your patients, frame it another way. The fact is that you’re doing a very important job in the community by helping them solve their health and wellness problems.

Imagine if your best friend tells you he’s struggling with a problem, and you have a solution, wouldn’t you speak up and say something about it?

If you have a product or service that can help others, it is your moral obligation as a healthcare provider to share it with them.

The rest of this post will cover how you can use Dr. Cialdini’s principles of persuasion to communicate new treatment options to your patients and increase sales.

Scarcity: Patients Love Limited-Time Deals (And Things They Have Less Of)

Leverage the emotional impact of FOMO (or the fear of missing out) to increase sales.

To apply this principle to your pharmacy business, offer limited-time deals for different audiences.
Scarce products and offers feel exclusive and valuable to consumers.

One way to showcase a limited time product is by placing it in a smaller end-cap area with signage that conveys urgency and scarcity.

When you’re discussing the product, highlight what they stand to lose by not taking action and speak to the specific issues the patient might be experiencing.

You can also experiment with offering exclusive perks reserved only for top customers. Once people realize that being a repeat customer comes with rewards, they’ll be more ready to act on purchases. In turn, you’ll increase revenue and often, your average transaction value as well.

Assure Your Patients You’re An Expert

Make sure you establish your credibility to your customers.

Why? Although we’ll never admit it, we want others to tell us exactly what to do. Especially by experts that we trust. You can do this by making recommendations, displaying your certifications where your patients can see them, and answering any questions your patients might have.

If you show that you and your team are trained experts, your patients will also be more willing to try new products or services that you recommend.

Offer events and classes that educate your patients, if you continually provide value around healthcare and wellness, your pharmacy will soon be known as a healthcare destination for the community.

People discuss excellent and awful experiences. If you’re providing great customer service, you can bet that you’ll start seeing the referrals come through the door. High patient satisfaction and experiences will ultimately drive more sales.

Consistency Is Key: Start With Small Commitments for Big Sales

When you’re selling something (especially if it’s a high-ticket item that people don’t buy on impulse), try to get your patient to commit to something small first.

As a pharmacy owner, this could be a free trial or samples of new products.

After they agree or “say yes” to you once, they’ll be more willing to “say yes” again to stay consistent with their previous action.

If you use this principle, you can break down many of the barriers your patients have when shopping, and over time, your patients will agree to bigger and more expensive recommendations.

The important thing to remember is to nurture your relationship with them and get several “yeses” first.

Influence at Work: Building a Better Pharmacy

Remember, using these principles to influence your patients isn’t wrong if you’re applying them ethically. Your mission as a healthcare professional is to help people who come to you with health and wellness challenges.

In fact, if you master ethical persuasion, you’ll be able to improve the lives of patients you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

PDS is proud to bring you the Annual Pharmacy Business Super-Conference with three days of actionable content. Independent doesn’t mean alone. Gain the knowledge and strategies shared by 1,600+ thriving pharmacy owners.

Easy Ways Independent Pharmacy Owners Can Get More Referrals From Prescribers

November 30, 2018/in PDS Super Conference, Pharmacy Growth Strategies /by pdsmarketing

Owning an independent pharmacy is easy, said no one ever. This is why identifying unique strategies to grow your pharmacy and improve your bottom line is vital. So how do pharmacy owners do this? Owners can achieve this in many ways, two of which are by increasing the amount and frequency of pharmacy transactions, in addition to driving new patients to your business. While increasing volume isn’t the only way to grow your pharmacy (so many options!), it is one effective strategy. In this blog, we’ll highlight one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to drive new patients to your pharmacy, by building and maintaining strong relationships with prescribers and increasing patient referrals.

Read on to learn more about how to increase referral traffic from doctors and other health professionals in your area. Building and nurturing strong relationships with local physicians is critical to creating a steady flow of referrals and new patients.

Identify Prescription Sources

Pharmacy owners can easily identify which prescribers make up the bulk of their business. Leveraging this data allows owners to enhance the partnerships with prescribers that regularly send you patients. Pharmacy owners can also reach out to those who may benefit from the specific services offered by your pharmacy, but for some reason or another, aren’t sending referrals.

The role of the community pharmacist is expanding to include enhanced services such as annual wellness reviews, medication therapy management, pharmacogenomics, and other clinical services. The expansion allows for greater collaboration between prescribers and pharmacists. Treating the roles of pharmacist and prescriber as complementary is key to developing good working relationships and achieving the best patient outcomes.

3 Reasons Why Your Pharmacy Should Offer Annual Wellness Review Services

Nurture Relationships with Physician Partners – Working in partnership with a physician for AWV is a great step to streamlining communication between the two offices. This will benefit your pharmacy when it comes to requesting medication switches as well as offering ancillary programs such as diabetic education and flu clinics.
Greater Involvement in Patient Care – This is an opportunity to keep patient files up-t0-date and ensures you are offering the best standard of care. The face-time with patients allows for your team to ensure patients are following protocol and share information on new programs that would benefit patient outcomes.
Grow or Start Your Medication Synchronization Program – Create a goal to educate and register your patients about the benefits of synchronization.

Give New Health Professionals in Your Area a Warm Welcome

Did a new pediatrician or nurse practitioner recently join your local health community? Introduce yourself as the local go-to pharmacy by sending them a personalized note or setting up a one-on-one lunch. Take the opportunity to see what they need and how you can help them meet the goals for their practice and their patients.

Lend your experience as a medical expert to help prescribers maintain medication adherence, and enhance their healthcare plan for the patient. Building trust with local health professionals and developing a relationship is beneficial for both parties as well as the patients you serve.

Build Relationships with the Entire Staff

The key to getting the doctor’s staff to recommend your pharmacy is by staying top of their mind. You can do this by engaging the doctor’s entire team. That includes the medical assistants, nurses, receptionists — everyone!

Send a handwritten note, flowers, or tasty goodies on the appropriate health care appreciation day to show your gratitude. Assisted Living Week begins September 12th and Physician Assistants Week begins October 6. When you give people gifts, they’ll feel obliged to provide you with something in return. Dr. Cialdini calls this the “rule of reciprocity.” In this case, you’re positioning your pharmacy to be top of mind when they want to refer a customer.
Stop by the clinic on a regular basis to chat with the staff. The key is to be likable and bring value to the conversation. Don’t be afraid to offer genuine compliments or share something personal about yourself. Look for similarities and point them out to build connections. Bringing pharmacy news, coupons, or samples of new products and services can go a long way.
Invite the local health professional community to your pharmacy for a quarterly, after-hours networking event. The goal is for them to meet your staff and learn about the services you provide. Make the event fun by wrapping the refreshments around a holiday or theme (February – chocolate; May – margaritas, etc.). You’ll have the health community looking forward to your events and referring patients to your pharmacy in no time!

Position Your Business as an Authority on Health and Wellness

One advantage independent pharmacies have over national chains is superior customer experience. Simply put, people talk about great experiences and bad experiences. If the patient is referred to your pharmacy and walks away having a great experience, they are going to share that with the prescriber, who will, in turn, refer more patients.

Take advantage of this by educating and informing your patients about services, programs, and philosophies on which you’ve built your independent pharmacy. When you give your customers (and prescribers) valuable information for free, your pharmacy is reinforcing its position as an authority in health and wellness.

You can talk about:

Solutions to counteract drug-induced nutrient depletion issues.
Where to get free calcium, kids vitamins (Pediatricians), prenatal vitamins (OB-GYN) and diabetic medications.
Type II Diabetes and how to prevent it. You can even teach your customers how to cook healthy meals at home.
Products that prevent sports injuries (Chiropractor).
And much more…

When you help solve the patient’s problems, they’ll be more likely to accept your recommendations. If you start taking these steps today, you’ll notice doctors are more willing to refer customers to you. To maximize your pharmacy’s growth through referrals, you need to learn how to effectively and ethically persuade others.

{PDS Sponsored Post} Why Your Independent Pharmacy Needs An Adherence Program

August 15, 2018/in Pharmacy Growth Strategies, Pharmacy Profits and ROI /by Ali Maiorana

Here at PDS, we take pride in highlighting some of our incredible solutions partners. We know these companies have the potential to revolutionize pharmacies just like yours through their products and services. We’re excited to introduce Parata, read on for their sponsored blog post about how a true adherence program can benefit your pharmacy business.

Did you know medication nonadherence can cost the healthcare system as much as $300 billion dollars per year? This common problem affects all aspects of the healthcare community from the providers to the patients. The healthcare providers take a hit with penalties, pharmaceutical companies have increasing amounts of waste, and consumers incur unnecessary medical bills.

This is where independent pharmacies come in! Businesses and owners are in just the right spot to improve medication adherence. With Amazon’s recent acquisition of PillPack, the benefits to patients are obvious — they are healthier, and their medical costs are potentially decreased. But how can a true medication adherence program benefit independent pharmacy?

Gain Customer Loyalty

An adherence program, like pouch packaging, helps to guarantee patients come to you for their refills. It becomes easy for the patient. A true adherence program builds trust — that means a patient does not have to worry if their medication is sorted or taken correctly. Eliminating common questions like, “Was I supposed to take that pill in both the morning and night?”, can be priceless for the patient. And by reducing the number of visits to the pharmacy per month from 5 to 1, you’ve helped them capture back more of their time. When a pharmacy can do that for a patient, the seeds of loyalty are planted.

Experience less stress with better workflow

Since refills are scheduled, your pharmacy’s workflow becomes much more predictable. A predictable workflow translates into less stress. With his adherence program, pharmacist, PDS member, and pharmacy owner, Peter Wolfe, says the face of his pharmacy’s day-to-day has completely changed. “We stay about a week ahead, and we always know what’s up next. It eliminates stress, saves on inventory, and frees up time.”

Cut down hospital admissions

Who can resist a greater good benefit like this? Fewer admissions due to nonadherence is better for the whole medical community as well as patients. When patients are adherent to their recommended medications, hospitals lower their risk of penalties in the form of reduced Medicare payments. As an added bonus for independent pharmacies, capturing patients with chronic conditions from referrals to hospitals is easier when you offer compliance packaging that works.

Add OTC to your program

Packaging over the counter medications and supplements with prescriptions helps the patient take them as recommended, while also adding revenue for the pharmacy. Patients can mitigate vitamin depletion that some medications cause. Adding these items to pouches is an easy part of the packing workflow. Add simplified cross-selling that makes providing a complete solution to your patient easier.

Earn the patient’s entire business

When patients are on a true adherence program, any prescriptions they may have gone to another pharmacy for are transferred to you. In addition to gaining those prescriptions, you also have a better picture of their medication regimen. This presents new opportunities to make appropriate interventions based on the whole picture.

Independent pharmacies can follow these five steps for a successful adherence program. We encourage you to work with the entire healthcare community to help pharmacies battle medication nonadherence on the front lines. Now is the time to think about how your pharmacy business and your patients can benefit from a fully functioning adherence program.