Benefits of Prescription Management Software for Pharmacies

The covid-19 pandemic has changed the way the world works and has had a far-reaching impact on almost all aspects of everyday lives. Initially, the rapid evolution and spread of the disease outpaced the regulatory and public response. It exposed the weak links in all fields including the health care systems and forced the frontline pharmacy industry to find new ways to adapt to the supply shortages and new rules for medication and compliance.

For patients, the local pharmacy has been more than a place to purchase medication. Pharmacists have helped patients make sense of prescription dosages and instructions while also aiding them in choosing the right over-the-counter medicines. In the wake of covid-19, it was a risk to go to a pharmacy to buy OTC or prescription medicines, especially for the mobility challenged, the elderly & those struggling with chronic diseases.

The immediate challenge for pharmacists is protecting their staff and patients from the infection and its spread within the pharmacy. The real threat of infection because of insufficient workspace for social distancing, patient aggression & financial implications also resulted in heightened anxiety and stress within the staff. Outside of the professional duties, the staff also faced stress that the general public faced due to the pandemic.

With these challenges, pharmacies need to ensure that they take full advantage of the available technological management solutions, which offer capabilities that manage various key pharmacy functions automatically which frees up the staff to handle the front desk.

Some features, benefits & functionalities of prescription management software

Communication

Prescription management software (PMS) assists pharmacies in easily and securely communicating with patients, and customers via texts, emails & calls. Such software can provide capabilities that can

• Send pre-programmed calls, texts, and emails to patients, and customers.
• Send prescription refill reminders.
• Send ready for pickup reminders.
• Send dosage reminders.

Inventory Management

PMS can handle critically important inventory management. PMSs are  capable of:

Automatic Dispensing

By interfacing PMS with dispensing machines, manual intervention for pill counting can be eliminated and manual errors can be eliminated while ensuring that more prescriptions can be filled in less time. The PMS can also deduct inventory of dispensed items, giving real-time inventory count.

Automatic Reordering

By programming the minimum level of inventory per item for reordering, PMS can trigger automatic orders to ensure that inventory is properly maintained.

Refill Management

Patients can submit refill requests directly from home using a computer or a mobile app. This allows refills to be submitted 24/7, eliminating the need to visit or call the pharmacy. PMS maintains all records and refill requests are transmitted automatically to the pharmacy’s daily work queue.

Workflow Efficiency

By using PMS, the manual daily workflow can be reduced. PMS can take care of many day-to-day activities from communication, refill management, and inventory management to automatic dispensing and reducing the high workloads on the staff.

Shipments

PMS offers efficient shipment solutions to retail and mail order pharmacies.

• It can generate shipping labels from the database and reduces or eliminates manual writing and errors.
• Data is automatically imported from refill orders etc. and shipping and tracking information are accessible to the staff and patients.

Contactless Payments

Prescription Management Systems can help pharmacies seamlessly manage payment collection and receipt issuance.

• PMS has access to patient accounts and for all prescriptions, payment collection can be identified. Payments can be done via computer or mobile app and accounts can be credited. Receipts can be generated directly and accessed via a computer or mobile app.
• PMS can also be integrated with credit card machines or contactless swipe machines to enable easy payment collection.

Preventing frauds

Updating prescriptions in PMS, and checking these prescriptions within the integrated drug monitoring programs database helps manage the distribution of controlled dangerous substances.

Reports

Reports generated by the PMS allow pharmacists to easily determine inventory, refills, pending orders, and payment collection records. It can help the pharmacy identify better-performing vendors for ordering medicines.

E-prescription

This process involves the prescriber or the doctor and the pharmacy without directly involving the patient. The prescription is sent by the doctor via a secure connection to the pharmacy. The pharmacy can acknowledge and notify the patient for pickup or home delivery as needed. This eliminates paperwork and prescriptions can be accurately delivered.

Compounding

The feature is integrated with inventory and prescription management and ensures accuracy in drug dosing, using,

Scale Integration

PMS with scale integration can log weight and send alerts when the weight is out of tolerance limit.

Batch Support

PMS can create compound batches, manage quantities and organize them. Different batches can be combined with one prescription with necessary details which makes tracking easy. It can also calculate pricing based on different batches.

Ensuring safety for patients and the workforce is the primary goal and priority for hospitals and healthcare workers. Compliance with various policies and emerging policies created keeping the pandemic in mind is essential and gives guidance to the hospitals and the health workers. Regulatory bodies check for how the new standards have been adopted using the assessment criteria as per the standard operating procedures.

The healthcare industry is changing and so are all the related components and businesses. Pharmacies are no exception. By using made-to-order prescription management software or ready-made software, pharmacies can participate better in patient care and stay competitive at the same time. Using an experienced software company that can take care of prescription management software development can be useful for those pharmacies looking to integrate tools with existing PMS or for those who want to acquire a PMS and want to know what to look for or for those who want to build and use a custom PMS.