Blog: Your Guide to Choosing a Pharmacy Software System
Read our blog for advice and best practices when researching a software system for your pharmacy. Learn about questions to ask in the buying process, what to be aware of when reading online reviews, and how to find a software that is right for your pharmacy.
How to Choose a Pharmacy Software System
Choosing a new pharmacy software system is an important decision. It’s like getting a new phone or a new car - you’ll be using it every day, so you want to make sure you do your research and make the right investment. Whether you’re opening a new pharmacy or looking to convert from your current pharmacy system, you should keep some factors in mind when evaluating your options.
Run Reports from Your Software
If you are looking to maximize your pharmacy’s operations, increase your profits, and provide your patients with quality care: run reports on a regular basis. Whether you decide to complete them on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, running reports can help you to quantify the ins and outs of your pharmacy — from your finances to your workflow to your team’s productivity — in a methodical and actionable way. With the right reporting, you can get better financial and operational insights into...
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Use eCare Plans to Improve Patient Outcomes
As pharmacies continue to grow and evolve, so does their technology. From helping to manage business behind the scenes to treating patients at the front end of the pharmacy, technology solutions have allowed providers to work with greater accuracy, precision, and efficiency. In the process, they have improved the quality of care that patients receive and the qualities of life that they live. Of all of the technology that is helping to advance patient care, though, the Pharmacist...
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Use Your Software Like a Pro
Switching to a new pharmacy software system can be daunting. Between learning the ins and outs of the software, familiarizing yourself with the features, and optimizing them to work smoothly and efficiently in your pharmacy, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed.Despite the initial challenges it may present, an innovative software system is essential to almost every aspect of your pharmacy — from managing your finances to controlling your workflow to providing quality patient care. In fact...
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How to Improve Your Cybersecurity
Some of the greatest threats to your pharmacy aren’t lurking around the corner — in the form of burglars who break into your storefront, or thieves who steal your front-end items. Rather, they are waiting in the shadows of the technology you use every day: in your computer, your mobile devices, and your Internet-powered pharmacy equipment. Whether it be in the form of malware, ransomware, or data breaches, cyber threats are everywhere, with hackers hoping to take something even more valuable...
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Discover the Benefits of Med Sync
When pharmacists dispense prescriptions, they expect that patients will take them in the right dosage, at the right time. Sometimes, though, this expectation is not met — as patients forget, neglect, or altogether abandon their medications. Whether it be due to busy schedules or barriers to access, improper use of medication can create complications for both patients and pharmacists, leading to issues like bad health, poor outcomes, and loss of time and resources.Given these consequences...
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In the News, In the Know: Resources for Your Pharmacy
In an industry as fast-paced and ever-changing as pharmacy, it can be hard to keep up. Breaking news, updates, and other important information come out every day, many of which directly affect your pharmacy and the way you do business. With so much to know, and so little time to do it, you may find yourself unable to stay up to date. To accommodate your busy life and busy schedule, you should be selective about where you choose to get your information — relying on leading voices in the pharmacy.
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Finding Your Niche in Specialized Services
Pharmacies aren’t just for filling prescriptions. They are centers of clinical care, offering a variety of services that enhance patients’ health and overall well-being. These services can be general — from offering flu shots to selling OTC products — or they can be specialized. For independent pharmacies, though, specialized services are essential to stand out from competitors. In fact, independents’ ability to move beyond the scripts and offer personalized care is what sets them apart from...
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How to Tackle DIR Fees in Your Pharmacy
If you are familiar with the world of pharmacy, you’ve probably heard about PBMs and DIR fees. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) act as the middleman between pharmacies, drug manufacturers, wholesalers, and health plans to manage prescription drug benefits and rebates. Through this intermediary management, small community pharmacies are often faced with arbitrary and extensive DIR fees. DIR Fees are money that PBMs collect after the point-of-sale which change the final reimbursement amount that..
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Streamline Vaccination with Your Pharmacy Software
Are you offering vaccinations at your pharmacy? If not, an immunization program is a great place to start expanding the clinical services you offer at your store. Especially during the pandemic, pharmacies have grown in their recognition as a valuable contributor to public health. Pharmacies have played an instrumental role in administering the COVID-19 vaccine and expanding access for all members of the population. Any additional enhanced service you can provide at your independent pharmacy...
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Using Your Software to Increase Patient Engagement
In the rivalry between small community pharmacies and corporate national chains, independent pharmacy’s competitive advantage is the personal patient experience. Unlike at a chain pharmacy, patients who go to local pharmacies get to interact with staff that knows them on a personal level. As an independent pharmacy, your focus should be on increasing patient engagement to create a quality customer experience that builds loyalty and customer stickiness. This will help expand and retain your...
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Software Integrations - External Hardware
Your software is the core of your pharmacy, but there are a variety of additional integrations that can supplement your workflow and help enhance your system. Along with choosing a software, selecting the right integrations that fit your pharmacy’s needs is another crucial part of growing your pharmacy business. Our Software Integration blog series will explore a few of the most common system integrations for independent pharmacies. This week’s Software Integration Feature is about Hardware...
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Evaluating the Features in a Pharmacy Software
Throughout the process of selecting a new pharmacy software system for your independent pharmacy, you’ll look at multiple factors such as customer support, pricing, and customer satisfaction. But the core of your software will be the features and capabilities that your pharmacy will be using on a daily basis. Most software vendors will advertise similar lists of features, but when you know how to break down these lists, you’ll be able to see the real difference between what each vendor offers...
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How to Breakdown a Quote for a New Software System
If you are in the process of buying a new pharmacy software system, you will need to know how to evaluate a price quote. Each vendor will provide you with their own quote that shows how much you can expect to pay for the software, as well as what is included in that cost estimation. The components and layout of each vendor’s quote will vary, so you need to know how to breakdown each quote and equally compare your options. That way, you can make an informed decision and know what you are...
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Does Your Software Help You Document eCare Plans?
Gone are the days of pharmacists simply being known for filling prescriptions. A pharmacist can do so much more for a patient’s health and quality of life. They are clinically trained to offer an array of enhanced services that can improve their patients’ health outcomes and manage their disease states. This includes performing medication therapy management (MTM), identifying social determinants of health, monitoring vital signs, tracking progress through lab results, educating patients...
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Why You Should Join Pharmacy Organizations
Independent pharmacies may be small in comparison to the large national chains, but when these pharmacies join forces, they can strengthen their voice and widen their influence beyond a single store’s capacity. Pharmacy organizations and associations help bring pharmacy professionals together to advocate on their behalf and provide helpful resources and other membership benefits. Joining both local and national pharmacy groups is a great way to stay connected to what is currently happening in...
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Will Your Software Support Your Pharmacy?
If you are looking for a new pharmacy software solution, don’t just stop at the features. It’s true that the practical features and capabilities of a software are important - you need to make sure you check everything off your list from workflow customization and inventory management, to clinical documentation and more. However, a powerful software will get you nowhere if you can’t use it successfully.The quality of a vendor’s customer service will affect how well your pharmacy adapts to your...
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Software Integrations - Inventory & Will Call
So you’ve chosen the right pharmacy software - now what comes next?Your software is the core of your pharmacy, but there are a variety of additional integrations that can supplement your workflow and help enhance your system. Along with choosing a software, selecting the right integrations that fit your pharmacy’s needs is another crucial part of growing your pharmacy business. Our Software Integration blog series will explore a few of the most common system integrations for independent...
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Software Integrations - Pharmacy IVR
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated telephone system that can help handle incoming calls to your pharmacy. Think of IVR as your pharmacy’s own personal receptionist; it will interact with your patients and guide them to the information they need instead of always requiring an employee to stop what they are doing and pick up the phone. With an IVR system, you’ll be able to automate answers to common inquiries such as general store information or prescription status and refill request
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Software Integrations - Pharmacy Automation
So you’ve chosen the right pharmacy software - now what comes next?Your software is the core of your pharmacy, but there are a variety of additional integrations that can supplement your workflow and help enhance your system. Along with choosing a software, selecting the right integrations that fit your pharmacy’s needs is another crucial part of growing your pharmacy business. Our Software Integration blog series will explore a few of the most common system integrations for independent...
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Opening a New Independent Pharmacy
Independent pharmacies aren’t going anywhere. Especially since the start of the pandemic, they have proved their value to their communities and to the United States as a whole. From continuing to dispense medication during quarantine to administering COVID-19 testing and vaccinations, local pharmacies are getting their time in the spotlight and being recognized for the services they have been offering to their communities for years.While there has been a slight net decrease in the total...
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Key Trends in the Pharmacy Software Market
The classic characterization of a pharmacist is someone who just fills your prescriptions. For many people, this is the extent of their interaction with pharmacies - but this only scratches the surface of what they are capable of. Recently, pharmacy has been shifting towards value-based care models and focusing on taking services past just filling prescriptions, or “fill and bill”. Due to the pandemic, these additional services have become even more important. Pharmacists are looking to expand..
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Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Should I stay or should I go? That’s what some independent pharmacies end up asking themselves when it comes to their software system. They may have been satisfied at first, but it gets to a point where they realize their software vendor is no longer a good fit. So how can you make sure you don’t end up in the same situation?If you’re researching vendors to find a new software system for your pharmacy, it can be helpful to know what vendors retain their customers best. It’s not just about...
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Which Software Do Pharmacies Choose Most?
Curious about which software other pharmacy professionals are choosing most?This decision can be influenced depending on why a pharmacy is looking for a new software system. To better understand this, we have to identify the 2 main scenarios where a pharmacy installs a new software system: Conversion at an Existing Location or New Store Installation. Let’s break these down- Conversion at an Existing Location: A pharmacy that is currently open and operating with a software system is looking to...
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What Makes People Like Their Pharmacy Software?
A new software system is a long-term investment. You want to find a great match for your pharmacy and be satisfied with your decision, not find yourself regretting it. So how can you visualize your experience and predict how satisfied you will be with your new software provider?Customer satisfaction scores are a powerful metric to consider when evaluating systems. What do the current users of a software really think about it? What are its strengths? Downfalls? This can give you an inside look...
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8 Things to Be Aware of When Using Review Sites
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that reading online reviews is only a part of the process. It is highly unlikely that these posts can be a full, even representation of all the pharmacy software vendors in the market. It’s just a small portion of people who happened to write a review - so what about the opinions of all the people who don’t go on review sites? You may just be seeing polar ends of the spectrum: very satisfied customers, or very angry customers writing...
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What is Direct Opinions?
Customer reviews can be difficult to screen for validity when there are usually other factors at play. Many review sites display paid reviews or even allow companies to bid against each other to get higher rankings. Reviews could be outdated and no longer relevant to their current state of the company. It’s also limiting in the sense that you are only seeing reviews from the type of people who would go out of their way to write a review. This may be skewed to people who are either very upset...
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How to Choose a Pharmacy Software System
Choosing a new pharmacy software system is an important decision. It’s like getting a new phone or a new car - you’ll be using it every day, so you want to make sure you do your research and make the right investment. Whether you’re opening a new pharmacy or looking to convert from your current pharmacy system, you should keep some factors in mind when evaluating your options. Managing your pharmacy business while providing quality patient care to your community is something your software...
Read Full PostHow to Choose a Pharmacy Software System
Choosing a new pharmacy software system is an important decision. It’s like getting a new phone or a new car - you’ll be using it every day, so you want to make sure you do your research and make the right investment. Whether you’re opening a new pharmacy or looking to convert from your current pharmacy system, you should keep some factors in mind when evaluating your options. Managing your pharmacy business while providing quality patient care to your community is something your software...
Read Full PostWhat is Direct Opinions?
Customer reviews can be difficult to screen for validity when there are usually other factors at play. Many review sites display paid reviews or even allow companies to bid against each other to get higher rankings. Reviews could be outdated and no longer relevant to their current state of the company. It’s also limiting in the sense that you are only seeing reviews from the type of people who would go out of their way to write a review. This may be skewed to people who are either very upset...
Read Full Post