As pharmacists are increasingly viewed as providers, they must utilize automation to streamline operations and offload repetitive tasks.
Prior to COVID-19, pharmacists were healthcare’s unsung heroes. The pandemic put focus on the enormously important role that pharmacists play in achieving optimal patient health outcomes and lowering costs.
As pharmacists are increasingly viewed on the same level as providers that operate in more traditional healthcare settings (hospitals, urgent care centers, standalone practices, etc.), they too must adapt to their new normal. This can be accomplished, in part, by understanding and utilizing the full capabilities of new technology to streamline operations and maximize growth while focusing on achieving The Triple Aim – care, health and cost.
Automation’s Evolution
The past several years have been transformative for the pharmacy industry. Post-pandemic, there are new day-to-day responsibilities and fewer staff members to share the heavier workload. Combined with a surge of new market entrants and mounting M&A activity, pharmacies have been forced to automate operations – and not in the way you may think.
Most pharmacies use automation to notify patients when it’s time to refill their prescriptions, alert them when their medicines are ready for pick up, send appointment reminders, and reduce the need for pharmacy staff to conduct simple, one-way communications with patients and providers. While this removes some administrative burden from pharmacy staff and conveniences patients, today’s pharmacy environment demands that automation be more sophisticated.
Luckily, new developments in automation – notably, the addition of AI and machine learning – along with its growing adoption, have put once cost-prohibitive automated tools within reach for pharmacies of all sizes.
Up to 50% of Walgreens’ total Rx volume could be filled at automated hubs by 2025.
New Types of Automation
In addition to saving time, a major advantage of automation is enhanced accuracy, which is especially critical where medication mix ups and mistakes can be fatal.
Another – often overlooked – area where automation can make a marked difference is compliance. Pharmacists must keep up with nuanced state and federal regulations that are constantly changing, or face heavy fines – or worse – loss of license. And as opioid-related litigations have piled up, the DEA has placed heightened scrutiny on independent and large, retail chain pharmacies alike to determine what role, if any, pharmacies have in allowing prescriptions to get into the wrong hands.
The most effective compliance tools are multipurpose and help with a number of operational challenges. Guardian, our end-to-end pharmacy solution, assists with more than detecting fraudulent orders. It helps with supply chain management, inventory, supplier and store-to-store communications, and more. It’s also accessible. Guardian is affordable, easy to implement and use.
Learn More
By understanding how effective pharmacy management software is the key to a host of issues – compliance, forecasting, supplier relationships – that keep pharmacies competitive and profitable, we developed Guardian.
We’d like to introduce you to the solution 6,000+ pharmacies nationwide rely on to intelligently manage their operations while allowing for an increased focus on their top priority: patient care.
Download our no-cost playbook to learn about Guardian, our end-to-end management software.
