Designing and implementing a pharmacy fulfillment solution may seem overwhelming, especially if it’s your first system. At iA, we partner with customers using a proven collaborative process designed to help you reach your goals, both now and in the future.
We’ve learned that when customers first consider a pharmacy fulfillment solution, they initially tend to focus on size. However, there is so much more that needs to be considered. The solution should be carefully designed after thoughtful consideration of immediate needs, long-term requirements, and your unique business objectives. We partner alongside our customers every step of the way, utilizing a proven design and implementation process that takes into consideration not only the size of the system, but also plans for demand variances, future scalability, and additional organizational goals.
During the discovery phase, iA will work alongside you to determine your goals, considering the following questions:
Demand
- What does inventory look like on day one, at week three, in six months?
- What are the implications for consolidation in terms of a central fulfillment location as well as for the retail pharmacy setting?
- How is inventory ordered and how does the solution ensure it can scale?
- How will inventory be tracked and reconciled?
Improved Patient Choice
- Will patients be offered a 90-day supply or an adherence pouch packaging solution?
- Will patients be offered mail order?
- How will patients be onboarded with these solutions if offered?
Planning for the Future
- Does the customer plan to have extra capacity for growth?
- Does the customer have plans to incorporate future white label opportunities?
- What types of work and processes could impact future growth?
- Do growth plans involve possible increases in unit of use, mail order or other specialty pharmacy?
After working through these considerations, we will incorporate data to analyze current workload, extrapolating and projecting the design into future capacity expectations. Our experience has shown that most systems can handle variability when it comes to demand, but at iA, we’re committed to working with our customers to use their data to ensure that relevant factors that can cause a significant shift in demand are analyzed – before a large capital investment is made.
Our regimented approach helps to define requirements and prove out a customized solution before implementation. During the design phase it is important that we engage across the entire customer enterprise, involving stakeholders such as purchasing, IT, engineering and facility management, among others. This engagement has proven critical to success and buy-in from the organization as decisions are made collectively, building the business case for capital request as the solution is designed.
After discovery, iA will work with you through the following design phases prior to implementation.
Scenario Analysis
Simulation is an important companion process during this phase of design planning. Simulation allows iA to work with our customers to visualize different models for a variety of pharmacy fulfillment solutions.
Validate
Combining simulation transactional data, iA will work with you to validate the flow of the system before we begin putting any hardware together on site.
Design
Once an iA pharmacy fulfillment solution is validated and we’ve worked with you to ensure that the solution works under a variety of scenarios, we will build the plan that informs ramping up and addresses risk mitigation.
Deliver
iA delivers a custom solution designed to help you reach your goals.
At iA, ensuring customer success is our passion, and we are motivated by the power of pharmacy fulfillment to move pharmacists out front to practice at the top of their license. We welcome the opportunity to partner with you to design a pharmacy fulfillment solution customized to meet the goals of your organization, unleashing the full potential of your pharmacy.
To learn more: iARx.com/contact-us.