Pharmacies today are being asked to do more than ever, including filling higher prescription volumes, expanding service offerings and supporting patients amid ongoing labor shortages and rising operational costs. However, traditional retail pharmacy models weren’t designed to meet this high-level demand. Our team at iA believes the future of pharmacy depends on scalability and flexibility, particularly through centralized and shared fulfillment models.
Centralized fulfillment allows pharmacies to shift high-volume, routine dispensing out of individual locations and into purpose-built facilities engineered for efficiency. By consolidating fulfillment, pharmacies can reduce duplicated processes, inventory storage and equipment across multiple sites. With automation and standardized workflows, these facilities can process significantly more prescriptions without a need for increased staff or resources.
Scalability is naturally built into the model. Automation and software-driven workflows allow capacity to expand as demand grows, whether that demand is short-term or long-term, and gradual or drastic. Instead of hiring and training additional staff at every location—which takes a lot of time and resources— pharmacies can scale output through technology and centralized expertise, keeping labor costs predictable and as controlled as possible.
In addition to scalability, flexibility is equally critical. Shared fulfillment models extend the benefits of centralized operations to a broader range of pharmacies, including smaller or independent organizations. Sharing infrastructure allows multiple pharmacy partners to access high-capacity fulfillment without making major capital investments of their own. This shared approach includes fixed costs for every party involved and allows each pharmacy to scale individually.
Beyond cost efficiency, centralized and shared fulfillment fundamentally change how pharmacy teams spend their time. When routine dispensing can be done centrally, pharmacists and technicians can focus on higher-value clinical services, including patient counseling, medication therapy management and other support. While operational efficiency is improved, centralized fulfillment also improves patient experience and outcomes.
iA’s approach to scalable, flexible fulfillment allows customers to grow and plan for the future amidst many industry challenges. For more information and resources, read this white paper: https://iarx.com/built-to-scale-why-flexibility-is-essential-in-todays-pharmacy/