As pharmacists struggle to keep up with increasing demand while battling the reality of tightening resources, many are turning to innovative solutions to increase efficiency. When considering fulfillment solutions there is much to consider, and it can be challenging to understand the available options and what solution might address your unique challenges, best fitting your needs. It is critical to understand the options and affiliated language. Semi-automated solutions are those that involve humans to control flow, and fully-automated solutions are software-enabled, allowing for the optimization of prescription fulfillment operations.
It is useful to consider pharmacy automation options in the following buckets, and in this blog, we’ll be diving into the first two options.
- Centralized pharmacy fulfillment solutions are scalable and support pharmacies of any size from a centralized location.
- Community pharmacy fulfillment solutions are used in smaller pharmacies and include customizable configurations.
- Shared centralized fulfillment solutions allow multiple pharmacies to partner, accessing centralized fulfillment from a shared location.
Centralized Pharmacy Fulfillment
Centralized fulfillment solutions manage the complete prescription fulfillment process beginning with acceptance of a prescription. Automation and robotics offer full support, and the system can be customized to each customer’s needs and is scalable to allow for future growth. These customizable systems work well for large customer sectors including commercial/ecommerce customers, health systems and government. We’ll briefly outline the benefits of these solutions for each of these sectors.
Commercial, Retail & Ecommerce
- Bulk buying power leveraged by consolidating inventory at a central location
- Centralizing fulfillment could enable more time to focus on value-added products and activities at the retail locations
- Easier to stock and manage a wide variety of medications including cold-chain medications and narcotics
- Full visibility into the fulfillment process delivered via tracking, data, and intuitive dashboards.
- More efficient fulfillment workflow
Health Systems and Hospitals
- Consolidated inventory drives cost savings for systems with multiple locations
- Fewer pharmacists needed to fill at each location, freeing them up for other value-added services
- Consolidated recordkeeping and control
- Full visibility for pharmacists and technicians into pharmacy records.
- Robust reporting enables data-driven decision making
- Centralizing fulfillment and inventory allows physical spaces within the healthcare setting to be repurposed for maximum value
Government
- Consolidating inventory and fulfillment drives savings to the bottom line
- Systems provide secure records and HIPAA compliance, a critical concern for government entities
Community Pharmacy Fulfillment
Larger chain pharmacies, health systems and government entities are more easily able to leverage economies of scale when it comes to pharmacy fulfillment and when implementing centralized fulfillment solutions. Meanwhile, small, independent and community pharmacies continue to provide critical services, while facing the same challenges as their larger counterparts. Compounding economic and staffing issues is the fact that smaller pharmacies may feel that technology solutions are for “the big guys” and are not economically feasible. What’s a smaller operation to do when faced with the demands of pharmacy today?
The good news is that there are manual and semi-automated prescription fulfillment solutions designed to provide support for in-store operations. These solutions are customizable and require a minimal footprint, enabling even smaller pharmacies to accommodate equipment. Modular systems allow for optimal flexibility, accommodating plans for future growth. Most importantly, these systems support high-value patient focus and care, allowing pharmacists to spend more time with patients, and allowing a smaller retailer to thrive.
In our next blog we’ll examine shared centralized fulfillment. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more, download the full whitepaper here.