Think of everything you accomplish in a day. All of those activities take time. Time you don’t have if you’re manually inputting a refill request.
Digital refills—prescriptions refilled through a digital channel such as a website or mobile app—streamline the refill process. So pharmacists can focus on patients.
“Most patients see their pharmacist more than their primary physician these days,” said Susan Barrett, vice president of business development at Digital Pharmacist, a digital communication platform for independent pharmacies. “Digital refills allow the pharmacist to spend more time with patients on education, adherence and improving outcomes.”
And, pharmacies that don’t offer digital refills may find it difficult to compete with national chain pharmacies and big box stores.
“It’s about survival,” Barrett said. “If they’re not doing it, they will lose market share, revenue and patients to the chains.”
A convenient solution
Patients want convenience. With digital refills, patients can refill a prescription anytime, anywhere.
They can also manage their medications through medication reminders and management profiles on a mobile app.
Digital refills also save pharmacies time. Pharmacists and technicians spend less time on the phone and more time assisting patients.
“Our digital platform offers one-click refills and integrates with 53 pharmacy management systems, which eliminates the need to sift through faxes and input refills manually,” Barrett said. “Instead, the refill shows up automatically in the queue.”
This all adds up to big time-savings. “One of our pharmacies saved 30 hours a month as a result of digital refills,” Barrett said.
Improving outcomes
Digital refills make it easy for patients to keep track of their medications, which can improve outcomes.
“A father can manage his whole family on a mobile app,” Barrett said. “It’s easy to manage medications, manage profiles and access health information.”
Mobile apps offer medication reminders, refill reminders and education to help increase adherence. “In most cases we see, if patients understand how a medication can help their conditions, they will be more apt to take their medication and experience the benefits,” she said.
Spreading the word
If patients don’t know they can refill their prescriptions on your mobile app or website, they won’t do it.
“You can have the best product since sliced bread, but if you’re not effectively marketing it, you can’t grow a sustainable business,” Barrett said.
Take advantage of available features. For example, Digital Pharmacist offers pharmacies a branded mobile app with a text-to-download feature that the pharmacist or technician can use to send the patient a text message with a link to download the app.
“It’s important to take advantage of promotional opportunities to drive new customers into the store, a service we provide for the independent pharmacy at Digital Pharmacist,” Barrett said.
Learn more about Digital Pharmacist.
Promoting Your Mobile App
It’s not enough to have a mobile app. Market your pharmacy’s mobile app to patients with these ideas.
- Create a page on your website
- Use bag stuffers
- Offer an incentive
- Hang posters in your store
- Ask patients if they use the app
Want more tips like this? Join our email list to get weekly pharmacy business tips and advice—right in your inbox.
