Activities that engage your patients are important in improving overall health. However, they can sometimes be a challenge. If you don’t know where to start, the list below has examples and strategies you can easily implement into your pharmacy.
Break down your customer base.
This is an essential first step. It helps you identify different groups and pinpoint their needs. That way, you’re able to set up a plan to meet them and widen your customer base as well. Here are some of the ways you can segment patients:
- Their age: An easy way to do this is by dividing your patients into groups of children, adults, and seniors.
- Their diagnosis or risk: Group together patients who have similar needs. This will help you come up with plans that are more tailored to their specific requirements.
- Their medical coverage: Don’t offer medications and treatments that patients are unable to afford, or are not covered by their health insurance.
Train your staff regularly.
Your pharmacy staff should receive training regularly. There’s more to your pharmacy than a cash register, so allow them to learn skills that will make your pharmacy stand out from the rest. For example, train them on proper interactions with patients, medications and treatments, clinical best practices, software systems, reporting requirements, data access, pharmacy billing, and reimbursement. The more they learn, the better your pharmacy will be.
Put your patients at ease.
You don’t want your pharmacy to intimidate your patients. Instead, make patients feel comfortable the minute they walk through your doors. Here’s how:
- Help them relax: Improve the ambiance in your pharmacy so your patients can relax. Play relaxing music, provide comfortable seating in the waiting area, and install a water dispenser or charging sockets.
- Lessen anxiety. Let people know what their expected wait time will be. You’ll help reduce their anxiety during busy periods. Digital signage that details queue status has been proven to reduce perceived wait times by up to 35%.
- Be upfront with patients. It’s important to let your patients know exactly what to expect from their first point of contact. Use your phone queue to let patients know what services you offer, such as your pharmacy’s hours, how to schedule an appointment online, which insurance policies you accept, what to bring to appointments, and where to find new-patient signup forms on your website.
Invest in technology.
Pharmacy software will help your workflow. It a great assistant when it comes to handling prescriptions, monitoring inventory, processing sales, and complying with regulations. Advanced features include automatic prescription refills, insurance claims management, and electronic prescribing. All of these speed up your pharmacy operations.
Teach your patients.
Patients rely on their healthcare providers’ knowledge, training, and experience to manage their health. But when you educate your patients, patients can be more active in their outcomes of their health. An article published by the American Journal of Medicine established that patients were 67% more compliant with treatment when they received educational materials about their medications and therapies.
Give them continuous care.
When you make an effort to stay in touch with your patients, trust is established. This makes your patients much more likely to adhere to long-term care plans. It can be a monthly check-in, a newsletter, an email, or a post-visit survey—it shows your ongoing commitment to your community’s health needs.
Remove the barriers.
Whether it’s physical or digital, get rid of the barriers that keep others from accessing healthcare. You can make healthcare much more accessible for your patients who live in rural areas by incorporating virtual interactions. But remember: No matter how new and cutting-edge an engagement strategy is, it must be accessible to everyone. So, expect to use various communication channels, but not every channel. You don’t want to overwhelm your patients.
By offering a range of options, you can record patient preferences and set up your communications to meet each patients’ personal needs.
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PBA Health is dedicated to helping independent pharmacies reach their full potential on the buy-side of their business. Founded and run by pharmacists, PBA Health serves independent pharmacies with group purchasing services, wholesaler contract negotiations, proprietary purchasing tools, and more.
An HDA member, PBA Health operates its own NABP-accredited warehouse with more than 6,000 SKUs, including brands, generics, narcotics CII-CV, cold-storage products, and over-the-counter (OTC) products — offering the lowest prices in the secondary market.
