Pharmacy must shift from a product centric delivery culture to a customer and service centred culture. Pharmacy will succeed or fail in the future based on how well their services improve health outcomes. Pharmacy must see itself not as “A supplier of medicines” but as “A disease and medicine management business with a focus on health promotion.” Pharmacy Consulting believes this is essential for any pharmacy business to survive.
Many of the new technologies can be used to help develop patient centred services such as apps, text reminders, to take medication or, to attend the pharmacy for a MUR.
In America traditional pharmacy, response to symptoms roles, are challenged by companies such as i Triage, which will help you self diagnose and give you information about your condition in the comfort of your own home. Here in the UK patients can consult with a doctor on-line 24/7 at a cost!
Pharmacy must work with other professionals to conduct research to show their worth and compete with online service providers. The online services can collate statistics to show their worth and can collect patient experiences via on-line surveys and asking people to rate their services on the social networks.
In America www.zoc doc.com helps you find a doctor and book an appointment on-line, very often the UK follows suit with ideas spawned in the US. Could we produce something similar for pharmacy services? NHS Choices is a good source of information but how often is it updated.
New technology could be used to keep records of immunisations people have had and send warning messages, when a booster is required. This would be useful to direct customers into you Travel Health Services in your pharmacy. Once you have their details and have gained permission to alert them of you new services you can keep them informed.
Medicare offers a wellness reimbursement for people who have an annual wellness visit, what is involved in the annual check? Could a pharmacist offer this screening service and could we work with the insurance companies to refer patients who have already been screened using a shared protocol? Medicines could be dispensed for these patients from your pharmacy at preferential rates and in turn the patients, private premium could be reduced further.
Happtique provide an app formulary and an app adherence could be valuable for health professionals they have a “h app” Health app catalogue and have both web and mobile h apps. Mobile apps could be designed to help patients manage most their symptoms and conditions in the future.
Tele heath is being used to aid diagnosis, assess treatment and progress,and could be used effectively in many therapeutic areas.
Remote monitoring such as AMbucor in the US could be conducted in the UK by lifestyle or health coaches or pharmacists to promote better health.
Patient engagement is essential and all healthcare professionals need to engage to optimise the resources available and to improve patient outcomes. New technology can help us and we need to embrace it.
Pharmacy Consulting will help your pharmacy embrace the change, and each of your pharmacies will have their own bespoke needs, we can help you build a robust business plan , and help you design customer centric services. We can look at novel ways to manage your nursing homes and use new technologies to make the process more efficient.