Urgent care clinics provide a critical service, and the demand for this service is on the rise. With more and more urgent care centers working to provide swift and accessible care, maximizing convenience and efficiency is important for maintaining competitiveness, and providing a high standard of care.
Patients love the convenience and accessibility of urgent care centers, and they are a great alternative to a pricey ER visit; but, unlike hospitals that have a pharmacy, only about half of the country’s urgent care centers have the ability to dispense the needed medication directly to their patients before they leave for home. Without a means of directly dispensing prescription medication and some forms of emergency care, many urgent care clinics are at a disadvantage in a highly competitive market.
How Much Does It Cost to Get Started?
Urgent care clinics partnering with Proficient Rx need not worry about upfront costs or any substantial overhead. Getting started is kept simple and unobtrusive. Incorporating direct dispensing through Proficient Rx is a seamless process.
This way, they can focus entirely on providing direct and valuable care to their patients, saving both time and potentially saving them money. Healthcare can be expensive and cutting out the middleman is one way to help patients cut on costs.
Does Direct Dispensing Provide Additional Revenue?
The investment for direct dispensing, or point of care dispensing, is very low in the case of urgent care clinics. The return on investment is entirely up to the clinic in question. There is plenty of additional revenue in providing generic, Brand, and OTC medication as well as other pharmaceuticals at fair prices. Programs like Proficient Rx help you grow your revenue and greatly improve patient convenience.
How Does it Help Your Patients?
The immediate benefits of direct dispensing are clear. In-office dispensing at your urgent care clinic means patients can receive their treatment and medication right away. This does away with the additional costs, time constraints, and privacy issues that plague trying to fulfill new prescriptions at the nearest pharmacy. The most important point here, however, is time. Urgent care clinics specialize in providing ambulatory care – time is of the essence and should not be wasted. The faster a patient can receive proper treatment, the better.
Via point of care dispensing, patients can also receive proper education, from you, on what they have been prescribed. Adhering to a treatment regimen is critical for proper care, and lack of medication adherence is a preventable issue that causes over 125,000 deaths a year.
Patients are just as busy as you are. Cutting out inconveniences and eliminating inefficiency can both save lives and create loyal customers. It can also make your staff happier.
How Does it Help Your Staff?
In-office dispensing programs streamline work for your urgent care staff and make their jobs easier.
Inventory, refills, patient reminders, scheduling, and more are all done automatically, through the dispensing software. Even the labeling of medications comes pre-designed so that all your staff must do is enter the patient information one time. In-office staff are provided with all the training and support needed to successfully fulfill prescriptions. This streamlined process helps your clinic take on more patients and be of greater service to the community.
What About Compliance?
When providing critical care and medication, compliance is key. There are regulations set in place to benefit and protect patients, and only by adhering to these standards may you provide certain medication at the point of care. In-office dispensing programs help you meet compliance requirements. It is designed to notify you of changes made to compliance laws and adjust accordingly.
The dispensing company works with you to make sure the medications you prescribe are in-stock, and traceable. This applies to both controlled and non-controlled substances.
What Are the Limitations?
Urgent care clinics are not limited in what medication they can offer, but it is entirely up to you to decide what to stock, and how much. Priorities are important when stocking medication for urgent care, as it is unrealistic to keep absolutely everything in stock. That’s where further assistance from your dispensing partner can go a long way to eliminating potential roadblocks to proper patient care.
You can work with your dispensing company to determine the medicines your patients need the most.
Where Do You Start?
It all begins with the right partnership. Finding the right company to help you source and provide medication for your patients is critical, and it’s important to have the right system in place to help track each sale.
Here at Proficient Rx, we specialize in helping physicians and other healthcare professionals implement comprehensive in-office direct dispensing systems to help healthcare professionals better serve their patients and provide the best possible care. For at the end of the day, we believe that access to needed medication should be convenient and affordable.