In-office dispensing is becoming very popular among physicians across the nation. This is because dispensing at the point of care can help you meet both your personal and professional goals. In this day in age, you can’t afford to NOT dispense in-office.
Want to get out of debt? In-office dispensing gives you extra money you can apply towards debt reduction and elimination. Want to retain patients who are satisfied and tell all their friends and families you are the best? Dispensing can help with that.
Below are some of the reasons discussed in more detail as to why you can’t afford to not dispense in-office, for yourself and for your patients.
Easy Money
Some reports claim adding a program to dispense in-office can bring between $50,000 to $200,000 extra each year. Both numbers make it worth the effort.
Other reports claim you can make up to $5 per prescription written through your point of care prescribing program. Now take the number of prescriptions you write per year and multiply that by five. That’s a significant increase.
This basically means you can see the same number of patients, for the same amount of time, but increase your revenue per patient.
Patients are eager to trade a few more dollars for prescriptions, supplies and equipment that saves them hours of time they would have spent at a pharmacy. And it is not with every prescription that they would need to pay more. On many, you will be able to save them money.
Saves Money
The cost of medicines can be more affordable when dispensed in-office. This is because you can search and find your patients the best deal, making this service very popular.
You can work with a medication dispensing company to get the lowest costs for your patients. You can lower the price of medications while still making a nice profit for yourself.
Your patients are not all wealthy members of society. Many are struggling to make ends meet. Some are living paycheck to paycheck and may even be missing payments on occasion.
Your patients will appreciate the reduced costs you can provide them when you dispense in-office.
The Technology Saves Time
The technology used with in-office dispensing makes it easy for anyone who will be using the system. Software packages are created specifically for your office’s needs that have been shown to reduce errors in prescriptions.
A software specialist will guide you and your staff through the straightforward steps involving claim submission, inventory, patient information and much more.
Choosing the right software program is the most important part of beginning the process of introducing point of care medication provider. The right company, with the right technology, will streamline your business so much that you will find yourself saving time and money as you dispense in-office.
Retains Patient & Dispense In-Office
When you provide private, quick, on-site prescription services to patients, you are likely retaining your patients and giving them reasons not to leave your practice for another. Patient retention means your career is secure and stable.
Patients may benefit the most by being able to access their medicines in a shorter amount of time. Some of your patients must arrange for transportation, often a difficult and sometimes costly task. Setting up a way to dispense in-office will eliminate this barrier.
Your patients will feel more comfortable talking to a staff they already know, not a stranger at the pharmacy. They will be more likely to ask questions and reveal if they are having any issues with their medicines.
Leads to Other Ancillary Services
Adding a service such as this leads you to add even more ancillary services down the road. Retail is one of the largest ancillary services that offers the greatest returns. Just like ophthalmologists sell eye glasses in their office, you can sell medical products.
There are hundreds of products to help treat multiple medical problems. Choose the products your patients need the most. Or, you can offer ancillary procedures to make more capital.
You can even hire Nurse Practitioners or Physician Assistants as ancillary services in addition to your dispense in-office program.
Helps Your Staff
Your staff members are extremely busy. In-office dispensing and the software to run the process makes all your staff’s duties more efficient. They spend less time faxing and emailing information to pharmacists and insurance companies.
The representative from the company you chose can train you and your staff in less than an hour. They can teach you everything from how to log into the system to how to re-order prescription stock.
They can provide in-office training and online training, whichever suits your practice. Because using the system is so easy, training is easy. Your office is most likely using software now that is more challenging that in-office dispensing software.
Even the least technical staff will be able to easily adapt and learn this system. But even if your staff has difficulties, they are provided with round the clock technical support from the dispensing company too.
Is Safer for Your Patients
Pharmacies are fallible, just like everything and everyone else. Unfortunately, when a pharmacy makes a mistake, it can mean danger for a patient.
One study examined 142,000 medications prescribed by hospital pharmacies. Of those, 3.6 percent contained errors. And 24 percent of those errors would have caused adverse effects.
Because some medicines are similar in shape, color and size, pharmacists confuse one drug for the other. Not only is dispensing the wrong drug a problem but dispensing the wrong dosage of the right medicine.
Pharmacists make mistakes when it comes to delivering the wrong dose of medication to patients.
If a pharmacist dispenses a dose that is too low, a person may not benefit from any of the effects of the medicine. If the effects of the medicine are to keep blood from clotting or decrease blood pressure, there could be serious negative consequences if their dose is too low.
Think about all the goals you want to reach in your medical practice. It won’t be hard to recognize how deciding to dispense in-office to your patients can help you reach those goals. It’s easy to set up, easy to implement and easy to maintain.
In-office dispensing is rewarding for everyone involved.