The prescription filling process is essential for all healthcare practices. Physician dispensing can improve your practice’s prescription filling process and provide a multitude of benefits to both you and your patients.

The benefits of direct doctor dispensing cannot be overstated, especially amid a pandemic. By reducing the amount of time and distance between a patient and their medication, physicians can help change and save lives, all the while greatly improving patient satisfaction.

 

What is Physician Dispensing?

Physician dispensing streamlines the path between your prescription filling process and dispensing by giving patients the option of buying their medication directly through their physician, at the point of care. There are restrictions surrounding physician dispensing and laws differ from state to state, while a few states outright disallow the practice.

While it would be useful to list these here, it would not be very prudent – the laws surrounding physician dispensing are subject to change.

The licensing requirements and drug-specific restrictions also differ from state to state. This means certain states may make it harder to stock and dispense controlled substances, including opioid painkillers, or limit the quantities physicians may keep in inventory. Most states also have requirements regarding the strict repackaging and labeling of medication, so ensuring that you have the right supplier for your medication is critical.

 

Benefits of Direct Dispensing

The benefits of physician dispensing heavily outweigh difficulties regarding its implementation; however by offering a direct link to medication, physicians can greatly improve both patient satisfaction and patient adherence to treatment plans, both during first dose and for subsequent refills.

Patients can skip the drive to the pharmacy, long lines, and the public nature of a pharmacy counter by interacting directly with their doctor for their medication.

While delivery options have expanded massively during COVID, most pharmacies are still unable to deliver controlled substances and prescription drugs, making direct physician dispensing a faster alternative in many cases.

Furthermore, physician dispensing saves clinics and practices the time spent coordinating with pharmacies to ensure that their patients get the drug they need, by simply being able to review and offer the medications in their own inventory.

Physician dispensing does not need to eliminate the pharmacy as an option for medication procurement to be useful – many doctors and practices encourage their patients to view them as an alternative or supplemental solution to your prescription filling process in cases where:

  • Urgent care is needed, or time is of the essence;
  • It is much easier to dispense the appropriate medication from the point-of-care;
  • The patient is uncomfortable with, or cannot find the time to visit the pharmacy.

 

Other Benefits of In-Office Dispensing

Aside from being a useful alternative in cases where patients don’t want to make the trip to the next pharmacy, in-office dispensing or physician dispensing has a few distinct advantages that benefit your prescription filling process:

  • It can help improve the clinic or practice’s reputation.
  • It saves both patients and staff members a lot of time.
  • Patients are given a private space to thoroughly ask questions about their medication and become better informed.
  • Patients can directly confer with their physician on medication prices and discuss alternatives.
  • Patients can directly call their doctor to inquire about medication inventory, and ask ahead if their prescription can be refilled at a scheduled appointment date.
  • And much, much more.

For physicians, one of the primary benefits of implementing in-office dispensing is the value add of being able to sell medication at the point of care, as well as the additional healthcare revenue. Through physician dispensing, you can provide a valuable service to the community while growing your practice.

 

Implementing Physician Dispensing in Your Practice

Ultimately, finding the right partner remains key when implementing physician dispensing into your prescription filling process. There are legal and ethical requirements to fulfill, logistic issues to address, and matters of privacy, access to medication, and secure and seamless implementation, and staff training.

You will also need to prepare an explanation of the service for your current and future patients, to help them understand the benefits of buying their medication through you and helping them save even more time by streamlining the process of prescribing and acquiring medication at the point of care.

Any and all practicing physicians require a special license from the DEA to prescribe medicine. But there are other requirements needed to sell and provide medication (aside from the usual emergency dose) at the point of care. These can differ from state to state, usually dictated as per your local Board of Pharmacy. Finding a partner with experience in setting up in-office physician in your state or county can be very helpful.

Having access to repackaged generic and branded medication, both OTC and prescription, can make the process of sourcing your drugs much easier as well. Otherwise, you may need to shop around for a new supplier every few weeks, waste time endlessly comparing prices, and worrying about how your patients might be able to consider buying medication through you without eliminating your profit margin.

 

Choosing the Right Partner for Your Prescription Filling Process

We at Proficient Rx help you handle the logistics and the implementation of in-office dispensing through our wholesale repackaged medication deals, injection kits, and other medical supplies. We can seamlessly improve your prescription filling process with our dispensing solutions.

We help you incorporate physician dispensing into your practice through our turn-key web-based dispensing software, which allows you to store and track patient information and medication inventory safely and securely through a web browser, without endangering your patients’ privacy or your practice’s reputation, and without the need for a lengthy installation process, per-PC cost hikes, and other worries.

All information is encrypted and stored on the web and accessed through an online portal using your very own credentials.

The software also supports label printing and inventory management, allowing you to keep close tabs on what you’ve dispensed so far, and when patients may require follow ups or refills.

Implementation and training take less than an hour, as everything is already set up online and there’s neither a need for a separate installation on your computer, or any lengthy instructions – it’s entirely intuitive, and we offer both step-by-step instructions and live support to all medical professionals working with our dispensing solution.

Contact Us Today!