There is no doubt in the fact living a healthy life is perhaps one of the major goals of just about everyone on the planet. And in this, apart from regular health practices such as exercising and meditation medicine and the overall pharmacy industry also plays a major role.
However, specifically talking about the challenging reimbursement and regulatory environment it is important to see that how pharmacies can benefit from technology in terms of workflow systems, automation for the sake of driving improvement in your business.
There is no doubt in the fact that implementing the role of technology will help you in delivering better care when it comes to the overall health of the patients as they might have the need for a 24 hour pharmacy close by from where they can get what they are looking for. It can certainly drive improvement in their clinical and operational and compliance.
Better Health for Customers Which Means Better Business Health for Pharmacies
It needs to be noted down that technology is available for both retail and outpatient pharmacies in both the simplest manners along with the most accurate and remote ones such as point-to-point sale systems and automated dispensing solutions.
And by using these technologies normally the pharmacies will be able to reduce the time which they give on patients further increasing their overall productivity.
Moreover, these pharmacies can, in turn, help out their pharmacists to specifically spend their time in improving the health of their patients in a very significant manner. And such activities are inclusive of a number of activities like various therapies, medications, health programs etc.
The Financial Perspective
If we also talk from a financial perspective then undoubtedly there has been a significant shift in the fact that how the pharmacists are spending their time for particularly improving the health of their pharmacy when talking about health.
Additional Revenue
Generally, there are many activities which are reimbursable and which simultaneously providing and becoming an additional source of revenue. And the time which you would have found on the non-clinical activities can certainly generate and be a good source of marketing.
Common Pharmacy Technology Barriers
It has been seen that with all the clinical along with the operational and regulatory compliances these can certainly benefit the pharmacy and improve the health of the people in general. And with this, there is all the more reason for the pharmacies to adapt and be open to the technologies.
But the question which arises is that why the industry is not making the leap. The answer to that can be lying in certain barriers which are there in this industry.
The Barriers
There is no doubt that in the fact that just like any other business or start-up the pharmacies can and also face start-up costs and that can be certainly associated with the technology. We can conclude that it is an investment just like any other investment.
And the pharmacies which don’t even jump right in can start by taking baby steps like any other normal process and then when the time comes to play the big game.
After that comes the barrier of training. And if the technology is replacing any kind of hands-on functions then a pharmacy staff can be restrained for using that particular piece of technology. This may result in a shift of accountabilities and responsibilities for a few people.
Conclusion: There is no doubt in the fact that everybody wants to live a healthy lifestyle and for that they take the help of medicine and various other activities such as therapies and health courses and what not. However, in all this the role of pharmacy is a significant one.