Prescription Delivery Services: Could You Benefit From Offering This Service?
Offering Prescription delivery services could set you apart from the competition in tough times. There are many challenges both patient and independent pharmacy are facing today. “One of the biggest threats to community pharmacy is the mail order pharmacy. Because they are owned by the PBM, they can essentially force patients to use mail order by refusing to pay for their medications. But they also gain many customers just on the notion of convenience – because they can deliver their medications to the patient’s door”. Many independent pharmacies are asking themselves what they can do to compete.
Prescription Delivery Services may not be for every pharmacy so it is best to do your research on your community to ensure this would benefit both you and your patients. Independent pharmacies like The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy locations have been offering delivery services for years.
Tips and thoughts to consider before getting started with prescription delivery services.
Patient Benefits to Pharmacy Delivery Services:
Executed prescription regimen
Cost-saving
Safety
Minimal effort
Convenient
Many patients have conditions that don’t allow them to drive and pharmacies offering delivery services are critical for them to receive needed medications. Many pharmacies have found that by offering these services they have even begun to attract new customers.
Factors to consider planning for prescription delivery services:• Know Your State Laws and Requirements
- Know Your State Laws and Requirements
- Research Your Community: Would the surrounding area benefit from this service?
- Analyze Your Patients
- Do you have a lot of homebound customers in which other people come in and pick up prescriptions for them?
- Do you have patients who have a hard time staying on track with their refills? Offering delivery service could help them adhere to their prescription regimen.
- Survey Your Geographical Area: Can you service a rural area that has no pharmacy to service them? Are you in a populated area and could deliver to a whole street block and eliminate long lines in your pharmacy.
- Set Yourself Apart: Are there other pharmacies in your area offering this service? If there is, you may want to offer it to compete with them but, if there is no other delivery service in your area this could be your competitive advantage.
“Our small pharmacy can’t afford to do delivery services”.
With today’s shrinking reimbursements, this may be a common thought. There is no way your pharmacy can take on an extra expense and this may be true for your pharmacy because prescription delivery services aren’t for every pharmacy. It is best to do your research on your community and have a clear plan but, before you write it off here are some tips that are helping other pharmacies incorporate this service.
Tips To Help You Integrate Prescription Delivery Service Into Your Pharmacy
1. Instate a delivery charge – a small fee may be a small price to pay for the ease and their items right to their doorstep.
2. Set a delivery service distance parameter.
3. Offer free delivery service with a required minimum purchase of over the counter products.
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It made sense when you explained that pharmacies with a lot of homebound customers would benefit from offering prescription delivery services. Now that I think about it, there are probably a lot of senior customers who fit this category since many of them are no longer able to drive. I enjoyed reading your article and learning more about prescription delivery services, so thanks for sharing!
I honestly didn’t know that you could get your prescriptions delivered. Then again it does make sense as it would benefit those who couldn’t make it there without some kind of assistance. If I ran a pharmacy, I would look more into this as I think someone could benefit from it.
I thought that it made sense when you said that it is important for a pharmacist to know that laws if he is planning on shipping prescribed medication to his patients. I would imagine that this would be beneficial to the patient since it would be more convenient than making a trip to the pharmacy. I would consider shipping medication to my patients if it was legal, to create more convenience for my patients.
I find it interesting that you said that any pharmacy can take on providing delivery services through careful research of the community and its customers. Would a pharmacy be able to thrive if it offered services such as creating a pill out of a prescribed liquid medicine? Or that if it can make medications that taste different for kids to ingest easily?
Hi Tim, adding flavors to medicines especially for kids definitely helps and is a service that many Pharmacies should offer. Creating a pill out of a prescribed liquid medicine is an interesting point, we do know that the reverse is happening more and more where medicines that are pill forms are now being made as liquids to help people with digestive issues including people that struggle with swallowing pills. We would think the reverse concept of creating a pill (capsule) of prescribed liquid medicine would have its fair share of a market as well. As a Compounding and Specialty Pharmacy, you most likely have 1st hand knowledge on how offering additional services and thinking outside of the box helps an Independent not only stay in business, yet thrive. We appreciate the comment and you taking the time to read our post.
I was interested in learning more about the prescription refill services available. My fiance was talking about his own want to research this type of service. It is nice to know that creating a plan beforehand that way you know how to incorporate this.
My cousin is a pharmacist and has thought about adding a delivery service. I think it is important to consider the safety of the delivery person they will hire. Some medications might not be able to delivered or sent in the mail. I am going to bring this up so that she has all the facts before making this change.