Clinic Dispensing, Doctor Dispensing, In Office Dispensing, Physician Dispensing

Drug Dispensing at the Point of Care Benefits Patients

doctor-and-patient-492x312Office medication dispensing offer numerous benefits to the clinic: revenue, differentiation and patient medication adherence to name a few.  What does it bring to the patient? Convenience, value, and better outcomes to name a few of the benefits.   When evaluating a physician dispensing program for your practice, it is important to focus on these benefits in the structure of your dispensing program.

What makes office dispensing convenient for the patient? Having the right drugs available at the right time.  Obviously, this must be balanced with maintaining profitability but most practices serve common sets of patients with common ailments.  Specialties can easily anticipate the primary medications required for their patient population..  For general practitioners, there is normally an 80/20 effect on patient medication needs: antibiotics, analgesics and cough and cold pharmaceuticals generally fit the bulk of the acute ailments shown for primary care clinics.

Where can the patient derive value?  Cost isn’t always the prime consideration, especially for acute ailments.  However, offering the patient value through cost effective medications helps the patient and the clinic.  It is important to remember that the clinic is not trying to fight price battles with discount or giveaway options; the clinic is trying to provide the most value.  Cost savings comes in many forms: time, energy, comfort, and dollars.  Physician dispensing can provide all of these to patients.

How does physician dispensing improve medication adherence?  I’m not going to delve into the science of compliance. (For those interested, here is a study that does explore this science).   However, it stands to reason that a patient receiving their prescription at the point of care eliminates the first hurdle of compliance: the patient actually filling the prescription order.  Though the clinic cannot know for sure that the patient takes the medication as directed, we know that the patient walked away with the right product at the right time.

Caring for the patient is about helping them get better and feel better.  Dispensing drugs at the point of care can be a significant part of achieving better care for your patient while benefiting your practice.  Now that is a win/win!

Schedule a free claims analysis now.

Let’s Talk now

TONY PURKEY JOINS NORTHWIND AS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CLIENT STRATEGIES

Betsy Bigler | Mar 7th, 2024
INDIANAPOLIS, March 7, 2024 – Northwind has announced the addition of Tony Purkey as Senior Vice President, Client Strategies. “Demand from our self-funded employer and union clients is driving rapid growth,” said Phillip Berry, CEO. “Tony Purkey joins Northwind at a time when we need high-integrity leaders with expert knowledge in employer-sponsored health and the … more »

continue reading

Voices Lost in the Noise

Phillip Berry | Jan 31st, 2024
In the health benefits world, the mad scramble toward January renewals/starts has subsided and attention has turned to the annual cycle of review necessary to gauge progress. How did we do? The plan review process generally centers on analytics to gauge progress or regress and to identify “areas of opportunity.” Good. The right data with … more »

continue reading