We’ve spent the last three posts talking about valuable considerations your practice should think through when it comes to the in-house dispensary model. Not only are more practices turning to this solution, but they are finding it boosts their bottom line! We’ve talked about the legal, financial and operational considerations as well as the staffing and process considerations you need to think through. Finally, we wrap up with a focus on the most important side in the equation–patient considerations.
What Value Does In-House Dispensing Bring to Your Patients?
Office medication dispensing can bring many benefits to your clinic or your practice including:
- Convenience
- Cost Savings
- Patient Compliance
As you evaluate the advantages that an in-house dispensary can deliver, these are the five aspects you should focus on in your solution.
- Convenience: 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. Focused practices like weight management, dermatology and dental make it much easier to anticipate patient medication requirements. 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.
- Cost Savings: Where can the patient save money? This 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 cost battles with other options; the clinic is trying to provide the most value. Cost savings comes in many forms: time, energy, comfort and trust. Physician dispensing can provide all of these to patients.
- Patient Compliance: How does physician dispensing improve compliance? 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 or feel better. Offering physician dispensing from your clinic can be a significant part of achieving better care for your patient while benefiting your practice.
Are You Looking for a Win-Win Solution?
Not only can your medical practice enjoy the three benefits listed here, but patients will value your choice to move to an in-house model because this will differentiate you from other practices. Perhaps even more important, clinics that move to this model experience greater patient compliance which translates into improved outcomes–one advantage that medical practices and healthcare organizations around the country are working hard to achieve.
Northwind Pharmaceuticals can be your advisor when it comes to in-house dispensary solutions. Whether you work with us as a vendor or just get the conversation started, get in touch with us so that we can know what questions you face. We look forward to finding ways to help you improve your bottom line.
