Maximize Prescription Sales with Automated Patient Engagement
The level of patient engagement deployed in pharmacies can be directly correlated to sales when you factor in the impact effective engagement has on prescription abandonment. Prescription abandonment is a situation in which a patient does not fulfill or pick up their prescribed medication. It’s a public health concern that contributes to negative health outcomes for patients, increases total healthcare costs, and profoundly impacts pharmacy sales and bottom line.
Broadly speaking, abandonment can occur in three areas along a patient’s journey: post-doctor’s visit, at the pharmacy point of sale, and post-point of sale for routine medications. A detailed evaluation of the patient’s journey through the pharmacy and identifying proactive measures that help foster effortless collaboration between pharmacies and patients is crucial in addressing this problem.
Digital patient engagement tools designed to foster better communication and interaction between healthcare providers and patients are playing a crucial role in today’s modern healthcare environment. Deploying these systems, especially those with automation and personalization capabilities, can significantly help pharmacies simultaneously address multiple factors that contribute to abandonment and increase sales while expanding team capacity.
Post-Doctor’s Visit
In the era of electronic prescribing, many patients have limited knowledge about their prescribed medication, including their use, costs, or pharmacy fill status. The adoption of pharmacy digital front doors or onboarding systems that recognize the unique pharmacy workflow can play a role in patient activation by improving access to information that drives the right action once a patient’s e-prescription has been received. This system can help the pharmacy get up to date patient biographic and health data necessary for accurate prescription verification. It can assist with insurance navigation, out-of-pocket costs review, and identifying and applying potential savings upfront to alleviate financial burdens and streamline pharmacy workflow. It can also provide patients access to real-time order status and pick-up or delivery options available through the pharmacy.
At Point-of-Sale
When a patient abandons or rejects a filled prescription at the pharmacy, it is termed a “reversal”. Reversals, which affect about 20-30% of prescriptions filled daily in pharmacies, can be attributed to inefficient engagement, costs, and delays in patient order preparation or long pickup lines. In an age where consumers have become accustomed to personalization and one-click checkout, most pharmacies have yet to fully leverage these tools to activate and engage with their patients. Engaging patients with order information ahead of time simultaneously addresses three problems that negatively impact sales:
- It sets the right expectations for the patients by showing them how much they are expected to pay out-of-pocket so they are prepared.
- Provides an opportunity to ask questions and address potential issues ahead via a two-way message, which saves patients time and helps the pharmacy avoid unnecessary phone calls.
- Helps the pharmacy expedite the sale of prescriptions with an option for immediate payment, confirmed delivery path or commitment to pick up.
Leveraging advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning to personalize this approach can enhance routine follow-up phone calls, even in specialty or compounding pharmacy settings, providing a more comprehensive and premium white glove pharmacy service experience.
Post Point-of-Sale
In many cases, patients fill the initial prescription but may not fill subsequent refills or may do so inconsistently because they are not adhering to prescribed instructions. Factors such as forgetfulness, lack of education, perceived adverse effects or lack of improvement, and costs due to unpredictable changes in coverage have been identified here. The right engagement systems can help pharmacies flag patients for follow-up or first-fill medication counseling and dispatch patient satisfaction surveys to help identify and address service failures before the next refills are due.
Key Takeaways
Deploying effective patient engagement systems can significantly help pharmacies simultaneously address multiple factors that often lead to prescription abandonment. Addressing these factors often can help increase prescription sales. Systems with AI-driven automation and personalization capabilities are now available in healthcare and should be incorporated to establish a more cohesive engagement that helps pharmacies increase staffing capacity, reduce employee burnout, and improve patient access to medications.
