Running a pharmacy in the UK right now, might feel to some, more like being in a pressure cooker than being a business owner. The Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMP) stated more than 400 community pharmacies across England closed between 2019 and 2023. The launch of Pharmacy First in England, aiming to drive 10 million consultations previously delivered by GP surgeries into community pharmacy, has only increased demand on our pharmacists. So, as a pharmacy owner, what can you do to take control?
At Positive Solutions, we’ve spoken to lots of our customers about the time-saving functionality built into Analyst PMR, which can help, such as our workflow utopia, assisted dispensing, automation, and there are other elements to driving efficient which don’t sit within your PMR. For some, it’s hard to commit to a new direction in the midst of such an uncertain market though.
Use Data!
The key to better decision making is data. According to Forbes, companies that embrace data-driven decision making have output and productivity that is 5-6% higher. As a business owner, you rely on data to make informed decisions, but accessing the right data and making the right insights can feel like a huge challenge. There are many ways you are already using data to influence business decisions, whether it be from customer feedback, revenue analysis or from reports within your PMR; it is already a key element of your business decisions, even if you don’t realise it.
My favourite quote about data is anonymous and goes roughly something like this;
“He uses statistics, like a man might use a lamppost – as a source of support rather than illumination”.
In other words, data, in and of itself, is not the answer. Data is only valuable if it has two key characteristics.
- Is it quality data based on meaningful information you actually need?
- Is it timely data that you can do something with when you need to?
There’s so much more potential in the data that exists in your pharmacy today but most owners don’t have the luxury of a team of data scientists on their payroll, whilst the idea of sitting down, ploughing through spreadsheets for hours on end, only to find, when complete, it is already out of date, fills most with utter dread. As a pharmacy owner, you need a way to be proactive rather than reactive.
If you’re not on-site, when do you find out that there was a Wednesday morning rush and your pharmacist is now running behind with scripts? Or that they’ve been in the consultation room most of the day and you have patients waiting for their items? Is it when you get a phone call from the staff asking for help? Or possibly when you are next on-site and see the backlog for yourself? You may be feeling the pressure to get more hands-on in the pharmacy at the moment to help relieve the stress of your own workforce, but what if there’s another way?
Live data
Being able to easily identify bottlenecks in your pharmacy’s workflow, without even being on-site would help, not only put your mind at ease, but help you to react quicker to any issues and manage your business more effectively. That’s why we’ve launched HxIntel. This powerful tool gives you access to your live pharmacy data in simple yet powerful dashboards, across both dispensing and retail operations, from wherever you are. Whether you have one or one hundred sites, it allows you to stay in control of your pharmacy operations without needing to stay on-site.
Dashboards
There’s a multitude of dashboards available in HxIntel which could be game changing for your pharmacy. For example, the ‘Ready to Handout dashboard’ highlights prescriptions which could rapidly turn into lost revenue and additional work, by clearly displaying the number of items, associated estimated value and claim expiry date. It also identifies which prescriptions are affected so you can locate them within Analyst PMR for resolution.
Not only is there data from dispensing and retail operations in your pharmacy, but you also have access to national dashboards which surface the previous 12 releases of nationally available data in an easy-to-digest format. This allows you to benchmark the performance of your branch or group, against your peers and against the national average.
HxIntel, could help you maximise revenue, elevate your pharmacy business and ensure you remain in complete control. Even better, we’re delivering all of this at a price point that makes it accessible and great value for money even for single site operations.
In our webinar we share more information on HxIntel, taking you through the detail of each dashboard, including a claims dashboard, which gives a summary view of expiring claims and allows for detailed investigation into them. We also show how you could revolutionise your pharmacy business.
