Google ‘independent pharmacists’ today and you will get a slew of articles on how the independent pharmacist is a dying breed. There is truth to that, mainly because the environment of compensation is changing. The typical independent derives close to 90% of their profits from filling prescriptions. Move to the big chains and it is a different story. The revenue from prescriptions is closer to 60% with the rest being made up in front of store sales of ‘over-the-counter’ (OTC) meds and other items like cosmetics. The typical independent pharmacist does not have the floor space or overhead for inventory available to compete with the big boys. The result is that they are fighting the same war with a much smaller arsenal. Sounds like a hopeless situation until you take a step back and look at what is going on with other industries, one word, disruption.
There is a major shift that is slowly creeping into the pharmacy status quo. It starts with the concept that the majority of people go to the pharmacy to pick up their medication. As on-demand delivery systems are becoming more ubiquitous and efficient, the idea to go to the pharmacy to wait 30 minutes to pick up your prescription will be mostly extinct in 5 years. Would you even think about going to a store to rent a movie now? It is only a matter of time until a prescription is sent directly from the doctor (maybe a telehealth visit) to the pharmacist to review, then to the patient’s smartphone to fill in seconds. In this scenario, where does a 40,000sq foot pharmacy make sense? Pharmacists are not required to ‘fill a prescription.’ The filling of a prescription can be done remotely in seconds by machines with superior accuracy and checked with image processing and double checked by the pharmacist in seconds.
Beyond being a dying model of commerce, creating a system where the prescription filling and refilling is all done, centrally and in a digital interface between the pharmacist and the patient makes sense from an operational perspective
Making the process of filling and refilling medications a digital experience can open up a whole new world of customer optimization and revenue generation. Currently, patients come in and fill a prescription. If there are refills the pharmacist is relying on the patient to come back to fill their medication. The patient is required to make the decision to take the time to do that; that greatly decreases compliance. Let’s see how this changes with a digital interaction.
1) The patient fills a prescription with four refills. They either fill it at the pharmacy or online. If in the pharmacy they receive a link to download the app or log on to web portal.
2) Those four refills are set to auto-refill and synchronized with all the patient’s other meds. When time comes for the medications to be filled the patient gets a digital billing authorization pro-actively that is sent to either the pharmacy or a central fill (a pre-paid medication order). This alone has been shown to increase refill adherence by up to 10%. That’s a huge number.
3) With this digital interaction, we can also upsell the patient. Since they are getting their medications delivered can we offer them some items from the front of the store to add to the basket and capitalize on free shipping? Can we take this opportunity to schedule an in-person visit to do a medication review? Maybe it is flu season, and we can set up an appointment for vaccination? It is easy to see why across many industries a mobile customer can increase spend/customer 6X. Those are numbers too large to ignore!
I’m trying to paint a picture here where the pharmacy as you currently think of it is going to be dead. The pharmacy will be 1/10 the size and we are going to call it the pharmacist’s office. At a pharmacist’s office, you will come every six months (like the dentist) to get a review of your meds, tweak your therapy or a quick visit for a minor ailment like the dreaded cold sore breakout. Everything involving filling a prescription will be centralized, and automated. A platform like PopRx highlights the truth that the pharmacist no longer needs the pharmacy; it’s the pharmacy that needs the pharmacist. Independent pharmacists have the advantage and a short window of opportunity.
PopRx is the only application that highlights the pharmacist as the central point of interaction. From the second you login you are introduced to your pharmacist. You can securely chat with or call your pharmacist. Have a question? Ask your pharmacist. Need a vaccination, schedule an appointment with your pharmacist. Can your pharmacist prescribe for minor things? Yes they can, you guessed it, on PopRx.
The bottom line is this. The current biggest players have huge stores and big budgets that compete on Convenience. That advantage is about to be absolutely destroyed by technology; it’s only a matter of time. If I gave you $100 and sent you back in time, would you invest in Walmart or Amazon? The other big players are trying to cut the pharmacist out completely with pure mail-order pharmacies. So what does that leave? It’s the pharmacist and personal service. There will be winners and losers in the battle for the future of pharmacy. Our money is on the Pharmacist.
A PopRx pharmacist gets:
· A fully functional, branded, revenue generating website (Yes, your website should MAKE you money, not cost you money) that optimizes online ordering, service booking, minor ailment prescribing, pharmacist chat along with all the specific information about you and your pharmacy.
· A fully turn-key e-commerce store that offers drop shipping of the most common front of store items. If you stock it, you can use your stock, if not we can fill the order and pay you a share of the profit. N0 overhead!
· The industries best mobile app that does all of the above (including the e-commerce store) while highlighting you as the pharmacist and your relationship with the patient.
· Ability to synchronize, optimize and increase refills through our central-fill or mail order as a service.
· Initial marketing support and opportunities to work with our marketing team to create additional marketing campaigns, social, digital or print.
· Competitive online and mobile payment processing
Ali Esmail is the Co-Founder of PopRx.ca, Canada’s first Mobile Pharmacy platform for Independent Pharmacies. You can follow PopRx on medium for more updates. Download the PopRx App here and if you’re interested in taking your pharmacy digital Click here to get started.
