Beth Bryan, PharmD, owner of Surgoinsville Pharmacy, didn’t need another application to manage. She didn’t want to learn a new program. She wasn’t looking to add another level of technology to her pharmacy. But then, she happened to see a demo and things changed.
“I had no interest initially at all but after seeing a quick demo, I realized that it would really help me save time with our pharmacy’s vaccine clinics,” she says. Now, she’s saving time and money. Her staff has less patient data to type in and she’s cut her printer ink and paper use by more than half.
“I don’t need to print refill orders or sales fliers. I’m printing less than half of what comes through. That has been an instant savings for my bottom line and we’re just getting started.”
What first caught Beth’s eye was an idea for her vaccine clinics. She saw she could create a form and put it on her pharmacy patient portal (that links from the pharmacy’s web site). The form lets patients enter their information online (name, address, birthdate, medical information, type of vaccine wanted, insurance information, etc.), saving patients from having to write it down and staff needing to transcribe that paper into the computer. “Patients can complete forms anywhere – even from their cell phone. Five minutes of their time can save almost an hour of staff time between sending forms, collecting them and keying in the data.”
The same form also lets the pharmacy connect with area businesses interested in onsite vaccine clinics, providing businesses with a valuable service for employees and the pharmacy exposure to potential new customers.
“The best thing is that it’s not a hard solution to use. We’re already saving money with it, and I see it as being very valuable to expanding our clinic operations. It’s saved a lot of time for staff also. All our communications, including faxes, Direct emails and messages from patients, are all routed to one inbox instead of a bunch of different programs. It’s so much easier on us all.”
Beth and Surgoinsville Pharmacy are still finding new ways to use Updox. “I see it as being a great way for us to connect with physicians in our area and directly communicate with them. We are also considering using the payments component as well to help drive pharmacy revenue and recoup more from online payments. Updox has been a great partner and it’s exciting to see all the opportunities that Pharmacy Connect offers us.”
Updox is an all-in-one Collaboration Platform that helps pharmacists securely exchange healthcare information with prescribers and patients, manage workflows to maximize reimbursements and more easily engage patients to provide better care – directly supporting their ability to take advantage of new revenue opportunities and lower costs. This platform allows pharmacies to improve patient engagement, streamline external communications and increase internal productivity.
