When a pharmacy was founded in 1895, you know they know a thing or two about running a successful business. Williamsburg Drug Company, based in Williamsburg, Va., is one of the nation’s oldest independent pharmacies, with six pharmacists and two locations. Services include compounding, specialty and functional medicine tests, home medical equipment (HME) and durable medical equipment (DME). Fun fact – they even do prescription compounding for animals at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, a theme park.
Adam Brown, CPhT, director of IT and CLIA Laboratory manager for Williamsburg Drug Company, said the pharmacy first heard of Updox from an electronic health record partnership but didn’t need the services at the time. Now, with their PioneerRx pharmacy management system, they use the Updox platform, including Electronic Fax, Broadcast, Messenger, Patient Portal, Secure Texting, Video Chat and Electronic Forms.
“The beauty of Updox is that it’s smooth, simple and easy to use. It definitely gives us more efficient workflows. I would tell anyone, if you want to save yourself time and effort and make your business run more efficiently for everyone in your pharmacy, you need Updox,” says Adam.
The pharmacy recently started using Updox Electronic Forms. “The ability to text patients a form for them to complete on their phone or tablet and send back to us is amazing. It simplifies everything. We aren’t sitting on the phone with the intake form. It makes us so streamlined,” says Adam. “We’re doing COVID tests daily. Patients can call from the parking lot and give us their cell. They can complete the forms online and we’ll come do their swab. Later, they can get their results via HIPAA-compliant text – no need to log into a portal – or order DME from their phone. We’re just a text away if they have any questions. It’s great!”
Response from patients has been very positive. Adam notes, “Our customers appreciate the personalized communications and recognize that we are fast and efficient. Even older patients who say they struggle with technology tell us they have no problems with Updox.”
That efficiency gives them more face time with customers and that matters for an independent pharmacy. “There’s no phone ringing off the hook anymore. Because of text or email, we can do that quickly and then spend time with customers in the pharmacy. It helps us create better relationships and that impacts our business,” he says. “Even when we transfer prescriptions over for new patients, we can do it all electronically and they can see immediately how efficient we are.”
“All the things we get from our individual Updox solutions add up to big savings. We uploaded our entire prescriber list and now, if we are sending a Direct Secure Message, we just type in a few letters and the name pops up. Click and done. We used to go through 10-15 reams of paper a week. Now it’s one. We’re not waiting for the printer or scanner to get to our document. We’re not leaving hundreds of voicemails. All that frees up significant time and money – because of Updox,” says Adam.
