The Role Independent Pharmacists Play in Our Healthcare System
According to a recent Consumer Reports poll that gauged custom satisfaction with pharmacy services, “[Respondents] expressed their highest satisfaction rate (94%) regarding their experiences at a neighborhood independent pharmacy, based on pharmacists’ knowledge about drugs and other products, helpfulness and courtesy, speed, accuracy, and personal service.”
By offering these benefits, an independent pharmacist does more than just dispense medicine, they also play an important role in our healthcare system. Read below to discover the many benefits an independent pharmacist provides.
Pharmacists’ Knowledge
Because an independent pharmacist often specializes in providing medication solutions that corporate pharmacies don’t, he or she often knows vastly more about solutions than a pharmacist who works for a drug store chain. This is extremely valuable to a patient as lack of knowledge is one of the primary causes of medication non-adherence. Non adherence often leads to delayed recovery and in some cases re-admittance to the hospital. Having an informed independent pharmacist can help patients stay on the road to recovery instead of relapse.
Helpfulness and Courtesy
When it comes to pharmacy services, helpfulness and courtesy go hand in hand. For example, if a patient needs a compounded medication that must be created from scratch, an independent pharmacist is typically willing to fill the order, and do so in customer friendly manner. Conversely, trying to get special medications from corporate pharmacies can feel like an uphill battle, as these companies tend to have iron clad medication dispensing protocols in place. When filling a prescription becomes too bothersome for a patient, they may choose to forego the medication. This only leads to further medical attention down the road, creating more burden on the health care system.
Speed and Accuracy
Many patients wrongly assume that the bigger a pharmacy is, the faster it can fill prescriptions. In many cases, the exact opposite is true. Because an independent pharmacy typically doesn’t experience a high level of backlogged prescription orders, it can often have a prescription ready in a matter of minutes. Because the pharmacist can focus on filling one prescription at a time instead of filling multiple scripts simultaneously, the dispensing process is highly accurate.
Personal Service
Independent pharmacies are often thought of as “community pharmacies”. This is because the majority of their customer base exists in close proximity to the pharmacy location. Although an independent pharmacy inevitably has fewer customers than a corporate pharmacy that has multiple locations, it often provides a higher level of service to the customers it has. Customers are often addressed on a first name basis, and receive advice based on their unique situation.
Contact Us Today
Independent pharmacists play an important role in our healthcare system. By providing in depth knowledge about medicine, filling prescriptions with speed and accuracy, and providing highly personalized service in a helpful, courteous manner, they help improve medication adherence and patient outcomes — two benefits that lead to yet another: decreased healthcare costs.
At Drug Package, one of our goals is to reduce annual healthcare costs that contribute to unaffordable insurance premiums. This is why we are dedicated to providing unique medication packaging and other products that assist pharmacies with helping patients comply with prescribing regimens. If you are an independent pharmacist, learn how we can help you better serve your customers by calling (800) 325-6137, or email us at sales@drugpackage.com for more information.