Leveling the playing field by engaging patients digitally
Increasingly, digital tools have become vital to attracting and retaining patients. Phil LaFoy, pharmacist and co-owner of Blount Discount Pharmacies, which has locations in Alcoa and Maryville, Tenn., said that digital tools — a website that allows for prescription refills and a mobile app with similar capabilities — are one of the main ways independent retail pharmacies can stay competitive.
“I’m always looking for something that's going to help set me apart or level the playing field,” LaFoy said. “With technology such as it is today, there's an expectation of web presence, of phone apps, texts when your medicine is ready — all that stuff the chains are doing.”
In an effort to better deliver these options to his patients, LaFoy joined a pilot program of Cardinal Health Pharmacy Marketing Advantage. Though he already had a website in place, the Pharmacy Marketing Advantage suite of tools, which is offered in partnership with Digital Pharmacist, brought new functionality to the Blount website, as well as a mobile app for patients looking for a more convenient way to fill prescriptions.
Besides offering patients information about the pharmacy and its services, which include point-of-care testing, immunizations and various wellness classes for diabetes management and smoking cessation, the Blount Pharmacy website also allows patients to request refills on maintenance medication and create a profile with their prescription information, as well as their entire family’s medication needs. LaFoy noted that the website and the app both store a patient’s medication information to make ordering refills easy. These tools have drawn high patient engagement, he said.
"As the use of the app and website starts to move upward, I’m seeing more and more refills coming in from the app,” LaFoy said. In the past roughly three months, he said, refill requests from the app have grown to make up about 40% of the electronic refill requests, with the rest coming from the website.
The website and app offer a round-the-clock option for ordering refills, which LaFoy said is a capability that helps put his pharmacies on par with larger competitors.
“If the community perceives I don’t have a service because we can’t afford it or we’re just not strong enough, that can cloud the deal a lot of the times,” he said. “Once we adjusted to that 24/7 mindset where customers can call in their refills online anytime so they’re ready when they get to the store, we created an opportunity for more face-to-face engagement to build stronger relationships with our patients.”
Also through Pharmacy Marketing Advantage, LaFoy sends out a weekly e-newsletter with product promotions and health information that can help build patient engagement and encourage use of the website and app. Benefits of this engagement include the ability to cross-promote the app on the site and to offer additional services — including flu shots — to patients. Knowing patient information such as birth date can also help LaFoy target patients who might be on Medicare Part D plans and benefit from adherence counseling. These benefits, LaFoy said, help better serve patients in the ways they expect to be served, making independents competitive with their larger national counterparts.
“Give me tools like this, and I’m competing head-to-head,” LaFoy said. “Once you level the technology playing field, I know who's going to win because the people I’ve got in place and the service we bring is second to none.”
Click here to learn more about how this solution can help you digitally connect to your patients. If you’re attending Cardinal Health RBC 2018, you can visit the Pharmacy Marketing Advantage booth on the show floor.
“I’m always looking for something that's going to help set me apart or level the playing field,” LaFoy said. “With technology such as it is today, there's an expectation of web presence, of phone apps, texts when your medicine is ready — all that stuff the chains are doing.”
In an effort to better deliver these options to his patients, LaFoy joined a pilot program of Cardinal Health Pharmacy Marketing Advantage. Though he already had a website in place, the Pharmacy Marketing Advantage suite of tools, which is offered in partnership with Digital Pharmacist, brought new functionality to the Blount website, as well as a mobile app for patients looking for a more convenient way to fill prescriptions.Besides offering patients information about the pharmacy and its services, which include point-of-care testing, immunizations and various wellness classes for diabetes management and smoking cessation, the Blount Pharmacy website also allows patients to request refills on maintenance medication and create a profile with their prescription information, as well as their entire family’s medication needs. LaFoy noted that the website and the app both store a patient’s medication information to make ordering refills easy. These tools have drawn high patient engagement, he said.
"As the use of the app and website starts to move upward, I’m seeing more and more refills coming in from the app,” LaFoy said. In the past roughly three months, he said, refill requests from the app have grown to make up about 40% of the electronic refill requests, with the rest coming from the website.
The website and app offer a round-the-clock option for ordering refills, which LaFoy said is a capability that helps put his pharmacies on par with larger competitors.
“If the community perceives I don’t have a service because we can’t afford it or we’re just not strong enough, that can cloud the deal a lot of the times,” he said. “Once we adjusted to that 24/7 mindset where customers can call in their refills online anytime so they’re ready when they get to the store, we created an opportunity for more face-to-face engagement to build stronger relationships with our patients.”
Also through Pharmacy Marketing Advantage, LaFoy sends out a weekly e-newsletter with product promotions and health information that can help build patient engagement and encourage use of the website and app. Benefits of this engagement include the ability to cross-promote the app on the site and to offer additional services — including flu shots — to patients. Knowing patient information such as birth date can also help LaFoy target patients who might be on Medicare Part D plans and benefit from adherence counseling. These benefits, LaFoy said, help better serve patients in the ways they expect to be served, making independents competitive with their larger national counterparts.
“Give me tools like this, and I’m competing head-to-head,” LaFoy said. “Once you level the technology playing field, I know who's going to win because the people I’ve got in place and the service we bring is second to none.”
Click here to learn more about how this solution can help you digitally connect to your patients. If you’re attending Cardinal Health RBC 2018, you can visit the Pharmacy Marketing Advantage booth on the show floor.