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The art of pharmacy inventory management is a delicate one. Your pharmacy provides all kinds of products and services that promote greater health for your community. As such, it’s essential to have a steady and consistent supply of these products.
Though some unforeseen events can hamper your inventory management (such as national shortages), you already have the tools to enhance your inventory — you just don’t know it yet.
Leverage your pharmacy software with these 6 PioneerRx features to help you perfect your inventory management.
When it comes to pharmacy inventory, it’s likely that you work with multiple suppliers. Not every supplier has the same item or NDC, so having multiple suppliers becomes a necessity.
PioneerRx has some great tools that facilitate ordering from multiple suppliers. The software’s settings can help guide your purchase decisions with options that find the best price for a certain item or NDC.
What’s more, you can stick with a Primary Supplier unless PioneerRx finds a specified savings (dollar amount or percentage) is found on another supplier. Here, you’re letting the software do the heavy lifting in finding the best possible with some guardrails to avoid shopping yourself out of your rebates.
Are you utilizing this feature? A feature you might not know about, the Reorder Point Wizard can perform calculations to automatically set Reorder Points. With the Wizard, you can set your reorder points across the board or focus on specific prescription items at the Rx Item Advanced Search area — the choice is yours.
One of PioneerRx’s most unique features is the ability to perform a Daily Calculation of Reorder Points. This lets you evolve your pharmacy’s stock levels grow/evolve as your business grows and even as the seasons change.
This tool allows the pharmacy to enter calculations for different Item Categories and calculate minimum/maximum inventory levels based on usage for either the past X days from the current date or the next X days of the previous calendar year.
All in all, the Reorder Point Wizard is a must-have to keep your small business growing and thriving.
Another must for inventory management, the Inventory Bins feature lets your pharmacy segment their physical storage locations — within the software. What’s more, you can include this information in various reports and workflow queue, expediting item retrieval when dispensing.
Additionally, it even helps your techs select the right NDC at Data Entry — a small but substantial piece of assistance.
Inventory Bins also create defined segments for scheduled inventory counts. By setting goals for your team to count a set number of bins daily or weekly, you can complete inventory counts multiple times in a calendar year, all without everyone coming in for afterhours and the obligatory (but welcome) pizza party.
Among PioneerRx’s inventory features, the Inventory Worksheet is one of the most indispensable. Here, your pharmacy can generate a list of items that meet specific criteria such as 340b inventory or items in a specific Inventory Bin.
The pharmacy can review and update on-hand quantiles within the software and print a Report to assist in counting.
Another helpful tool in the inventory area is the Rx Inventory Count. This work area allows users to scan a stock bottle and quickly update the balance-on-hand (BOH) for open and unopened stock. Pharmacies that have an Eyecon integration in their pharmacy can perform a Remote Inventory Count. This allows PioneerRx to listen for inventory counts performed on the Eyecon to update the BOH in the system automatically.
An important part of accurate inventory is tracking stock in all parts of the pharmacy, especially when it comes to Will Call.
Will Call return reports make it easy to locate and follow up with patients who haven't picked up their prescriptions or return those prescriptions to stock. This lets you and your pharmacy staff contact those patients and remind them to pick up their prescriptions, which also improves patient adherence and is a great touchpoint for personal communication with your patients.
Additionally, the Batch Process work area can help streamline the process of returning multiple items to stock and even help create stock labels if needed. Some pharmacies start their returns at the end of the day, so this feature ensures your staff won’t have to stay too long after closing for the day.
But why wait till the end of the day? Another great Will Call feature from PioneerRx is the ability to Check Stock in Will Call throughout workflow.
Picture this: a patient drops off a prescription for an out-of-stock medication. Instead of telling them to come back the next day, the Check Stock feature lets you see if there’s already a prescription for that drug in the Will Call bin. If it hasn’t been picked up for several days or even a week, you can return it to the shelf and there you have it — no orders or waiting necessary.
Inventory features help both your pharmacy and patients, ensuring maximum convenience for your patients while keeping the highest standard of efficiency.
Now let’s look at the part of your pharmacy’s inventory that is starting to gather some dust.
Stock that isn't moving is money on your shelves. Whatever the reason for that stagnant stock, let the Recommended Return help you identify return opportunities to put those dollars back into your cash flow.
PioneerRx’s Recommended Returns feature gives you that information upfront, showing you which products have been sitting around for weeks — even months — on end.
Using this feature will reduce the Holding Cost of underutilized inventory. Take dollars off the shelf and use pharmacy data to fine tune your reorder points.
A steady and consistent inventory system will do wonders for your workflow and bottom line. Make sure to have a pharmacy software that can streamline your inventory so you can focus on the task at hand: providing the latest and greatest in patient care.
Mastering pharmacy inventory management is key to maintaining efficiency, reducing costs, and ensuring your patients always have access to the medications they need. With PioneerRx’s powerful inventory tools, you can take control of your stock, minimize waste, and optimize your workflow.
By leveraging these built-in solutions, your pharmacy can operate at peak performance, keeping shelves stocked and patients satisfied. Stay ahead of inventory challenges with the right software tools and focus on what truly matters — delivering quality patient care.
Visit PioneerRx University for even more features to perfect your pharmacy’s inventory and all other things software-related.
