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Out of the approximately 56,000 community pharmacies in the U.S., about 7,500 pharmacies specialize in compounding services — and that number is only expected to grow.
What was once a trend is now more commonplace in modern-day pharmacies.
And to be a vital part of patients’ health journeys, your pharmacy needs a pharmacy software that can do it all.
As with any pharmacy service, you work to fill the needs of your community.
Compounding fulfills a niche but vital area in the current healthcare landscape.
Certain patients need extremely specific dosages that can’t be found on the pharmacy shelf. Likewise, a doctor might prescribe them a medication that has a short shelf life, so they need a pharmacy that can make that product on the spot.
In short, compounding services make your pharmacy more attractive to prospective patients, especially if there isn’t another compounding pharmacy nearby.
They can also grow your patient base, which strengthens your pharmacy’s bottom line in the long run.
Hannah Fleming, Compounding Director at the Medicine Shoppe, saw this need in her community:
“There's not too many compounding pharmacies in the Dennison/Sherman, Texas, area, so there is a need for it,” she says, “we're trying to fulfill that need a little bit more than we already are.”
With every need, there’s a solution, and PioneerRx makes that solution smarter by integrating compounding into your workflow for better patient care and operational success.
Offering compounding services requires going through a mountain of red tape, and rightfully so.
Before you can use PioneerRx’s compounding features, make sure your pharmacy meets all regulatory requirements with both your state and federal regulations — check out the Frequently Asked Questions About Pharmaceutical Compounding page on the APhA website to learn more.
Then there’s the cost. Offering any new service in your pharmacy comes with a price tag, and compounding is no exception.
“You have to buy the equipment,” Hannah says. “You have to buy a software that supports compounding, along with all the ingredients and chemicals.”
Another point to consider is the final cost of compounded prescriptions. More often than not, a patient’s formulary does not cover compounded prescriptions, usually citing the large coverage cost compared to standard prescriptions.
You may want to consider, then, if compounding is a worthwhile pursuit for your pharmacy.
Perhaps the most important thing to consider about compounding services is: do your patients want it? Then it becomes a good ol’ supply-and-demand situation: do enough of my patients (and potential patients) justify the cost of this new service?
Hannah chimes in: “You have to have some sort of patient base that even wants compounding. Because if you buy all this stuff and nobody wants compounding in your area, you lose your entire investment. Make sure you have the correct market and patient base for it and go on from there.”
If you do decide that compounding is worth your while, you need a pharmacy software solution to help you start your new service.
Luckily, PioneerRx offers a suite of features designed to help make compounding easy, efficient, and profitable for your pharmacy business.
PioneerRx’s Pre-Check feature lets you verify the prescription before the filling process begins. This helps save time and efficiency, letting you correct any errors before you start compounding.
“The Pre-Check feature lets us make sure the entire script checks out and is ready to go,” Hannah says. “It’s better to fix a problem now rather than we make the whole order and have to throw it away.”
As a compounding pharmacy, you will either compound drugs on-demand or in-advance, which creates a large batch to be used as needed.
When compounding in advance, you may dispense part of a batch for one prescription and still have remaining stock on the shelf that can be dispensed for another.
In some cases, a prescription may be formed using multiple batches if there is not enough inventory left in one batch.
Instead of just choosing one of those batches to link to the prescription, PioneerRx’s Multi-Batch Compounding feature lets you accurately record lot information and trace back all the ingredients that were used to create a certain compound.
To learn more, check out our blog, Multi-Batch Compounding.
The Compound Batch Queue provides pharmacies with a dedicated area in the software to prioritize and manage their compound preparations for patients.
By grouping compounds into their own distinct queue, you can focus more greatly on compound prescriptions, ensuring that the necessary quantities are prepared in advance for upcoming orders that have been processed.
This will do wonders for your workflow and pharmacy inventory in the long run.
Finally, PioneerRx’s Click to Pay feature allows compounding pharmacies to collect payment from patients before they begin compounding potentially expensive medications.
This ensures that patients are prepared to proceed with their prescriptions and reduces your risk of losing time, labor, and costly ingredients on unfilled scripts.
By securing payment upfront with Click to Pay, you can focus on filling compounded scripts with confidence.
PioneerRx is continuously working to improve system functionality to make compounding simple and streamlined in one system. Hear straight from our team how these improvements can impact your pharmacy.
Compounding is an investment — but with the right tools and strategy, it can be a worthwhile one.
As more pharmacies expand into compounding, having a pharmacy software system that supports accuracy, efficiency, and compliance is key.
PioneerRx provides the features you need to simplify the process and integrate compounding seamlessly into your workflow. Whether you're just getting started or looking to optimize your current operations, PioneerRx equips you with the tools to succeed.
For more ways to up your PioneerRx game, visit PioneerRx University (available for all users).
