e-Prescribing will soon be a reality, with legislation promised for October this year. The precise details are yet to be publicised. Regardless, e-Prescribing has the potential to impact workflows in your pharmacy and for your patients in a way that improves convenience and brings pharmacy into line with consumer retail experiences in eCommerce, online banking, food delivery and transport.

MedAdvisor’s CEO, Robert Read has been part of the Electronic Prescribing Technical Working Group (EPTWG) since 2016, advocating on behalf of community pharmacies and consumers for a solution that will make it easier to manage and order prescriptions, whilst also ensuring patient data and privacy is protected.

Potential impact on community pharmacies

For patients who prefer ePrescriptions, the new system will reduce or even eliminate the need for paper scripts on file at your pharmacy, reducing the customer loyalty affect that scripts on file has traditionally provided.

Additionally, ePrescriptions inevitably leads to a proliferation of online pharmacies, as has been observed in other countries. Capitalising on lower operating costs, online pharmacies will promise an end-to-end solution for patients to order and have their medications delivered without the need to go to a physical pharmacy, presenting a competitive pressure for community pharmacies to match that convenience.

International examples suggest between 10 and 20% of prescriptions migrate to online pharmacies, challenging the viability of some pharmacies in Australia.

Thriving in the ePrescription world

Planning towards increasing your focus on patient convenience, be it through frictionless ordering, payment, express lanes and/or home delivery is paramount.

Pharmacists are consistently ranked as one of the most trusted healthcare professionals. By providing continued excellence in customer service, combined with a hyper-convenient patient experience, patients will be less inclined to chase a different experience through online pharmacy.

Patients value the service and advice they receive when they visit your pharmacy. Connect with them via the App and show them the benefits of a more connected approach to dispensing medication in the context of their overall health and wellbeing.

What you can do now

Since 2013, pharmacies using MedAdvisor have been a critical part of the digitisation of health in Australia. In fact, since that time, Australian patients have digitally ordered more than 14 million scripts via the MedAdvisor platform. You have therefore been a critical partner in the transformation of community pharmacy to a digital future.

When seen in this context, the opportunity is there for you to drive the maximum positive outcome from the shift to ePrescribing. Our survey data shows that 87% of patients enjoy the convenience of pre-ordering through the MedAdvisor App, but on average, pharmacies have only joined 5-10% of their customer base.

By embracing the notion that almost 90% of your patients could benefit from being digitally connected to your services and working hard to digitally connect with them, you will best position your business to continue to positively influence customer loyalty and patient convenience.

• Ensure all staff are trained on the MedAdvisor App – need some help? Why not schedule a training call today!
• Offer MedAdvisor to all your patients – Some pharmacists make the mistake of assuming that some patients are too old or not tech savvy enough. Most people appreciate being reminded of things they might otherwise forget to do, and with 30% of users over the age of 60, age is no barrier to getting benefit from MedAdvisor.
• Be sure to switch on Pay-In-Advance. Patients love the added convenience of pre-pay. Consider how to support express pick-ups in store to surprise and delight! Learn more.
• Focus on driving professional services, utilising PlusOne to record these services so the results will be available for the patient in the App.