Technology Adoption Narrative - Tim Davis

Technologies visited: (PMS, POS, IVR, eSig, Automation, Workflow, LTC, CSOS, ePrescribing)

My name is Tim Davis. Iʼm 36-year-old pharmacy owner and proud member of NCPA. I have two experiences with technology adoption in my recent past. I launched a startup pharmacy in 1997 and still work day-to-day at the pharmacy my father began in 1989. Letʼs begin with a startup.

Beaver Health Mart Pharmacy was designed to be owned and managed remotely. It exists in the neighboring town to my fatherʼs pharmacy and although it is my first startup, my intent was to create many more modeled after it. Replication of not only the physical pharmacy was important, but the customer experience within was critical. Thus, the technology I employed on day one enabled me to project my intended business style into a pharmacy in which I was physically not present. My chief pharmacist was a new graduate and need as much support to make good business decisions, as she needed for successful pharmacy operations. We chose a pharmacy management system based on ease of user interface combined with functionality, support, a way in which it is an and development. We installed IVR. Although we did not use it during working hours, it made my pharmacy available to customers after hours when they wanted order refills or get information. From opening day, we also had a point-of-sale system and electronic signature capture. The POS system allowed us to run perpetual inventory on our retail products and prepared use for regulatory changes affecting pharmacy shopping in general. My staff had to work less to keep the pharmacy stocked and priced. The spare time was spent talking to patients about products rather than organizing them. The perpetual inventory experience carried over into the pharmacy prescription inventory as well. Coupled with CSOS, we were able to concentrate on patients and always have their prescription products in stock. We could tailor our inventory to handle cash flow changes and account for growth on a patient by patient basis. Towards the end of your one, we adopted a standalone workflow solution that integrated with our pharmacy management system. This enabled us to be new procedures in the pharmacy to manage documents paperlessly and heighten the customer experience. We could now track where a prescription was is the store and patients never left with either the wrong package or missing prescriptions. The end of year one was also the advent for ePrescribing in our region. We saw this expedite our processes and enhance our safety profile. As we began to become profitable, we adopted smartphones to share information and communicate between pharmacies. The past 6 months have enable us to purchase iPads and a wifi scale for pediatric weight calculations. At present we are changing our PMS to adopt the newest technology for remote management and further enhance growth at new locations.

Brighton health Mart pharmacy turns 20 years old in 2009. When I graduated from pharmacy school in year 2000, the only technology employed by Brighton was a pharmacy management system and a fax machine. We put a plan into motion to modernize the pharmacy, instill the potential of growth, and ensure reevaluation of our technology footprint regularly. We updated our pharmacy management system and installed a point-of-sale system. Upon neither technology did we employ perpetual inventory management. People were scared that it wouldnt work and would waste time. The next year we purchased automated counting cabinets and a stand alone workflow solution. Our organization increased and so did our prescription volume. This was also the point where we adopted electronic signature capture. We needed to ensure that as our volume increased, our ability to respond to audits and comply by HIPAA needed to scale as well. The electronic signature capture has helped our high volume pharmacy avoid tens of thousands of dollars in PBM chargeback since its adoption. I realized that our niche in long-term care was also growing steadily, so the investment in a long-term care specific module for our pharmacy management system was made. This gave us the ability to offer and compete in a totally different market. We rested our laurels for two short years. The changes we made prepared and enabled us for comfortable growth. We never felt overwhelmed and safety was never compromised for volume. We removed the automated cabinets and replaced them with a fully automated robotic solution. It was after the solution was put in place that we recognized our workflow solution needed more robust capabilities to help us continue on a path of niche exploration and customer service enhancement. We replaced our stand-alone workflow solution with a new generation based on the experience at my startup. Now, the same capabilities of prescription tracking and prescription imaging were available and useful a high volume location. At the same time, we upgraded our electronic signature capture and began paperless document management procedures. Last year we purchased a long-term care packaging robot and begin explore electronic MARs. We want to capture the market in our region and infuse our technology into our partners. Our most recent change has been to upgrade our robot to next-generation technology to reduce noise, increase efficacy, and decrease maintenance.