According to J.D. Power and Associates, customers are more satisfied this year with independently owned, brick-and-mortar pharmacies then their large chain or mail-order counterparts. This may be due in part to the mail-order businesses’ inability to adapt to new market demands, which have been met by their competitors.
As such, independently owned pharmacies such as Health Mart, Good Neighbor and the Medicine Shoppe were awarded the highest satisfaction scores by consumers, all of them receiving more than 840 points out of the possible 1,000 in the report’s rankings.
“These findings come amid a growing problem with medication adherence,” Lonny Wilson, president of the NCPA, said in a press release. “These twin forces of medication non-adherence and increasing dissatisfaction with mail order pharmacies should prompt health plan sponsors to support plan designs that allow patients access to the pharmacy of their choice, where pharmacists can help promote proper medication use and maximize the cost-savings from generic drugs.”
As these findings become public, many independently owned pharmacies may start to note an increase in customers. As such, the new workload may challenge their current database software systems, which might not be able to handle the increased activity.
By consulting FileMaker developers, pharmacists can create custom database software that can allow them to maintain a more accurate account of prescription orders, pickups and refills. Furthermore, this new system can be used in a mobile context with FileMaker Go, which can allow for pharmacists to update their database and information while out of the office, creating a happier workforce to go with the satisfied customers.