Physician Dispensing-Workforce Shortage

The Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal is calling it: “The Great American Labor Shortage” and it is impacting every facet of the healthcare industry but none more so than the front-line retail associates. The lower to mid-range salary positions have taken a beating seeing massive employee turnover, and many seasoned representatives simply not returning. So what does this mean for huge retail pharmacies? For the most part: pain. And for patients, a massive inconvenience. But what could this mean for General Practitioners and clinicians who have the foresight to reconfigure their practices for in-office dispensing? An opportunity.

According to The Wall Street Journal,

“The Jolts survey has never shown more openings since Labor began keeping track in 2000. Job openings increased 998,000 in April, including 391,000 in leisure and hospitality, 108,000 in trade and transportation and 102,000 in manufacturing as more states lifted Covid-19 restrictions. Yet new hires increased by a mere 69,000. Employers filled about one in 15 new positions.”

Employers are only currently able to fill 1 in 15 job openings, think about that. For a physicians’ practice or a clinic, there is a readily available need to fill. Patients aren’t about to stop needing medical diagnosis, advice and treatment. Medical practices that have been able to stay open and functioning during the COVID19 lockdowns and restrictions can suddenly find themselves flush with patients who cannot acquire the medications they’re being prescribed. It’s a recipe for terrible medical outcomes.

Instead of writing a scrip and hoping that patients can fill the order with a stand alone pharmacy or retail pharmacy desk why not send them to the dispensary window in your own practice where you KNOW they’ll be well taken care of?

New technologies have made it not only possible but readily feasible to manage drug inventories, dosages and dispensing in order to assist patients in real-time, safely, efficiently and cost effectively. Some caveats apply, but they aren’t as onerous as you might think.

According to Drug Topics,

“Unlike with pharmacy licenses, which enable a pharmacy to dispense prescription drugs, most states allow physicians to purchase and dispense drugs under their physicians’ licenses. Nevertheless, states will typically require the dispensing physician to satisfy various requirements, such as: providing a prescription to the patient; requiring a disclosure to the patient of the right to have the prescription filled elsewhere; requiring the physician to obtain additional permits; requiring that medications be labeled properly and dispensed or directly supervised by the physician; requiring secure storage of drug inventory; limiting controlled substance dispensing; and satisfying various pharmacy recordkeeping requirements.”

The Benefits of Physician Dispensing

• Patient Compliance–MedCityNews writes, “Approximately 20-30% of prescriptions are never filled. Providing medication at the point of care eliminates this problem.” Of course Physician Dispensing isn’t a panacea for recalcitrant patients who don’t follow medical advice, but an increased likelihood of compliance is definitely worth it.
• Distinguishing Your Practice With Value Added Service-One of the biggest edges in point-of-care medication dispensing in addition to increased patient compliance is how this value-added service differentiates your practice from your nearby competitors. AdvancedRx wrote “Physician dispensing could be a part of what makes your practice different. And it’s easy for patients to understand the convenience and value of the service.”
• Increased Revenue/Profitability– National Center for Health Statistics, reports that the average doctor sees twenty-five patients per day and writes 1.4 prescriptions per visit. If their practice were to make $10 on each of the 35 prescriptions, it would boost daily revenue by $350 without occupying any more of a doctor’s precious time, which is typically overbooked to begin with.
• Savings From Wholesalers-One of the most obvious but overlooked advantages to In-house dispensing is that you can typically (not always, but usually) get much better pricing from your wholesaler than you can from a local pharmacy that needs to meet their own costs and profitability metrics. Your discounted rate can also allow you to more effectively serve uninsured or under-insured patients (and in 2021 there are A LOT of patients in both categories) or those with Medicare Part D, especially when patients are in the “donut hole,” but often are less expensive than the co-pay with traditional insurance plans.

Apotheca Wholesale Pharmaceuticals is well equipped to help you support your patients and customers and you in a transition to in-office dispensing. We have all of the qualities you’re looking for in a Pharmaceutical distributor and we’re in this together.

Contact us today at Customerservice@apothecainc.com or call us at 602-252-5244.