Out of Stock? Here’s your Prescription for Change.
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by Dr. Alex Toth<br/>
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Dr. Alex Toth is the Owner of Plumsted Pharmacy in New Jersey and Co-Founder of InStockRx. <br/>
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If you are a Community Pharmacy Owner or Pharmacist in Charge looking for new strategies to improve your margins, this is for you. <br/>
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There’s a new trend in the community pharmacy world, and it’s not one that we are particularly fond of.<br/>
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Each day, dozens of calls come into pharmacies from patients searching for and inquiring about availability of medications. While there are certain medications where stock outs occurs much more frequently (e.g., any GLP-1 injectable), it is impossible to ignore the fact that there are also many common products that patients are still struggling to find on pharmacy shelves. This has been a reoccurring trend since 2018 and has reached the attention and scrutiny of the FDA and United States Congress.<br/>
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Over the past week at my pharmacy, I have had patients searching for antibiotics, diabetes medications, wound care products, and pain medications for post-surgery. Most of the time, these conversations start with the patient saying that they have been calling around to multiple different pharmacies and can’t find the medication anywhere. These shortages are typically due to issues such as: <br/>
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Manufacturing and quality problems <br/>
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Delays in manufacturing <br/>
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Discontinuations <br/>
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A report published by the FDA indicated that there are additional factors that have further contributed to and exacerbated the medication shortages that pharmacies currently experience. These include:<br/>
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Lack of incentives for manufacturers to produce less profitable drugs <br/>
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The market not recognizing and rewarding manufacturers for mature quality systems that focus on continuous improvement and early detection of supply chain issues<br/>
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Logistical and regulatory challenges that can limit manufacturers’ ability to increase production.<br/>
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Not only do patients have trouble locating out of stock medications, but pharmacies often struggle to locate medications for their patients as well. Think about it: if a pharmacist does not have that item on their shelf and cannot get it from their primary wholesaler, they will reach out to other pharmacies to try to find the item for their patient. If that doesn’t work, unfortunately, the other option is to tell their patient to call other pharmacies.<br/>
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When an out-of-stock situation occurs, it not only inconveniences the patient, but it could also be potentially harmful to them. Additionally, there is a significant impact to pharmacy workflow efficiency and profitability. Instead of filling prescriptions and helping patients, the pharmacy must devote time and resources to find that medication for the patient. Once that product is finally found, it could come with a higher cost for that pharmacy due to minimum order quantities or shipping fees. <br/>
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The number one goal for any pharmacy is to try to prevent this type of out-of-stock situation, and the prescription for change is through an inventory management platform with inventory forecasting capabilities.<br/>
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At InStockRx, we provide pharmacy owners with tools to proactively identify and prevent out of stock situations. Additionally, we give pharmacies the ability to connect and collaborate with other pharmacies to buy and sell inventory that is in demand with their patients. This cloud-based network of pharmacies eliminates the need to call around to other pharmacies to instantly locate medications that may be in stock at other local pharmacies, saving them and their patients’ time. For organizations with multiple locations, there are options to create a private network of pharmacies with real time inventory insight at each location as well as out of stock rebalancing.<br/>
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Unfortunately, it seems this out-of-stock trend will continue to exist, but not all hope is lost. Community pharmacies have an opportunity to work smarter, leverage technology platforms that will help streamline pharmacy operations and better serve patients.<br/>
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Are you facing out of stock situations on medications on the regular? Click here to get started with InStockRx.<br/>
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by Dr. Alex Toth<br/>
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Dr. Alex Toth is the Owner of Plumsted Pharmacy in New Jersey and Co-Founder of InStockRx.