Sweetgrass Pharmacy & Compounding, located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, is known for providing exceptional customer service to its community. This independent pharmacy strives to personalize the patient experience, offering a variety of services such as specialty compounding and compliance packaging.
With a growing interest in their services, the independent pharmacy needed a new solution to keep up with demand.
“We were using blister packs for our compliance packaging,” says Cynthia Feldman, PharmD, MBA, owner of Sweetgrass Pharmacy & Compounding. “It was extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming, and it was difficult for pharmacists to check that it was a hundred percent accurate.”
“Once I saw the RapidPakRx, I knew that we needed to make the switch,” adds Feldman. The RapidPakRx is a pouch packaging system designed to improve patient adherence and workflow efficiency.
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Supplements -- A New Revenue Stream
Independent pharmacy owners are constantly looking for new ways to improve patient health while growing their profitability. At Sweetgrass Pharmacy, Feldman is passionate about incorporating vitamins and supplements to improve patient wellness.
“We have our own line of vitamins and supplements, so with the RapidPakRx not requiring NDC-specific cartridges, we are able to recommend vitamins and supplements to help patients that are using our compliance packaging,” says Feldman. “It's an extra revenue stream for us and it's best for the patients.”
The RapidPakRx uses 20 universal cartridges that are bulk-loaded and simultaneously dispense any oral solid medication. Incorporating different medications and supplements with the RapidPakRx is easy, and does not require inventory to be stored with the cartridges.
“Patients’ vitamins and supplements are just as important as their prescriptions, so by offering to pack vitamins and supplements along with their prescriptions, it keeps them compliant,” says Feldman.
Going the Extra Mile
In recent years, the independent pharmacy industry has faced increasing pressure from competitors like PillPack and CVS. Feldman realized that beating the competition meant that Sweetgrass Pharmacy had to offer a unique experience for patients.
“Since adding the RapidPakRx to our pharmacy, we're really able to go the extra mile and customize our pill packs for our patients,” says Feldman. Pouch packaging has recently become a popular service among patients. When Amazon acquired PillPack, more patients became aware of the opportunity to conveniently package their medications into small pouches.
Although Amazon may have helped increase the popularity of pouch packaging, Feldman knows that her pharmacy has something the retail giant just can’t offer. “Places like Amazon PillPack and CVS that may offer compliance packaging don’t have the customer service or personal touch that we do,” says Feldman.
“Often, patients will tell us that they really wanted to go with something like PillPack, because of the ease of use and for compliance,” says Feldman. “Then when they find out that we offer that here at Sweetgrass Pharmacy, as well as the personal touch that we add to it and the relationships that our patients can have with the pharmacists, it's a no brainer for our patients.”
Adding New Patients + Script Volume
Prior to purchasing the RapidPakRx, Feldman was struggling to increase script volume using blister card packaging.
“The prior solution that we had for our compliance packaging, was super labor-intensive and required our technicians to work many, many, many more hours,” says Feldman.
The blister card system was making it difficult to add new patients to the pharmacy and increasing labor costs.
“With the RapidPakRx we are able to pack twice as many patients per technician; it's very streamlined,” says Feldman. The RapidPakRx can complete packaging for up to 50 patients using only one technician in an 8-hour shift. With unmatched speed and accuracy, the RapidPakRx can help a pharmacy easily scale its script volume.
“We've really increased the number of patients that we have on our compliance packaging, so our technicians are packing twice as many patients in the same time,” says Feldman.
Safer Experience for Patients
Since the pandemic first started, it has greatly impacted patient expectations. More and more patients want a “touchless” experience and prefer convenient services that don’t require them to interact in high traffic areas.
“We deliver and we ship all of our RapidPakRx pouch patients for free, so there's no in-person interaction, which keeps our patients safe,” says Feldman.
“The RapidPakRx is giving us something amazing to market even during COVID,” adds Feldman.
Despite a COVID-19 vaccine becoming available, it is very likely that patients will continue to prefer “touchless” services. The RapidPakRx makes it easy to prepare 30-day, 60-day, or 90-day script supply for patients in one compliance-packaged strip.
“I would recommend the RapidPakRx to any pharmacy that's looking to grow their patient base and their bottom line,” says Feldman. “It is a great opportunity to attract new patients, gain new referrals, and really boost that bottom line in revenue as a pharmacist.”
To learn more about the RapidPakRx, please visit our product page or call an adherence expert at (877) 797-2332
