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Table of Contents

• What is Pharmacy Software? 
• What are the key features of Pharmacy Software?
• What are the types of Pharmacy Software?
• What are the benefits of Pharmacy Software?
• How much does Pharmacy Software cost?
• What are the common questions to ask Pharmacy Software vendors?

What is Pharmacy Software? 

Pharmacy software or pharmacy management system is used to streamline and automate the day-to-day operations of a drug store, including inventory management and filling prescriptions. Automated pharmacy operation helps increase the efficiency of pharmacy workflow, leading to enhanced productivity.

Using pharmacy software helps pharmacists and drug store owners to map correct medications to prescriptions, generate invoices, and automate processing claims. The tool offers a centralized repository to store and manage patient information such as name, phone number, medical records, or medications with the prescribed dosage. The pharmacy staff can access the data at any time to check the patient’s medical records and prescriptions and provide the correct medication or suggest alternatives.

Pharmacy software also acts as a point of sale (PoS) system for pharmacy owners to manage in-store and online customers from a single platform.

What are the key features of Pharmacy Software?

• Web-based ordering: Allow customers to browse through the products directory, look for the specific medications that they would like to order, and select the desired payment option. Let them download the list of ordered items with the barcode or label to crosscheck the items at the time of delivery.
• Inventory management: Update the medicine inventory automatically for new stock, outdated/expired items, sold items, and more in the electronic records. Scan the barcode on a medicine’s packaging for the system to capture its details and add or remove it from the electronic records accordingly.
• Automatic dispensing: Provide a computer-controlled medication management system to store, track, and dispense medicines to pharmacy staff in the patient care units or healthcare centers. The count of the medication is decided based on the uploaded prescription or medication details. The system also alerts the pharmacist or patients on drug allergies, drug-to-drug interactions, high-risk drugs, and similar-sounding drug names.
• Barcode management: Automate the billing, streamline inventory stock, and manage orders by scanning the barcode or label on the medicine's packaging. Search for a specific medicine to check its availability or expiry date, or add it to the inventory using the barcode.
• e-Prescribing: Generate, store, share, and manage prescriptions electronically in a centralized location for pharmacy staff to access at any time. Receive digital prescriptions directly from the hospitals to avoid miscommunication due to handwritten prescriptions.
• Prescription processing: Automate reading single or multiple electronic prescriptions simultaneously to map the correct medications and dosage. Update the inventory for sold items and track requirements such as new purchases or overstocked items.

What are the types of Pharmacy Software?

• Point of sale (PoS) software: The pharmacy management system helps automate the capturing of financial transactions and sales information to maintain the accounts of the drugstore. PoS software tracks details, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory, new purchases, and more, across multiple retail branches. Using PoS software, you can generate bills and invoices of purchases made by customers and also accept payments through a built-in payments gateway. Customers can choose from multiple payment options such as debit card, credit card, UPI, or online wallet.
• e-Prescribing software: e-Prescribing is offered as a standalone pharmacy management software solution or as an built-in feature in pharmacy software. In both cases, e-Prescribing allows you to generate electronic prescriptions to avoid any confusion in the dosage or the name of the medicine due to handwriting. e-Prescriptions are digitally shared with the pharmacists and the patients and stored in a centralized location to access on the go.
• Patient management software: The pharmacy management system that helps manage the list of patients, including details such as name, phone number, consulting doctor, medical history, lab reports, and prescribed medications. You can search for a patient using the name, phone number, or unique identification number. The patient management system is generally used by pharmacies operating within a hospital or a healthcare center.

What are the benefits of Pharmacy Software?

• Efficient prescription processing: Pharmacy solutions help speed up the process of reading electronic prescriptions and providing the correct medications to customers. Electronically reading the prescriptions eliminates the errors of manual processing such as difficulty to understand certain medicine names or incorrect mapping of medications or dosage.
• Ensure medical compliance: Pharmacy solutions help you comply with government rules and regulations when selling medications. You can check if any drug is an over-the-counter (OTC), prescription only, or controlled medication. Staying compliant helps ensure the selling of the right medications and avoiding any fines due to pharmaceutical irregularities.
• Simplify payments: Pharmacy solutions streamline the process of raising bills for customers and accepting online payments using the built-in payments portal. Plus, you can automatically generate invoices to maintain the store accounts. Automated billing and invoicing help avoid any errors in recording transactions or delays in receiving payments.
• Automate accounting management: The tool helps track all the day-to-day transactions such as payments made or received, and orders placed. All the captured transactions are automatically updated in the accounting system, which you can use to generate financial reports for audits.

How much does Pharmacy Software cost?

The prices of most products in the pharmacy management software market are available on quote.

What are the key considerations when purchasing pharmacy software?

• Analyze the type of pharmacy: Certain pharmacy software features are specific to the type of drugstore. For instance, an e-Commerce pharmacy store requires online ordering and payment gateway, a multi-location retail pharmacy requires multi-store management, and hospital pharmacies look for patient management. Look for pharmacy software with features that cater to your store type.
• Assess the inventory management system: Check if the tool offers an automatic inventory management system or if you will have to manually update the availability of products. In the case of automated inventory management, check the features such as a barcode or label scanner to update the inventory, total stock control, product categorization, and stock analysis reports.
• Look for tools that allow you to scan barcodes from any device: Check if the selected pharmacy software allows you to scan the barcodes or labels on the products using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. These devices are in addition to the barcode scanner connected to your computer system. There can be a mobile application that enables you to scan and capture product codes to update the inventory automatically.
• Opt for a multi-store management system: Check if the selected pharmacy software allows you to manage multiple stores (online, offline, or both) using a single platform. However, multi-store management is a limited feature therefore, you need to check the subscription plan you are opting for. Some software vendors charge customers on a per-store basis.
• Check the user management module: Verify if the tool allows you to manage access to the data and other functionalities of the tools based on their relevance for users. For instance, pharmacy staff can focus on order management, inventory management, billing, and invoicing. On the other hand, store owners or managers can access the financial statements and performance reports.

What are the common questions to ask Pharmacy Software vendors?

• Does the tool allow integration with CRM software? Ask the software vendor if you can integrate the pharmacy system with any third-party customer relationship management (CRM) software. The integration will help you better manage your customers by setting up automated alerts on offers, updating on the availability of medications, or facilitating online payments.
• Can you import and export inventory data using the tool? Ask the software vendor if your selected tool will let you download or upload the list of products in the desired format. In addition, you should be able to directly import or export the data between two applications via integration.
• Does the tool allow you to accept online orders? Ask the software vendor about the tool’s ability to act as a point of sales (PoS) system for customers to order medications online. Certain pharmacy software also offers website management tools to design and run an e-Commerce website. However, check the functionality of the tool with the software vendor to make an informed decision.
• Does the tool facilitate automatic medicine dispensing? Ask the vendor about the automatic medicine dispensing system. Some probable questions could be: Can the dispensing system operate from the same platform or does it require a different tool? How can you upload the prescriptions or add details about the prescribed medication into the system? Also, think of other questions related to the automatic dispensing system that are specific to your drug store.
• Is there a cap on the number of users? Some pharmacy software solutions may charge customers on a per-user basis while others charge per month or year for a set number of users. Ask the software vendor about the cap on the number of users and select the subscription plan according to the strength of your pharmacy’s staff.