Creating an Effective Work-from-Home Setup for Specialty Pharmacies

Remote work has irrevocably changed industries across the board, including pharmacies. According to the 2022 National Pharmacist Workforce Study, published in May 2023, 23 percent of pharmacists worked 40 or more hours per week from home in 2022, compared with just eight percent in 2019¹.

These stats are unsurprising considering the many benefits remote and hybrid work offer. According to Pew Research Data, 71 percent of remote workers reported improved work-life balance, and 56 percent said that they could work more productively and meet deadlines². Positive changes like these can lead to increased employee retention – particularly important during a period of significant workforce shortages among pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

Specialty pharmacies are well suited for remote and hybrid work and witness the retention benefits. “The nature of many services in specialty are more telehealth-oriented, including refill calls, clinical assessments and prior authorization using online platforms,” shared Bernice Man, PharmD, a clinical pharmacy manager at University of Chicago Medicine Specialty Pharmacy.³ “Specialty pharmacy is also a pipeline for those who want to move to the pharmaceutical industry, which also has a lot of remote work available, so having this hybrid structure may help us retain them.”

However, remote or hybrid work is not without its challenges. Specialty pharmacies need to keep some crucial things in mind to create an effective work-from-home setup.

Processing Payments Efficiently: Efficient and secure transaction processing is crucial for mail-out and specialty pharmacies that deal with high dollar value, highly complex, and high-touch drugs. A commerce solution must be flexible enough to provide safe and simple transaction processing regardless of where the pharmacy employee is working from that day, whether that is from a call center, central fill location, or a pharmacy’s back office. With a browser-based mobile POS system, pharmacy employees have the necessary tools to process transactions regardless of their physical location. Especially when the system seamlessly integrates with your PMS (Pharmacy Management System), features intuitive and simple workflows, includes PCI validation solutions, as well as additional cloud-based products.

Accessing Patient Information: Constantly contacting patients to get the right prescription information, credit card data, updated addresses, phone numbers, and more can be a cumbersome process for everyone involved. By having a mobile point of sale that integrates with your PMS employees can streamline workflows to find, fill, and collect payments for prescriptions faster. All resulting in a better patient experience.

Overloading IT: Remote work can add a significant strain to IT systems, leading to slowdowns and system crashes. It is vital to ensure that the technology infrastructure can handle the increased demands and maintain a secure and efficient workflow. A cloud-based point of sale solution can help alleviate the burden while keeping vital information safe.

Increased Risks: Work environments not contained within hospital networks can sometimes lead to overlooked compliance regulations, such as writing credit card numbers on post-it notes. To ensure adherence to the strictest compliance regulations, pharmacies should employ a point-of-sale system with built-in counseling, HIPAA compliance features, ID collection, signature capabilities, and PCI certified at the highest level.

At Emporos, we understand the unique remote work needs of specialty pharmacies. In response, we have created a mobile point-of-sale solution – Hilo Mobile– designed specifically with mail-out pharmacies and specialty pharmacies in mind. With Hilo Mobile, the cloud- and browser-based mobile point of sale can be used wherever you need it to be used – whether on a laptop, mobile device, retail setting, or traditional point-of-sale workflow.

Interested in learning more? Click here to speak with us about streamlining your pharmacy commerce.

References: