Today’s patient has access to an unmanageable amount of information. With thousands of differing narratives, patients are overwhelmed with information and a lack of support in determining what’s factually sound, and what makes sense for their individual care journey. With medical misinformation on the rise, it’s critical that patients receive personalized care messages through the right channel, at the right time.
And there’s a variety of patient engagement messages that patients need to receive. From reminders about a lapsed therapy, to a newly available vaccine or a personal cost-saving opportunity—there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all message for patients.
Enter: The pharmacist. We know patients visit their pharmacies more than any other healthcare provider—twice as much as primary care physicians—with some estimates reporting up to 35 times per year. As the most trusted type of pharmacy that specializes in building strong relationships with patients, independent pharmacies are uniquely positioned to provide patients with the 1:1 support they need.
Patients receive an influx of information at the provider's office and pharmacy counter. And some patients may prefer additional messages from another channel: text, email, or print. And so...this is where pharmacy technology comes in.
As a pharmacy technology provider, RedSail is consistently listening to our pharmacy customers' pain points and working to create solutions to better support pharmacies and their patients. Too often, we hear, technology is cumbersome, different features don’t talk to each other, and updates often require significant time and effort investment from pharmacists.
Introducing Clinical+: a free tool that provides in-workflow prompts that automatically identify opportunities to share patient education and adherence support. Available to our Pharmacy Management System (PMS) users, this tool is the answer to individualized patient engagement messaging, without disrupting a pharmacy’s individualized workflow.
So what does this look like in practice? Clinical+ supports patients with:
Beyond improving patient outcomes and providing more personalized care messages, pharmacies can also see a bottom-line boost. For various programs or campaigns, pharmacies may receive an invoice credit for completing the suggested action.
As noted, pharmacy customer feedback was crucial in the creation of this tool, and we’re grateful to those who piloted the program. Here’s what they had to say:
“I liked it. I thought it was very clear and concise.”
“That was good. Streamlined and good for us to figure out.”
“I think it’s pretty self-explanatory and easy to navigate.”
“They [the team] doesn’t have any problems. They’ve been able to send messages to all of the patients it’s been popping up for.”
Technology should be simple. It should require minimal work from the end-user. And that’s Clinical+.
No two pharmacies are the same, and a pharmacy’s technology should support each unique pharmacy and adapt to its needs. With Clinical +, we’re enabling the pharmacist-in-charge or other decision-maker to determine what alerts are relevant for each site. For multi-location pharmacies, it may be important to have some messages turned on at one site, and off at another.
For some pharmacy customers (👋 PioneerRx family)— this feature may sound like an upgrade to care goal alerts. You’d be correct. Here’s the good news: The clunky alerts are going away and being replaced with this new tool, where the pharmacist is in the driver's seat.
For PioneerRx users, this feedback from the pilot group might feel like Christmas morning:
“It's going well. We're liking it a lot better than the care actions… it's way easier for the team to send out the message.”
“I do think that they are easier to use. I mean, you don’t have to put your pin in, and you don’t have to hit next a couple of times… it’s just a click of a button.”
“Much simpler for sure. I agree completely with that. It’s way easier, and the team seems to be way more on board.”
“These are way better, and I cannot wait for the other ones [care goals] to go away!”
So how does it work? There are no requirements to participate in Clinical+. Prompts are automatically added to your workflow. If you were a care goal alerts user, your prompt settings have been transferred over appropriately. Pharmacy staff simply acts on the suggested action for a patient when it displays via pop-up in the PMS. To manage participation in prompts, you can click through and log into the Clinical+ portal to see a list of campaigns and what their alerts look like, as well as the ability to opt out/in specific patients from messaging.
If you’re a pharmacy customer and have more questions, check out the FAQ’s here or reach out at ClinicalPlus@redsailtechnologies.com.
The goal of Clinical+ is to deliver ready-to-use campaigns that fit naturally into daily workflow and support business growth. Designed with pharmacy customer feedback, Clinical+ will also offer a variety of unbranded, clinically relevant campaigns that drive value.
Up next? RedSail’s own Clinical+ campaign on probiotics. Probiotics are a great clinical add-on to help “re-seed” good bacteria and support a healthier gut. If you opt-in to this campaign via the Clinical+ portal, prompts will appear in-workflow identifying relevant patients. This assists pharmacy staff with a quick, high-value conversation that can make it easier for patients to finish the full course of antibiotics as prescribed. In fact, NCPA is hosting a probiotics webinar soon on the potential for an additional revenue stream while helping patients manage their gut health. (If you have other ideas for future alerts, let your clinical coach know!)
Pharmacy technology should be laser-focused on creating clinically aligned opportunities for pharmacies that ultimately support patient care. With the launch of Clinical+, RedSail continues to push the industry forward with quality patient engagement services that provide value to both the pharmacy and their patients.
Have questions? Join Nicole Pezzino, PharmD, for a quick 15-min overview of Clinical+ and how it works in your pharmacy. We have two upcoming sessions dedicated to specific PMS customer groups.
