Pharmacy Management System (PMS) is a comprehensive system that stores data and has capabilities for organizing and maintaining the process of medication usage and delivery in pharmacies. It ensures the safe and effective dispensing of drugs for the benefit of patients. These systems may function as stand-alone systems or may work in conjunction with other systems in hospitals.
PMS facilitates the pharmacists to correctly cross-check whether the right medicine is given to the patient, the correct quantity and dosage are dispensed and also shows the precise information on the prescription. Enhanced and advanced versions of PMS not only aid in medical decision-making but also support the pharmacist in executing clinical interventions if required. This may be done by configuring the PMS to issue alerts.
Features of PMS
-
Manages the complete life-cycle of prescriptions given by physicians.
-
Provides a user-friendly interface for recording patient, drug and prescription.
-
Ensures that the rules and regulations of healthcare regulatory compliance are met for safeguarding patient safety.
-
Aids in automated claims processing as it stores the complete data about the submissions made by patients and the status of the claims.
-
Reduces the scope of medication errors by using built-in functionalities for accuracy and safety along with backup for reliable and uninterrupted pharmacy operations.
-
Controls the accounts receivable aspects so that refunds are given without a short span of time and also monitors denied claims which may be reopened for availing maximum reimbursement.
-
Precisely detects drug interactions, medicine expiry dates and gives alerts on low stock levels to ensure that patients are safe and also reduce medication mistakes and legal issues.
-
Improves the cash flow, decreases the write-offs and unwanted costs thereby increasing profit and revenues.
-
Maintains accurate and updated information about the latest drugs introduced in the market.
-
Permits the physicians to message the patient’s refill to the pharmacist thereby preventing exhausting commutes to the pharmacy.
-
Helps in formula compounding of drugs to appropriately treat co-morbid health conditions.
-
Allows better accessibility of medications and customized prescription drug labeling for easier handling and patient comfort.
-
Facilitates electronic wholesale ordering by doing precise inventory evaluations and reliable margin reporting.
-
Tracks the stock movement accurately and provides periodic reports on the pharmacy sales, damages and disposals.
Apart from these, modern PMS also have certain advanced features like
-
Bulk data loading.
-
Managing e-prescriptions.
-
Capturing electronic signatures for ensuring secured access and authentication.
-
Barcode verification of pharmacy products.
-
Better inventory management to aid purchasing decisions.
-
Advanced reporting features for better tracking.
-
Integration with clinical tools and point of Sales(POS) systems.
Functions of PMS
-
Identifies the accurate instruction for medication usage.
-
Minimizes human errors in drug retrieval and delivery.
-
Promotes accessibility of medicines, information related to it and even improves communication between employees in the pharmacy.
-
Ensures optimal storage and movement of drugs in the pharmacy.
-
Provides user-friendly real-time reports on various pharmacy-related parameters like inventory, patient preferences, peak sales, buffer stock and efficiency of pharmacists.
-
Leads to better drug inventory management.
-
Allows better healthcare management of pharmacy resources and improved time management.
Benefits of PMS
-
Better Healthcare Outcomes – PMS reduces the workload of the pharmacists as it executes the tasks of counting, filling, capping and labeling the prescriptions. By eliminating the majority of the manual work, PMS allows pharmacists to focus on more important responsibilities like conducting immunization campaigns and health screening programmes. It also fosters a better relationship as pharmacists can communicate on a one-to-one basis with patients enabling better patient care and healthcare outcomes.
-
Higher Productivity – As mentioned earlier, PMS decreases the cumbersome workload of pharmacists allowing them to pay the required attention to priority tasks. This helps in improving their productivity. Additionally, it also takes proactive initiatives of filling in patient prescriptions after working hours so that patients may receive the medicines early the next day. This saves a lot of time and is particularly beneficial to pharmacies that are crowded and have drive-through options.
-
Enhanced Patient Satisfaction – Waiting times of patients are remarkably reduced by the usage of PMS. This is particularly meaningful in crisis and emergency situations. Since the patient’s needs are addressed immediately without much delay, their satisfaction levels are likely to increase.
-
Higher Safety – The implementation of PMS reduces the probability of clinical errors and drug contamination. This plays a major role in improving patient safety and lessening the liability of the pharmacies.
-
Effective Cost Control and Waste Management – The usage of PMS allows pharmacists to dispense medications accurately with minimal wastage. Since these systems are automated, they promote re-usability especially in the context of injection vials wherein only the precise amount of medicine may be withdrawn. The reduction in waste results in better long term savings and reduces healthcare costs.
Thus PMS helps in accelerating workflows and improves the accuracy of drug dispensing systems by automating various pharmacy operational tasks. This ensures higher efficiency and error-free pharmacy services for building long-lasting patient engagements.