The pharmaceutical industry ties in very closely with the medical industry. For an industry that deals routinely in drugs of varying composition and intensity, it is crucial that it has a system in place that monitors and keeps a check on the patients’ drug consumption.

Since this is a highly sensitive customer-facing industry, it’s beneficial to have a CRM customer portal solution in place to navigate the daily interaction with patients.

In this blog, we’ll explore all the ways a customer portal can be beneficial in the pharmaceutical industry. 

For Over the Counter Medication:

A pharmacy can have a web store or mobile app. Anyone can download such an app and it works like any ecommerce store. When these customers make an account on your store, the profile details are stored in your CRM.

For Prescribed Medication:

On the other hand, you cannot sell prescription medication or controlled drugs online, or in a store, without a doctor’s prescription. This is what the process of a customer going to the pharmacy to get their prescription looks like:

1. The technician checks the customer’s prescription for the name, date of birth, phone number if possible, the date of the prescription, doctor’s information, and signature.

2. They scan the prescription in the pharmacy portal and feed in the customer’s and their prescription details.

3. Then they type in the details like when and how much medicine to take, directions on how to take it, and if there are any refills on it.

4. The pharmacist generally instructs the patient about side effects for new medications or they can read the leaflet they give along with their prescription.

5. The pharmacist takes into consideration the available information on allergies to verify the patient’s prescription. If the patient is new or their allergies section is missing information then the system alerts the pharmacist to ask them about their allergies. So when they come to pick up their medication, techs can ask the patient about allergies or any health condition that they should be aware of before dispensing medication. And they put the same in the system.

6. Then the portal verifies the customer’s insurance details to check if their insurance covers the medication or not.

7. Once it goes through the insurance, the pharmacist verifies the prescription and then prints it. After being printed, it’s filled and then rechecked. Then they put it in a bin or refrigerate it, depending on the drug.

And with any new prescription or major change in patient’s therapy, the pharmacist counsels the patient. They document this as well. They don't check ID for every controlled medication. But they do check ID for C2 medications such as Adderall, Percocet, Norco, Hydromorphone, Morphine, etc.
 

Now that we have looked at the process in a pharmacy, let us look at how the CRM customer portal shortens and improvises the process.

- Access to inventory
- Access to insurance
- Barcode scanner
- Date configuration

The CRM customer portal can regulate the patient’s drug consumption. This way, the technician and pharmacist can make sure to not sell beyond the prescribed requirement. 
 

Now that we have looked at how a customer portal solutions helps, let us see some of the benefits of this system:

- Having software to manage customers’ transaction history helps regulate their medicine intake and reduces the chance of drug abuse.
- Because no one can buy these medicines without a prescription and because of such close monitoring, it makes it difficult for people to buy these medicines for reselling.
- Insurance check-up right from within the system makes the transaction easier.
- For suspicious prescriptions, the technician or the pharmacist can check it with the doctor on paper before filling it.
- It can keep a track of the patient’s allergies as well, so that they never accidentally get a medicine that can have severe side effects for them.

The detailed benefits of a customer portal solutions in this industry are many fold. In this situation, this software works at two levels. One works as an application or web store for milder medicine and other necessary products, which are generally available in a pharmacy. The other is a point of sale in-shop solution. Both of these are in sync so that no detail about a customer’s medicine intake goes unnoticed. It is necessary that this happen because medicines react to one another, even if neither are prescription medicine or a controlled drug. A customer portal development company can customize one for your specific needs.


View Source: https://www.crmjetty.com/blog/customer-portal-pharma-industry/