Community pharmacies generate a wealth of meaningful data daily, which can be effectively organized to tell compelling stories when partnering with physicians. This data not only helps in understanding community needs but also plays a crucial role in fostering collaborations with healthcare providers. Here are three tips to help community-based pharmacists use data to better market their services to physician offices.
1. Collect Data
The first step is to gather your data. Identify the data sources available in your pharmacy every day, such as the pharmacy management (dispensing) system. This system provides valuable information about your patient population, supporting your qualitative patient care stories with quantitative data.
Data can be extracted from most dispensing systems and shared to enhance collaborations with physician offices. For instance, a pharmacy in rural Pennsylvania downloaded prescription prescribing reports from TabulaRx before a meeting with a local physician's office. This allowed the pharmacist to tailor the discussion to the enhanced pharmacy services that could best meet the needs of their mutual patients.
Another source of data is the clinical documentation (electronic health record) software. Use data from pharmacist e-Care plans to illustrate success in caring for individual patients over time (e.g., reduced blood pressure, improved PHQ9 scores, optimized lipid profiles).
Pro Tip:
Try downloading reports that show the number of patients you serve by prescriber. For example, you might find that 200 of Dr. Smith’s patients were vaccinated for herpes zoster at your pharmacy, or 100 of Dr. Johnson’s patients received a comprehensive medication review in 2021, resulting in 30 major medication-related problems being resolved by your team. Contact your software provider for help with data extraction and report generation.
2. Create a Visualization
The second step is to create visualizations of your data. Visualizations are pictorial representations that should appeal to physicians. Tailor your message accordingly and keep your visualizations simple and easy to understand.
For example, highlight therapeutic gaps-in-care that affect quality measures to a primary care physician. Present data that shows the impact of your services, such as the number of patients who improved their health outcomes due to your interventions.
Pro Tip:
Infographics can effectively capture the breadth of services provided by your pharmacy team. Online tools like RxCreator from RxConnexion can help create visually compelling infographics. Consider involving another pharmacist in this process. Connect your data visually with the services you offer. For instance, if you identify 35 patients from a single prescriber using more than 10 chronic medications, use visualizations to highlight how your medication synchronization or adherence packaging services could benefit these patients.
3. Share and Collaborate
Finally, share your data visualizations with physician offices. Use meetings, emails, and printed materials to present your data. Patient care stories supported by concrete data will help you effectively communicate the value of your services and foster stronger collaborations with physicians.
Pro Tip:
Print and leave behind your data visualizations for physicians. These visual aids can serve as a reference for them to see the value your pharmacy brings to patient care. Partner with a nearby college or school of pharmacy to enhance your presentations with additional insights and data.
By effectively utilizing and presenting data, pharmacists can significantly improve their marketing efforts to physician offices. When data supports your stories, it strengthens your case and fosters deeper, more productive collaborations with healthcare providers.
Connect with us at RxConnexion and see how treasure trove of data inside TabulaRx can assist achieve your goals.
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