The healthcare industry is continuously evolving and modernizing, and the future of pharmacy is no exception. With that, pharmacy management systems are in the spotlight, and a technology-packed system is more important than ever to compete against chains and other independent pharmacies.

One of the most evolving truths about independent pharmacy is that it is not just a place to fill prescriptions. Patients see pharmacists an average of 12 times per year as opposed to their general physician, whom they see on average 1-2 times per year.  This gives pharmacists a greater opportunity to work with patients on healthcare goals and achieve better outcomes.

Pharmacists are indeed an asset for optimal healthcare outcomes, especially when paired with medical care from a physician. Additionally, many states have granted pharmacists provider status, allowing them to offer additional services like point-of-care testing and immunizations.

Pharmacists must be more patient involved and focused to run a successful pharmacy.  The owners need the ability to automate processes, easily organize staff, maximize refills, build star ratings, and find other profit centers. This is where pharmacy management systems come into play.

What Does a Pharmacy Management System Do?

Any technology used in a pharmacy to help automate the pharmacy's workflow is referred to as pharmacy management software or PMS.

A PMS involves managing daily tasks such as filling prescriptions, managing patient history, transmitting claims live to insurance for payment, preparing drugs, monitoring inventory and placing orders, invoicing, counseling patients, medication reconciliation and interaction checks, and so much more-all while adhering to legal norms and compliance at both the state and federal level.

Today, your pharmacy software needs to do more than these everyday tasks.  Modern pharmacy systems integrate task management, automate many processes such as refills, communication with patients for reminders, maintenance medication auto refill requests upon using the last fill, schedulers to set up and automate recurring tasks, mobile applications for patient refills, and the list goes on.

Your competition offers their patients so many conveniences that modern technology provides, so you must do the same to stay competitive.  Today's world is built around conveniences provided by technology, so having a pharmacy software system that does not offer all of these features, or one that is not easy to use, can leave you at a significant competitive disadvantage.

The best pharmacy software provides many features that can give any community pharmacy a competitive advantage. The best pharmacy systems offer a more robust suite of products paired with a 5-star rated support team that responds quickly to client issues and needs.

Which Is the Best Software for Pharmacy?

The best pharmacy management systems help in achieving two corporate objectives. The first is to establish a more efficient, automated pharmacy workflow. The second is to remain ahead of the competition by improving the patient experience and offering next-level customer satisfaction.

Datascan and its line of pharmacy management products are consistently the best-rated system and company across the marketplace. They have had many clients for decades due to the fastest response times and technology that gets updated constantly.   Consistently, Datascan also ranked the best in customer satisfaction.

#1 Datascan

Datascan pharmacy software has been providing innovative and affordable technology-driven pharmacy software solutions to independently owned pharmacies in the United States since 1981. Its client-centric features are designed to help you do more for less. Datascan continues to provide the ultimate trifecta—pricing, product technology, and service—from a privately held firm.

What makes Datascan so different is that a private equity investment firm does not control them. They are the oldest independently owned pharmacy software vendor in the US, dating back to 1981.

Datascan prioritizes customer service and technology. MedSync, MTM, 2-way text messaging, mobile applications, many automated features, and email notifications are just a few features built into their pharmacy software packages.

In fact, some of their most valuable features that prioritize what pharmacy owners want come from collaboration with clients. Datascan's pharmacy software solutions are intuitive, user-friendly, and pharmacy-focused.

Datascan continues to develop first-to-market features to stay ahead of the competition. These features are integrated directly into your pharmacy software system. So while the competition is concerned with how rapidly they can expand, Datascan is concerned with how to help your pharmacy boost profits and improve customer loyalty.

Key Features

Datascan's Winpharm is a pharmacy management system designed for independent retail pharmacies, compounding, hospital outpatient pharmacies, physician dispensaries, and long-term care pharmacies. It assists users in managing the everyday demands of running a successful independent pharmacy.

WinPharm software is packed full of cutting-edge technology and capabilities for establishing and operating a successful and lucrative independent pharmacy. It offers key features to move your pharmacy into the future, regardless of its model. Some of the key features are:

• Assisting pharmacies in designing a custom workflow solution that best fits within their day-to-day operations. There are also a variety of automated reports and tools available to help you optimize your workflow and save time. You can configure each tool for a customized workflow to execute when and how you need it.

• Your patients can better manage their medications with the free mobile scripts patient app and online web fills. Patients can also create an account to review current prescription information and statuses, link children under 18 to their parents, set medication reminders, and even find directions to the pharmacy.

• Help patients build medication adherence and compliance by getting involved in their treatment. Send text or email alerts to patients when it's time for a refill, when their prescriptions are available for pick up, ready for delivery, or have been dispatched. You can even send a personalized note on their birthdays! WinPharm also lets you create personalized custom messages to patients at any time. Pharmacies can also set up 2-way text messaging to provide easier patient access to pharmacists.

• Owners can automatically receive daily updates from the pharmacy and point of sale systems, whether they have a single location or numerous sites, from a central store management system. Run unlimited reports for your pharmacy and your front-end POS system and save the custom reports to easily recall later on.

• WinPharm software and Datascan POS have inventory features that help you to better manage your pharmacy's inventory in both the pharmacy department and the front end. You can order inventory from your wholesalers right in Datascan's software, and it can help you shop for the best pricing across your vendors!

The system can also look at historical ordering to help manage expectations and avoid over-ordering. Datascan also offers cutting-edge technology to assist you in capturing and analyzing losses, understanding claims, and managing DIR fees. Better inventory management and claims analytics build bigger profits back into your pharmacy.

Thanks to a one-of-a-kind system scheduler, your pharmacy can fill more prescriptions with the utmost level of care and efficiency as before. Datascan's system automation is fully customizable, allowing your employees to focus on providing next-level quality patient care.

Advantages of Datascan

Size

Most of the pharmacy software industry has been sold off and consolidated over the years into enormous firms encompassing many software vendors under one big group. Now, customers must wait longer for support, sometimes submitting a ticket and waiting up to weeks for a solution.

With these larger companies, pharmacy owners no longer have a voice for software ideas and updates as they become one of thousands and thousands of consumers. On the other hand, DataScan has been privately held for over 40 years, allowing them to treat their customers as individuals,  providing clients with near-immediate attention, and always giving them a voice.

Technology

Over the last 40+ years, DataScan has consistently remained ahead of the competition by delivering new features at no additional costs to its clients.

They were among the first to market a Windows-based pharmacy system and among the first companies to build a point-of-sale system specific to pharmacy from scratch. The competition charges additional monthly fees for the large majority of the technology Datascan includes in its monthly base fees.

Pricing

Whether it's startup costs or monthly fees, DataScan has remained one of the best-priced systems on the market for the last four decades.  Datascan offers competitive packages that work within any pharmacy's budget.

Support / Customer service

When you phone in for help, DataScan has one of the fastest response times in the business and one of the quickest turnaround times for resolving issues and handling complaints. They are well-known for their prompt replies, short turnaround times, and support representatives that put you at ease when you need them.

The process is simple and quick if you need to escalate an issue. You can expect to immediately speak with the head of support or the company's vice president.  Top executives are within reach with this smaller-sized firm.

Datascan is committed to collaborating with clients and building a better product daily. They boast the highest client retention percentage industry-wide. Countless successful independent pharmacies have relied on Datascan for decades and utilize its products to expand their operations.

Datascan is currently a privately held company owned by President Kevin Minassian.

#2 PioneerRx

PioneerRx Pharmacy Software is delighted to help small pharmacies committed to positively impacting their communities. Even during the pandemic, its team continues to produce new software innovations that streamline pharmacy efficiency. PioneerRx's objective is to save and revitalize independent pharmacies alongside those who use its best pharmacy software daily and create a sustainable future for community pharmacies worldwide.

Among the most notable features are the messaging options. Thanks to the new Pharmacy-to-Pharmacy Messaging function, pharmacists may now connect with others in the PioneerRx network easily and quickly. They can contact other locations within the same firm or pharmacies in the same neighborhood, ask questions, get answers, and seek advice on one easy-to-use platform.

It also significantly improves efficiency and inventory management. Medication synchronization can dramatically increase "patient adherence and convenience," which leads to customer satisfaction.

A Patient Risk Score also allows pharmacists to demonstrate their value to payers by offering further intervention to patients at risk of significant health effects.

Key Features and Advantages

• Improved communications between pharmacy owner and pharmacy manager

• Put patients at the front with features like Risk Score, Automatic Refill, Patient Engagement, and more

• Features enhanced workflow so you can run your pharmacy better

• Manages your processes all under one central office

Pioneer RX is owned by Francisco Partners, a growth equity firm that owns QS1 and other firms under the corporate umbrella of Redsail Technologies.

#3 PrimeRx

PrimeRx is another industry-leading pharmacy management software solution designed exclusively for today's busy pharmacies nationwide. It offers a comprehensive system with complete customer relationship management control from a single platform, acting as the pharmacy's backbone.

It includes critical services such as workflow and inventory management, patient and provider intake, prescription processing, labeling & dispensing, and patient record management. Beyond that, this pharmacy software has additional features for long-term, compounding, and specialty pharmacies. Overall, it provides a comprehensive pharmacy dispensing solution that boosts productivity and customer relationships.

The PrimeRx platform was created in direct response to the demands of pharmacists. Pharmacists desire a user-friendly, technology-based solution to increase productivity, automate essential operations, and better serve patients. PrimeRx meets these standards and regularly adds functionality to satisfy the evolving demands of today's pharmacies.

Key Features and Advantages

• Easy to use, scalable and intuitive for newbies

• Workflows that can be customized to improve pharmacy operations

• Process automation to improve user efficiency

• Features for medication synchronization, clinical evaluations, patient commutation, and business analytics services

• With an automated refill system and workflow management

TA Associates, a private equity firm, currently owns Micro Merchants.

#4 Rx30

Independent pharmacies exist in various sizes and forms. It could be a central site administration for many sites or a bedside and delivery application for nursing homes and hospitals. Fortunately, the Rx30 pharmacy management system offers everything you need to achieve your pharmacy goals. It provides the tools you need to boost patient engagement in your retail pharmacy, develop into a pharmaceutical company, or add value to your hospital system.

Rx30's distinctive central best pharmacy software links the pharmacy administration and point of sale systems. It's also responsible for merging commercial and clinical activities into a single comprehensive, end-to-end solution.

It has an innovative 360 Solution, which integrates drug treatment management and clinical service options into the Rx30 pharmacy software. It aims to increase pharmacy income and enhance pharmacy quality performance. It can also improve patient engagement and handle problems in real-time with in-workflow notifications.

Overall, Rx30's commercial services will help you achieve your pharmaceutical goals. Custom business services allow you to concentrate on the specific demands of your pharmacy. Utilize their extensive variety of company services to optimize operations and increase profitability.

Key Features and Advantages

• Using customizable workflow and inventory management technologies based on prescription filling

• Improved medication synchronization by automating and expediting prescription processing

• Integrated point-of-sale systems provide a unified solution that includes in-store, drive-thru, curbside, and delivery choices.

• Patient applications and outbound communication to help you improve patient engagement and outreach.

RX30, also known as TDS / Transaction Data Systems, is owned by Blackrock LTPC, as well as Computer RX, a former RX30 competitor, and Lagniappe Health which comprised multiple pharmacy software products as of a few years ago.

#5 BestRx

BestRx offers a full-service, integrated pharmacy management software solution for independent pharmacies wishing to grow their business. Thanks to its extensive industry experience and an unrelenting dedication to community pharmacies, it can provide the best intuitive tools, first-to-market innovations, and quick customer support.

Some of the most valuable elements for making your job simpler are incorporated into BestRx, allowing you to handle everything in one platform. This pharmaceutical management software adapts to your workflow, not the other way around. BestRx provides genuinely personalized solutions, allowing you to do tasks with a single click.

It's also easier to manage patient information and prescriptions. For example, a simple barcode scan can instantly populate patient information. And its auto-process tools allow you to automate time-consuming prescription refills with the push of a button.

With BestRx, there are additional strategies to improve consumer engagement. Two-way texting and eCare cooperation work together to close the communication gap between patients and professional pharmacists. In addition, job management choices, reporting, and financial control are available to help you manage your organization and profit.

Key Features and Advantages

• Made for your specific workflows

• Automatic and seamless management of prescriptions

• Includes messaging feature for easier customer relations

• It helps you stay organized with different management options

• Reporting and financial control to raise profits

Best RX is a privately held company owned by the Desai family and run by Hemal Desai, President.

Why Is Choosing the Right Pharmacy Management System Important?

The best pharmacy software ensures that your pharmacy runs efficiently and maximizes profitability. It will also help ensure that your patients' lives are in good hands. When operating an independent community pharmacy in today's competitive industry, two of the most crucial vendor relationships that can make or break you are your primary wholesaler and your pharmacy software vendor.

With the right pharmacy software, you can automate tasks, work with less staff, monitor DIR fees, scale inventory to avoid waste, shop across vendors, maximize refills, and build patient care and overall patient profitability.  This is easily accomplished with our top 5 best pharmacy software systems.