5 Strategies of Independent Pharmacies/Convenient Care Centers Successfully Addressing Neuropathy

Independent pharmacies and convenient care clinics occupy special places in the medical industry. Patients turn to them for assistance managing their health conditions and care needs. Since consumers bear more financial responsibility for healthcare these days, engaging with their pharmacists and clinicians has become even more crucial. But some patients prove more likely to fall through the cracks, especially when it comes to conditions like diabetic neuropathy.

Peripheral neuropathy impacts more than 50 percent of those managing diabetes, per the National Center for Biotechnology Information. This serious condition, fueled by high blood sugar, can lead to irreversible nerve damage, loss of independence, loss of a driver’s license, and an amputation in many cases. While symptoms usually manifest in the feet, legs, and hands  they may also affect the kidneys, bladder, and other body parts. 

Fortunately, your facility can fill vital gaps, ensuring patients with neuropathy and their caregivers benefit from the latest technologies. Here are five medical business strategies to help your pharmacy or convenient care clinic take charge and dominate this space.

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1) Deepen the Patient Relationship

You’re in a unique position to raise awareness about peripheral neuropathy, which may get overlooked during annual check-ups. For example, you can screen patients quickly and effectively and then recommend affordable care options like photobiomodulation delivered via the NeuropaCalm Care Program. 

Coupled with healthy eating and proper supplementation with nitric oxide, this proactive approach represents the best solution for addressing diabetic neuropathy. What’s more, you’ll deepen the relationship you already enjoy with patients.

2) Get Proactive About Expansion Opportunities

It’s also vital that you see and take advantage of expansion opportunities. In the case of peripheral neuropathy, independent pharmacies and convenient care clinics fill a unique position because they’re perceived as more trustworthy and compassionate than other medical professionals and your facility likely already provides weight management, diabetes wellness and fall risk reduction programs. 

Because you offer patient consults and engage with customers on a monthly (or more frequent) basis, you are optimally positioned to help those suffering from neuropathy. While better addressing patient needs, you’ll also effortlessly expand revenue generation opportunities at your pharmacy.

3) Personalize the Customer Experience

You know who’s purchasing diabetic medications. And you also recognize neuropathy patients getting treated with pregabalin, statins, and gabapentin. What’s more, you likely interact with their caregivers, too. This translates into multiple opportunities to personalize the customer experience, providing resources needed for improved quality of life. 

After all, nobody wants to suffer neuropathic deterioration alone and unaware of their options. That’s where your facility comes in with suggestions and resources to help patients get their lives back on track while making things a little easier for their caregivers, too.

4) Raise Awareness and Improve Quality of Life

Starting the neuropathic identification process is as simple as having patients or caregivers fill out a complaint questionnaire. This questionnaire will help you determine whether an individual is a candidate. 

Next, you or a technician can administer a multipoint sensation severity test in as little as ten minutes. Once a patient has completed this test, you can provide them with a proven plan to meet their unique needs. We’re here to help your pharmacy with this process every step of the way.

5) Understand Your  Unique Role

Best of all, successfully addressing peripheral neuropathy comes with almost no patient acquisition costs, unlike physical therapists and chiropractors who can easily spend $1,500 for the opportunity to provide a care plan.  And there is no investment in expensive testing equipment. Inventory is minimal and is not “on the shelf”.

Medicare reimbursement may also be available for limited assessment services. In other words, independent pharmacists and convenient care centers are ideally positioned to tap into this market.

Independent Pharmacies and Peripheral Neuropathy

In 2015, total revenues for specialty, retail, and mail pharmacies reached an estimated $364.1 billion. That’s an increase of 12.1 percent over 2014, as reported by Drug Channels Institute. With this uptick in business, pharmacies face new challenges balancing increasing volume with personalized services. 
Independent pharmacies and convenient care clinics occupy a unique role when it comes to medical care, and they enjoy a strategic vantage point.

To care for your customers most successfully, you must enhance customer experience while raising awareness about the issues and conditions that matter most, like peripheral neuropathy related to diabetes or other causes. We can help. you do this.

We provide the opportunity, and you provide the hope to your clients. Contact us today to find out more about the NeuropaCalm Care Program and to schedule a webinar for more in-depth information.