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Benefits of In-Office Dispensing


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A WIN - WIN WAY
TO IMPROVE YOUR BOTTOM LINE

In-Office Dispensing is service patients appreciate,
key to maintaining financial health of your practice

Your practice is booming.  Appointments are scheduled several weeks out, and you always put in a full day.  Accounts Receivable is in great shape.

So why does your bookkeeper have such a long face?
Reimbursement levels, that's why.

Managed care continually scales back the amount you're reimbursed for your services. A sluggish economy and low returns on investments means patients, especially those on fixed incomes, are slow to keep their balances current. The glacial pace of state and federal reimbursements means the gap between amounts billed and amounts received is only going to grow larger.

There's a way to solve this problem that benefits both the health of your practice and the health of your patients. It's called In-Office Dispensing.

IT'S A SERVICE, NOT A SALE:
As recently as the 1990s, many healthcare professionals were reluctant to offer products such as foot balms and therapeutic inserts to their patients. You're healthcare  professionals, after all, not sales clerks.

A new generation of healthcare professionals sees it differently. They've caught on to what other dermatologists, chiropractors, podiatrists, ophthalmologists, and massage therapists have known for a long time: Dispensing quality products to patients is a much-appreciated convenience that has demonstrable value in patient care.

Your patients don't consider what you do to be "selling." Rather, they regard you as offering an added service that will relieve their symptoms.

PATIENTS APPRECIATE THE CONVENIENCE:
Think about it. When you make it easy for patients to obtain carefully formulated, effective products that enhance foot healing and maintain foot health, you greatly increase the likelihood that the patient will follow your advice for continuing treatment at home.

Sure, you could suggest drugstore products. You could even write down the names of the appropriate products and hand it to them. But what are the chances that most patients will take the time to track down just the right product in the one pharmacy in their neighborhood that carries it. Even if they are able to locate it in the store, the chances are even that they will go with a bargain-priced but potentially less effective version based on package claims or something they saw advertised in the back of a magazine.

And further, because you are a healthcare professional and not a sales clerk, you will have no idea when the drugstore product is discontinued, or the formulation is changed, or the packaging is changed in a way that discourages patients from using it.

When you sell it over the counter in your practice, however, you know exactly what your patients are buying, how fresh the product is, who the manufacturer is (none of this "Distributed by" anonymity), and how effective it is.

DISPENSING ADDS VALUE TO YOUR PRACTICE:
Selling products you trust through your practice enhances both your professional credibility and patient outcomes.

Patients are more likely to use a product if it's available exclusively through your office, especially after you personally assure them that it is effective, show them how to use it, hand them a well-designed brochure or fact sheet about the product, and then tell them: "Call the office next week and let us know how this is working for you."

Inevitably, they will tell their friends about the great care and great products you provide, greatly enhancing the reputation of you and your practice.

IMMEDIATE PAYBACK:
Beyond the intangibles of goodwill and potential patient referrals, there is a very immediate and quantifiable benefit to dispensing products to your patients:

It improves your bottom line—with very little effort on your part.

By dispensing products the patient needs and which you can personally vouch for, at a reasonable price that includes a healthy profit margin, you boost your immediate revenue. If you were to begin selling only a half-dozen items that patients would buy anyway from someone else, and sold just one to each patient who visited in the course of a month, the net profit could increase your monthly income by thousands of dollars.

Absolutely no hard sell is involved. Most of the time, all you will have to do is tell the patient about the product, perhaps demonstrate it, and suggest they talk with your office staff on the way out if they're interested. That removes you from the transaction.

You also can train your office support staff to gently ask patients who have previously bought products, "How is Product X working for you?" or "Do you need any Product X today?"

EVERYBODY WINS:
In the face of declining reimbursements and greater patient load, you owe it to yourself and your patients to keep your practice financially sound. With a minimum of staff time and training, dispensing products over-the-counter can dramatically improve your bottom line.

At the same time, in-office sales not only improves patient outcomes, they also enhance your reputation and that of your practice. Patients feel assured of your personal concern and have confidence in the products you recommend.

By dispensing products in-house, you're not selling. You're investing in your patients' futures and in your own.


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