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The Pharmacist's Playbook for Modernizing Patient Care | NimbleRx Podcast Series · Pharmacy Podcast Network

0:05
Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
0:09
Speaker 1: to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
0:24
Speaker 2: Welcome to the nimble rx podcast. It's worth repeating that
0:30
Speaker 2: rapidly evolving technology is making waves of change throughout the
0:34
Speaker 2: pharmacy industry. Patients expect faster, easier, and more transparent digital experiences.
0:41
Speaker 2: At the same time, pharmacy teams face staffing constraints, reimbursement challenges,
0:46
Speaker 2: operational complexity, and increasing demand for clinical services. To make
0:51
Speaker 2: sure you're not left behind, nimble rx has created this
0:55
Speaker 2: special podcast series to keep you light on your feet
0:59
Speaker 2: in this fast paced heero pharmacy.
1:03
Speaker 3: Been waiting for this interview. My name is Todd Here,
1:06
Speaker 3: found of the Pharmacy Podcast Network. Have been excited to
1:10
Speaker 3: work with nimble Rx for some time and really understanding
1:15
Speaker 3: where the rubber meets the road, and that is the
1:17
Speaker 3: pharmacy operator, the pharmacy owner out there. How are they
1:22
Speaker 3: leveraging technology to get closer to the patient without bringing
1:27
Speaker 3: on more projects that they have to manage, that they
1:30
Speaker 3: have to design and its technology partners like Nimble I
1:35
Speaker 3: want to have an opportunity to have Kathy Collier with
1:40
Speaker 3: Express Ourx. Say hello to the listeners Kathy, and give
1:44
Speaker 3: a little reference on yourself and your pharmacy.
1:47
Speaker 4: Hi, thank you so much for having me today. I'm
1:49
Speaker 4: very excited to be here. I am Kathy Collyer. I'm
1:52
Speaker 4: regional vice president of Operations for Express Orex Pharmacies. We
1:57
Speaker 4: are a chain of twenty six locations in eight states.
2:00
Speaker 4: We're mostly in the South and a lot of our
2:03
Speaker 4: stores are located in rural areas.
2:07
Speaker 5: Excellent. Thank you so much.
2:08
Speaker 3: And you've grown because I think the last time I
2:11
Speaker 3: talked to you it might have been an NCPA. I
2:13
Speaker 3: don't know if you had that many locations, So it
2:16
Speaker 3: sounds like you're expanding, Yes.
2:18
Speaker 4: Always looking for new opportunities for sure.
2:21
Speaker 3: Scott von Dellen, it's so good to see you with
2:25
Speaker 3: Nimble RX.
2:26
Speaker 5: You've been part of the team.
2:28
Speaker 3: A lot of strategy coming out of the way that
2:31
Speaker 3: you think and the way that you leverage tech to
2:34
Speaker 3: bring more to our independent community pharmacies so that they
2:37
Speaker 3: can spend more time with their patients. Say hello to
2:41
Speaker 3: the listeners, just in case they're not watching us on
2:44
Speaker 3: YouTube or something, and give a little reference to some
2:48
Speaker 3: of what Nimble's excited about today.
2:51
Speaker 6: Yes, thank you Todd so much. It's great to be here.
2:54
Speaker 7: Scott von Dalen with Nimble RX, vice President of Sales,
2:58
Speaker 7: and so excited to have Kathy, one of our top
3:02
Speaker 7: customers with us here on the line today and super
3:05
Speaker 7: user of nimble r as with her locations and patient populations.
3:10
Speaker 7: We're working on a lot of things, but first and
3:13
Speaker 7: foremost we are just trying to make sure that our
3:15
Speaker 7: customers are happy with the technology that we provide in
3:18
Speaker 7: hopes of making the checkout experience with patients easier than
3:24
Speaker 7: it's ever been, more convenient, saving time and making more money.
3:28
Speaker 6: So excited to have a conversation today, well, I.
3:32
Speaker 3: Am as well, and someone who's watched technology be forcefully
3:38
Speaker 3: infused into pharmacies fifteen twenty years ago and now it's
3:45
Speaker 3: I don't want to necessarily say it's easier.
3:47
Speaker 5: That's not the key word.
3:48
Speaker 3: I think the better word is now our pharmacy operators
3:53
Speaker 3: understand better.
3:55
Speaker 5: And the advent of.
3:59
Speaker 3: EMARS and patient connection and website development and e commerce,
4:06
Speaker 3: there were so many challenges going between probably two thousand
4:10
Speaker 3: and five ish through twenty fifteen, and then now we've
4:14
Speaker 3: gotten our arms around this.
4:16
Speaker 5: Social media is just on fire. It's taken place.
4:19
Speaker 3: Our mobile phones, for goodness sakes, rule everything that we do,
4:23
Speaker 3: rule everything that our patients are experiencing. They want easy access,
4:27
Speaker 3: they want to check out. The Amazon effect has taken
4:31
Speaker 3: taken hold. I want the two of you to kind
4:34
Speaker 3: of discuss this because even though we're at we're at
4:39
Speaker 3: a place in the realm of community and independent community
4:43
Speaker 3: pharmacy and technology, and I think it's rolling. It's like
4:46
Speaker 3: we don't have the obstacles that we did maybe five
4:48
Speaker 3: ten years ago. We still want to address the modern
4:52
Speaker 3: patient expectations. We still need to address something that's frictionless.
4:59
Speaker 3: It's super easy to be involved on an online payment.
5:03
Speaker 3: But I want that I want to hear that from
5:06
Speaker 3: the perspective of you, Kathy, because like me, we're all
5:09
Speaker 3: three of us are old enough to remember with life
5:12
Speaker 3: without a mobile phone, for goodness sakes, but exactly talk
5:16
Speaker 3: about talk to us, Kathy, about those challenges of getting
5:19
Speaker 3: where we were that two thousand and five, twenty ten, fifteen,
5:23
Speaker 3: and now all of a sudden, it's accelerating. Because if
5:25
Speaker 3: you're not accelerating, you're going to be left in the
5:28
Speaker 3: dust and they're just going to go your patients are
5:30
Speaker 3: going to do business somewhere else exactly.
5:34
Speaker 4: Well, and our patient population keeps changing and the expectations
5:37
Speaker 4: of our patients change, right. So, our older population, although
5:40
Speaker 4: they're getting better with their phones, they're not necessarily used
5:44
Speaker 4: to that. But our younger generations everything is done on
5:47
Speaker 4: their phone. Everything is technology related and really kind of
5:53
Speaker 4: not with the personal connection that we originally had when
5:56
Speaker 4: we started our careers. So we definitely have had to
5:59
Speaker 4: pivot and keep relevant in that way. I think the
6:03
Speaker 4: pandemic also drove a lot of those things where we
6:05
Speaker 4: had to figure out ways to still take care of
6:08
Speaker 4: our patients but kind of lose some touch points so
6:11
Speaker 4: that we weren't touching the same things and so that
6:14
Speaker 4: they could pay things remotely. So all of these kind
6:17
Speaker 4: of accelerated that. For us. We are a smaller company
6:21
Speaker 4: with a very small corporate office, so we don't have
6:24
Speaker 4: the ability or the staff to be able to come
6:28
Speaker 4: up with all these things on our own. We really
6:30
Speaker 4: need to have partners such as Nimble that are doing
6:33
Speaker 4: this workforce and have the resources for us and can
6:36
Speaker 4: provide the tools that you know, quite honestly, on our
6:38
Speaker 4: own we can't do. But it's important. And what's surprising
6:43
Speaker 4: to me a little bit is it's not just the
6:45
Speaker 4: younger generation that's embracing this technology. The older generation is
6:49
Speaker 4: probably using it just as much because you know, they
6:52
Speaker 4: either have people stopping by to pick up medications for them,
6:55
Speaker 4: or they just like the ease of just swinging by
6:59
Speaker 4: getting it and not going through the entire transaction. So
7:03
Speaker 4: you know, for us, we're freeing up a little time
7:05
Speaker 4: at the register where we're not doing the mundane task
7:08
Speaker 4: of scanning your receipt getting your payment, but now we
7:12
Speaker 4: can just talk to you for a minute, hand you
7:14
Speaker 4: the product that's already paid for and taken care of,
7:17
Speaker 4: and we're taking care of your needs. In that way,
7:20
Speaker 4: we're still communicating with you. We haven't lost that very
7:22
Speaker 4: important factor of being pharmacists, but we've taken away some
7:26
Speaker 4: of just the menial work that goes into that. But
7:29
Speaker 4: what originally drove us to Nimble was looking for a
7:33
Speaker 4: click to pay option, and like I said, we just
7:36
Speaker 4: didn't have the resources to come up with that on
7:38
Speaker 4: our own, and so Nimble we talked to a lot
7:41
Speaker 4: of people, and Nimble gave us that partnership that we
7:44
Speaker 4: were looking for and since then, they've worked really well
7:47
Speaker 4: with us as far as meeting our needs for our
7:50
Speaker 4: particular workflow with our pharmacy management system. You know, That's
7:54
Speaker 4: what I've really liked is we haven't had to fit
7:56
Speaker 4: into their mold. They've actually worked really well to to
8:00
Speaker 4: integrate into our workflow and they listen to us. Sound
8:02
Speaker 4: like that a lot.
8:05
Speaker 3: That is the key, Kathy. It's meeting you where you
8:09
Speaker 3: are and nimble, being able to surround you and make pivots.
8:14
Speaker 3: But that's exactly what you're doing for your patient. You know,
8:18
Speaker 3: when I think of the baby boomers, my mom and
8:22
Speaker 3: my dad, I'm a gen xer, Millennials, Generation Z, the
8:28
Speaker 3: ones that feel clunky with maybe the adoption of technology
8:35
Speaker 3: is not really necessarily the generation. It's the person that
8:39
Speaker 3: doesn't want to try something new. Because my mom and
8:42
Speaker 3: dad are are lightning fast with social media and using
8:48
Speaker 3: their phones and they have no barriers. However, I'll talk
8:52
Speaker 3: to people my age or even a little younger than
8:54
Speaker 3: me that will be not I can tell down deep
8:57
Speaker 3: inside they don't want to use the technology. So it's
9:00
Speaker 3: not like it's difficult, it's like you just don't want
9:02
Speaker 3: to do it. You don't want to take the time
9:04
Speaker 3: to learn it. Right, But what I just said is
9:08
Speaker 3: the same attitudes and the same challenges that some of
9:11
Speaker 3: our pharmacy operators are experiencing, and they're blaming other aspects
9:17
Speaker 3: of business and operations with lack of efficiency and lack
9:21
Speaker 3: of connection. And it really comes down to the head
9:24
Speaker 3: and the leadership. That's why leadership is just so so important.
9:28
Speaker 3: As a leader in running multiple pharmacies, you had to
9:33
Speaker 3: make a decision at the executive level of saying we
9:36
Speaker 3: are going to adopt technology because that's what our patients want,
9:40
Speaker 3: that's what they need. Expand upon kind of that shift
9:44
Speaker 3: in mind thinking in order to keep up with what
9:47
Speaker 3: the consumer is demanding.
9:50
Speaker 4: Right, And you're exactly right. A lot of the hurdles
9:55
Speaker 4: to adaptation is just the unwillingness to accept any sort
9:58
Speaker 4: of change. And in this case, we need to embrace change.
10:03
Speaker 4: This is this is the way of the world. I mean,
10:05
Speaker 4: everyone gets their groceries delivered to their front door. You know,
10:08
Speaker 4: you're used to being able to go on your phone
10:11
Speaker 4: and find an item and have it delivered the next day.
10:14
Speaker 4: So pharmacy, you know, we've got to stay We've got
10:18
Speaker 4: to stay relevant. We've got to stay on top of that.
10:21
Speaker 4: And although none of us want to get rid of
10:23
Speaker 4: the brick and mortar mortar pharmacies, I mean, I hope
10:25
Speaker 4: forever that we always have brick and mortar buildings where
10:29
Speaker 4: you can go and you can see a pharmacist and
10:31
Speaker 4: you can pick up your medications. We do need to
10:33
Speaker 4: streamline it, and we need to make it where it's
10:35
Speaker 4: where it's easier. And at the end of the day,
10:37
Speaker 4: the register transaction is the least important part of the
10:41
Speaker 4: whole process. So if you can, if you can free
10:44
Speaker 4: yourself up from the register and they're making the payment online,
10:48
Speaker 4: that gives you a chance just to visit with them
10:50
Speaker 4: about the side effects of their medication, or how they're
10:52
Speaker 4: doing with their medication, or how their recent family vacation was.
10:57
Speaker 4: You know. It kind of kind of goes back to
10:58
Speaker 4: the old school pharmacy where the pharmacists actually had time
11:02
Speaker 4: to spend with their customer and get to know them,
11:05
Speaker 4: you know, maybe maybe catch something along the way that
11:08
Speaker 4: their doctor's office hasn't been able to or or help
11:11
Speaker 4: with their patient with some hurdles that they have taking
11:14
Speaker 4: their medications. So, you know, for us, we just we
11:17
Speaker 4: needed to find a way that we could provide the
11:19
Speaker 4: service for our patients because they were asking for it,
11:23
Speaker 4: you know. More than once we would get, you know,
11:26
Speaker 4: calls saying, how can I pay for this online? Can
11:28
Speaker 4: someone else pay for this for? You know? And none
11:31
Speaker 4: of us like to just take a credit card number
11:33
Speaker 4: over the phone. You know, that's that's not a very
11:36
Speaker 4: safe way of doing business. So finding the click to
11:39
Speaker 4: pay options was necessary for us. And there are a
11:44
Speaker 4: lot of choices out there, for sure. You've got to
11:45
Speaker 4: do your got to do your homework and find the
11:48
Speaker 4: one that works, you know best for you and your patients.
11:51
Speaker 4: And that's that's how we came across Nimble.
11:54
Speaker 3: Scott Kathy said ease. But what ease really means is efficiency,
12:00
Speaker 3: especially from the operational perspective. And we don't want patients,
12:04
Speaker 3: We don't want people that are in our pharmacies or
12:08
Speaker 3: outside of our pharmacies for that matter. We don't want
12:11
Speaker 3: them to see any of the ropes being pulled or
12:14
Speaker 3: any of the gears turning. Like it all has to
12:16
Speaker 3: be seamless, it has to feel ease, it has to
12:19
Speaker 3: feel efficient. To talk to us about operational efficiency, how
12:24
Speaker 3: Nimble reduces that phone tag back and forth the manual checkouts,
12:30
Speaker 3: allowing the staff to pivot from administrative tasks to being
12:35
Speaker 3: back in front of the patient or digging down into
12:38
Speaker 3: something clinical. Kind of open up to our listeners about
12:41
Speaker 3: the philosophies that have come from Nimble that way, it's.
12:44
Speaker 6: A good question.
12:46
Speaker 7: I think, you know, Kathy said a lot of wonderful
12:49
Speaker 7: things there, and she's you know, she's the one in
12:52
Speaker 7: the trenches, on the front line dealing with the patients.
12:54
Speaker 7: I am not a pharmacist for the record, and I
12:58
Speaker 7: have never owned or worked in a pharmacy, but I've
13:01
Speaker 7: been in pharmacy technology for sixteen seventeen years now, and
13:04
Speaker 7: so I know that Kathy and other owners, you know,
13:09
Speaker 7: are always looking to your point for those you know,
13:11
Speaker 7: how do we become more efficient and how do we
13:13
Speaker 7: spend more quality time with the patient. I think Kathy
13:16
Speaker 7: just said right, freeing up some time, taking away a
13:20
Speaker 7: part of the friction, which is the transaction at the
13:23
Speaker 7: cash register that we've you know, you're talking about generations
13:26
Speaker 7: like that's how we grew up, right, it was always there,
13:27
Speaker 7: but now with the emergence of these apps.
13:30
Speaker 6: Door Dash is a great example that I always joking.
13:32
Speaker 7: They tell people, hey, you know, you probably don't want
13:35
Speaker 7: to use door dash, but you probably use it more
13:38
Speaker 7: than you probably use it more than more than you
13:41
Speaker 7: should or more than you'd like to, because you become
13:44
Speaker 7: used to that convenience.
13:45
Speaker 6: We've all become used to that convenience.
13:47
Speaker 7: As Kathy said, getting groceries at your door, you know,
13:49
Speaker 7: clicking on an item that you need that is magically
13:52
Speaker 7: at your door three hours later. Is so with Nimble,
13:55
Speaker 7: it's no different. It's creating that efficiency for pharmacy that really,
13:59
Speaker 7: you know, hasn't been available until the last few years
14:02
Speaker 7: in the marketplace. Creating a seamless and frictionless environment with
14:06
Speaker 7: technology for the patient to be able to just check out,
14:09
Speaker 7: have that medication delivered to their front door, or like
14:13
Speaker 7: Kathy you mentioned, right. Still, so many patients want to
14:15
Speaker 7: come in because they want that interaction at the pharmacy.
14:17
Speaker 7: They like to see the staff, especially some of the
14:19
Speaker 7: older patients who make it a thing to come in.
14:21
Speaker 7: Maybe they buy some front in merchandise, They talk to
14:23
Speaker 7: the technician, they talk to the pharmacist, but everything's already
14:27
Speaker 7: been paid for from a prescription standpoint. So I think
14:31
Speaker 7: we've done an excellent job. I wish I could take
14:32
Speaker 7: credit for developing the products. I'm not that smart. I
14:35
Speaker 7: did not go to school for engineering, so that our
14:39
Speaker 7: engineers have done an amazing job and continue to do
14:42
Speaker 7: an amazing job and developing future releases in the product
14:45
Speaker 7: and make it even better than it is today. And
14:46
Speaker 7: then the final thing I'll say is the sort of
14:50
Speaker 7: workflow piece that you mentioned.
14:52
Speaker 6: It does depend on the pharmacy management system.
14:54
Speaker 7: So Kathy, as she's a Pioneer user at all of
14:58
Speaker 7: her locations, is a fantastic stick system. It's one of
15:01
Speaker 7: our many integrated partners, but there are different levels of
15:04
Speaker 7: integration depending on what pharmacy management system that you use.
15:07
Speaker 6: Pioneer just happens to be absolutely one of the best.
15:12
Speaker 3: I like the fact that it's not limited to the
15:15
Speaker 3: single prescription transaction along the way, because that's not the
15:20
Speaker 3: way the consumer thinks anymore. The consumer isn't thinking linear.
15:24
Speaker 3: The consumer says, hey, I want to check out because
15:27
Speaker 3: I have this prescription, but there might be another OTC
15:30
Speaker 3: item that I want involved in this order.
15:34
Speaker 5: And then in.
15:35
Speaker 3: Your perspective, Kathy, especially with texts that are kind of
15:39
Speaker 3: prompted to understand and certainly are pharmacists who understand there
15:44
Speaker 3: are over the counter products that complement a specific prescription
15:48
Speaker 3: or a specific medication that may complement the therapy. We
15:53
Speaker 3: don't want the checkout experience to limit the ability to
15:58
Speaker 3: put something more in their basket. They already are used
16:02
Speaker 3: to using the Amazon world, they're used to checking out
16:05
Speaker 3: on door dash like Scodhead reference. We don't want limitations.
16:10
Speaker 3: We want to make.
16:11
Speaker 5: This as seamless as possible.
16:13
Speaker 3: So talk to us about that experience, the kind of
16:15
Speaker 3: feedback that you've received from your patients. And sometimes the
16:20
Speaker 3: best feedback is no feedback because then there's no complaints.
16:24
Speaker 5: But has there ever been.
16:27
Speaker 3: Any of your customers, any of your clients, people in
16:30
Speaker 3: the community that has given feedback to the ease of
16:33
Speaker 3: doing business with express Rex.
16:36
Speaker 4: So at this time, we don't have the option of
16:38
Speaker 4: being able to shop an e commerce store on our site,
16:42
Speaker 4: just simply because our stores are in eight states and
16:47
Speaker 4: we don't have a consistent front end in each one
16:50
Speaker 4: of those stores, so we don't have that option where
16:52
Speaker 4: they can shop for products. Now we can put that
16:56
Speaker 4: on a sale, but at this time that is something
16:58
Speaker 4: for us to strive for to have more of an
17:00
Speaker 4: e commerce site, but we do not have that at
17:02
Speaker 4: this time. We get a lot of great feedback on
17:06
Speaker 4: our customers that do use Nimble to check out, simply
17:10
Speaker 4: because it is easy. The app is extremely easy. It's
17:13
Speaker 4: a text message that comes to them. They can either
17:16
Speaker 4: have the Nimble app or they can just use the
17:18
Speaker 4: text message link for that particular prescription. You can also,
17:23
Speaker 4: you know, if you take care of your spouse's prescription
17:25
Speaker 4: or other children's prescriptions, you can take care of it
17:28
Speaker 4: in that way. I really do not get complaints about
17:31
Speaker 4: the Nimble app or how easy or hard it is
17:34
Speaker 4: to check out a prescription. Most people are very happy
17:38
Speaker 4: with the ease of which they could take care of
17:40
Speaker 4: the transaction. It collects the signature that all important signature
17:44
Speaker 4: that we need for every third party contract and audit
17:48
Speaker 4: that comes along. It captures that, it stores it in
17:51
Speaker 4: our pharmacy management system. So it's just a very easy,
17:55
Speaker 4: simple process. We check the prescription, it shows completed in
17:59
Speaker 4: our system, and within minutes they get a text from
18:03
Speaker 4: Nimble stating that they have a prescription ready for pickup,
18:06
Speaker 4: what it is and how much it is. So it's
18:09
Speaker 4: a very nice.
18:10
Speaker 3: Process integration that Scott was mentioning was always the it
18:18
Speaker 3: was always the friction point. When I started in the
18:21
Speaker 3: pharmacy industry, it was through pharmacy technology. Scott and I
18:25
Speaker 3: share those kindred backgrounds and similar backgrounds in pharmacy tech,
18:31
Speaker 3: and I.
18:31
Speaker 5: Remember the dreaded word in a.
18:36
Speaker 3: Process of evaluation of a pharmacy system was the dreaded API.
18:40
Speaker 3: The integration from one system to the next, and today's
18:45
Speaker 3: programming and the advent of AI not even being it's
18:50
Speaker 3: not even future, it's here, it's working, it's it's being utilized.
18:54
Speaker 5: Talk to us about.
18:55
Speaker 3: Integration and that is the flow of having your patient record,
19:00
Speaker 3: you have their address, you have all their information, everything
19:03
Speaker 3: that they need. Talk to us about that integration between
19:07
Speaker 3: the two systems and the ease that that's brought to
19:10
Speaker 3: your operation.
19:13
Speaker 4: I want to say that is definitely the reason that
19:15
Speaker 4: I am so happy that we are with Nimble and
19:18
Speaker 4: not some other products that are out there, because they
19:20
Speaker 4: have been amazing to work with. And I would just
19:23
Speaker 4: say anytime I hear someone that talks about how they're
19:26
Speaker 4: having trouble integrating with whatever click to pay option they've chosen,
19:31
Speaker 4: even if it is Nimble, I've always said, just talk
19:34
Speaker 4: to them. You must not be communicating with them because
19:37
Speaker 4: anything we have brought to them we have worked through.
19:40
Speaker 4: So of course, in the very beginning, it's a learning curve.
19:43
Speaker 4: There's a process to a little bit of a change
19:46
Speaker 4: in our workflow and how do we balance that. You know,
19:51
Speaker 4: some prescriptions are still needing to be checked out at
19:53
Speaker 4: the register, some are hanging in bags and they're already
19:56
Speaker 4: paid for. So working with Nimble to come up with
19:59
Speaker 4: a SYS that worked with our workflow made it very
20:02
Speaker 4: simple for our employees, but also made us look like
20:07
Speaker 4: we knew what was going on when we walked up
20:09
Speaker 4: to the register because for me, one of the most
20:10
Speaker 4: important things was I did not want to look disorganized
20:14
Speaker 4: when we walked up there. So I wanted to know
20:16
Speaker 4: as I was walking up there with the bag in
20:18
Speaker 4: my hand, that this prescription was already paid for, versus
20:21
Speaker 4: waiting to find out that the register that you'd paid online.
20:25
Speaker 4: So we worked with Nibble. We've developed a lot of programs.
20:27
Speaker 4: They worked behind the scenes in an amazing way to
20:31
Speaker 4: work with pioneer our pms to become fully integrated where
20:35
Speaker 4: we didn't have to go to a second platform, because
20:38
Speaker 4: that's another barrier, right if you're having to log into
20:41
Speaker 4: your pharmacy management system which you're working in all day long,
20:44
Speaker 4: and then also having to go to a separate system
20:47
Speaker 4: to log in and find out the information you need
20:50
Speaker 4: for transactions, that's just one more step for failure along
20:53
Speaker 4: the workflow process. So I really appreciated that they saw
20:56
Speaker 4: the importance to us to have it as a smooth,
20:59
Speaker 4: integrated process rather than two separate steps, and we worked
21:04
Speaker 4: through it. It took a little time, obviously, that's development
21:06
Speaker 4: on their side that they worked through, which was great
21:11
Speaker 4: for me because, like I said before, we don't have
21:13
Speaker 4: we don't have the resources within our corporate office to
21:16
Speaker 4: do that. So the fact that they were willing to
21:18
Speaker 4: do that for us and work with us, and I
21:21
Speaker 4: think it's made a lot of their customers happy that
21:23
Speaker 4: they're able to now just use one platform, which is
21:26
Speaker 4: our PMS system, to be able to process all of
21:29
Speaker 4: these these transactions and see the information there. So now
21:34
Speaker 4: when a customer calls, I can see that they have
21:37
Speaker 4: paid for this already online through Nimble, versus having to
21:40
Speaker 4: log into a Nimble platform and see that the cashier
21:44
Speaker 4: at the register can see that information. We even made
21:48
Speaker 4: just little cards that we slip in the bag once
21:50
Speaker 4: we know that it's paid for through Nimble, So the
21:54
Speaker 4: bag as they're carrying it to the front, they know
21:56
Speaker 4: that this was already paid for. It changes your wording
21:58
Speaker 4: in the transaction. You're walking up and saying, oh, thank
22:02
Speaker 4: you for checking out on Nimble. Do you have any
22:04
Speaker 4: questions for the pharmacists today? You know, your whole conversation
22:07
Speaker 4: is different versus when you're walking up with a bag
22:10
Speaker 4: that they still need to pay for. Then you're having
22:12
Speaker 4: to have that transactional conversation first before you get down
22:16
Speaker 4: to the nuts and bolts of what you might need
22:18
Speaker 4: to ask the pharmacists while you're there. So I have
22:21
Speaker 4: greatly appreciated their willingness to work with us, to integrate
22:25
Speaker 4: with our system, to listen to us when we said,
22:29
Speaker 4: you know, this is causing a little bit of a
22:31
Speaker 4: pain point for us at the pharmacy. We're getting a
22:33
Speaker 4: lot of pushback from our employees on the step and
22:36
Speaker 4: working through that to fix that step. Instead of telling us, well,
22:40
Speaker 4: you guys need to just figure it out on your own,
22:42
Speaker 4: they want to fix it on their side because if
22:44
Speaker 4: they fix it for us, they're fixing it for every
22:47
Speaker 4: future pioneer customer that they may have, and it may
22:51
Speaker 4: also fix it for some other PMS systems that are similar.
22:56
Speaker 4: So that that's the part that I cannot talk about enough.
23:00
Speaker 4: See the willingness to work with us and make this
23:03
Speaker 4: easy for us versus tell us that we have to
23:06
Speaker 4: fit into the mold of the product that they originally.
23:09
Speaker 3: Had, listening to the needs of the client, the needs
23:15
Speaker 3: of the operation. Scott, that's key in order to be
23:19
Speaker 3: a successful technology provider, and not build technology from a
23:25
Speaker 3: developer's perspective, but develop it from the user's perspective, from
23:29
Speaker 3: the operator's perspective, from the pharmacy who has to compete
23:33
Speaker 3: with the national chains, and making it feel seamless for
23:37
Speaker 3: the clients. So Scott, talk to us about integration. You
23:41
Speaker 3: did mention that you have integration with with pharmacy management systems,
23:46
Speaker 3: but where how does that concepts work where you're listening
23:50
Speaker 3: to your patient. What's that cycle of development to bring
23:53
Speaker 3: that back to ensure that that independent community pharmacy owners
23:58
Speaker 3: don't have to worry about gaps and don't have to
24:01
Speaker 3: worry about jumping between systems.
24:06
Speaker 7: Yeah, the team that we have, as I mentioned earlier
24:08
Speaker 7: is really amazing. But first and foremost, and you guys
24:12
Speaker 7: have already said this, we we do everything to listen
24:16
Speaker 7: to what the client's needs are. I mean right, And
24:21
Speaker 7: if you're a good salesperson or a part of any
24:23
Speaker 7: good sales process, you're asking more questions and doing more
24:26
Speaker 7: listening than you are speaking. Which is why I could
24:29
Speaker 7: sit here and listen to Kathy you talk all day
24:30
Speaker 7: and not even be a part of this interview. And
24:35
Speaker 7: in our customers speak loudly. You know, when Kathy has
24:37
Speaker 7: something that she wants, she doesn't hesitate because it's it's
24:41
Speaker 7: you know, it's her business and her patients, and that
24:45
Speaker 7: it's very serious. And so there's really two sides to
24:48
Speaker 7: the coin from I think you know you have the
24:51
Speaker 7: patient experience side, right, which everything is sort of hitting
24:54
Speaker 7: Todd you mentioned earlier. You know, they don't see all
24:56
Speaker 7: the strings being pulled in the background. But the side
24:58
Speaker 7: of that matters the most is in every you guys
25:00
Speaker 7: have talked about is what are what are the efficiencies
25:02
Speaker 7: that we can help create within the workflow. And when
25:05
Speaker 7: Nimble first started to be quite frank you know, four
25:08
Speaker 7: years ago, it was a little bit of a you know,
25:12
Speaker 7: we we had we had.
25:13
Speaker 6: Some large gaps.
25:14
Speaker 7: Use the word gap, so I'll stick to that, but
25:16
Speaker 7: there were some huge gaps in workflow, and the early
25:19
Speaker 7: adopters of Nimble could see the potential of what it
25:22
Speaker 7: what it could be and stuck with us and and
25:25
Speaker 7: and really helped us out develop the technology that we
25:29
Speaker 7: now have in place today that Kathy is talking about.
25:31
Speaker 7: And and you know, working with Kathy and and other
25:36
Speaker 7: pharmacies all over the country to continue to close gaps,
25:39
Speaker 7: to continue to have a deeper integration with the pharmacy
25:41
Speaker 7: management system, which you know, the integration with the pharmacy
25:44
Speaker 7: management system that is really an individual relationship with each
25:46
Speaker 7: of those organizations. Pioneer happens to be again one of
25:49
Speaker 7: the best, and that team over there is fantastic with
25:52
Speaker 7: how they're willing to work with us to then service
25:55
Speaker 7: Nimble's customers. So I can't I really can't say enough
25:58
Speaker 7: about Red Sale, who you know, owns Pioneer.
26:01
Speaker 6: And so it's just that continuous.
26:03
Speaker 7: It's just like all of us, right, we all wake
26:05
Speaker 7: up professionally every day wanting to do better, wanting to
26:08
Speaker 7: solve problems, and then it's just a matter of the
26:10
Speaker 7: prioritization of Okay, which what are my boulders today? What
26:14
Speaker 7: can I not allow to go unfinished before the day
26:17
Speaker 7: is over? And that's how that's kind of our internal
26:20
Speaker 7: I think culture and motto here at Nimble is like,
26:23
Speaker 7: get those three big things done and then you know,
26:26
Speaker 7: take it day by day and continue to improve, to
26:29
Speaker 7: improve the product for the customer and just know what
26:32
Speaker 7: they want. So you guys said it all really well,
26:34
Speaker 7: I'm just repeating what you.
26:35
Speaker 6: Said, so.
26:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll kind of add to that too that Nimble
26:41
Speaker 4: has always been very responsive to us. So if we're
26:45
Speaker 4: testing something out, or if we're asking for a new
26:48
Speaker 4: product or trying anything new, or they're testing a new product,
26:52
Speaker 4: if it's broken or if it's not working exactly as
26:55
Speaker 4: we need it to, they'll either turn it off immediately
26:59
Speaker 4: or get quick fix in. It's not a matter of well,
27:03
Speaker 4: you're just going to have to make this work we
27:05
Speaker 4: were testing it. If something is causing either pay for
27:09
Speaker 4: our employees or for our patients. At the end of
27:12
Speaker 4: the day, we don't want them to know that anything's
27:14
Speaker 4: going on right. We want them we want it to
27:16
Speaker 4: always look perfect to them. So if there's something that
27:20
Speaker 4: goes a little bit or rye in development, and then
27:22
Speaker 4: once we get it out to the real life, if
27:24
Speaker 4: it's not if it's not working right, nimba, we'll turn
27:26
Speaker 4: it off immediately. And I do appreciate that because that
27:30
Speaker 4: does happen. And at the end of the day, we
27:32
Speaker 4: can we can talk about things, and we can work
27:34
Speaker 4: that out behind the scenes, but if it's getting down
27:36
Speaker 4: to causing my employees discomfort or especially if the patients
27:40
Speaker 4: are complaining, then it has to be shut off immediately.
27:43
Speaker 4: And that's been that's been very nice that we've been
27:46
Speaker 4: able to have that kind of relationship. We also have
27:48
Speaker 4: a customer service rep that we speak to every Friday,
27:51
Speaker 4: and you know, some weeks it's just to have a
27:54
Speaker 4: good week, and then other weeks we've got needs or
27:57
Speaker 4: she's got new things that development's tossing, and she'll ask
28:01
Speaker 4: us great questions about how would this work for you
28:03
Speaker 4: or what would you think your patients would be looking
28:07
Speaker 4: for if we offered this opportunity. And I do like
28:10
Speaker 4: that that it's not I don't feel like we're just
28:13
Speaker 4: having to accept whatever somebody out there is thinking might
28:17
Speaker 4: be the next good step. But they were actually kind
28:19
Speaker 4: of part of that discussion and asked what are our
28:23
Speaker 4: feelings and how would that affect our patients or our stores.
28:27
Speaker 4: My IT department is on there with me and also
28:30
Speaker 4: my coworker Matt, and we have some great discussions each week,
28:34
Speaker 4: and you know, we can talk about I think this
28:37
Speaker 4: would be great. I think we need to look at that,
28:38
Speaker 4: but we need to make sure it does this or
28:41
Speaker 4: you know, whatever it may be. And I appreciate that
28:43
Speaker 4: they'll listen to us instead of just saying this is
28:46
Speaker 4: a one stop shop. This is what we're doing now,
28:48
Speaker 4: and try to make that work for you. I appreciate that.
28:51
Speaker 4: It's more how can we utilize the services they have.
28:57
Speaker 3: That digital front door, Kathy, And if you have a
29:02
Speaker 3: opportunity to transfer prescriptions from a big box environment, who
29:08
Speaker 3: does give the customer that front digital store? And if
29:15
Speaker 3: you can't execute and give the patient the same experience,
29:19
Speaker 3: then it makes you look like small beans. And on
29:23
Speaker 3: one side, the soul of pharmacy is that independent community
29:29
Speaker 3: pharmacy feel rather than the fast food you know feeling
29:33
Speaker 3: that you get from a big box store. But if
29:36
Speaker 3: you're not playing on the same technological level and you
29:39
Speaker 3: don't have that, you know, open ease, digital front door experience.
29:45
Speaker 3: Then they're going to be like this, this is a
29:47
Speaker 3: mom and pops store. They don't have the tech that
29:49
Speaker 3: helps me to check out without issues. Talk to us
29:52
Speaker 3: about that of competing with these multi billion dollar organizations
29:58
Speaker 3: and being able to keep up with with the technology.
30:02
Speaker 4: I mean, that's a very true story to how life
30:05
Speaker 4: is right now, right like, we aren't the shiny, big
30:09
Speaker 4: advertisement on the corner of you know, a lot of
30:12
Speaker 4: towns where we are that small mom and pop. You know,
30:15
Speaker 4: sometimes we might be the only option in town, but
30:17
Speaker 4: then a lot of times we are competing with a
30:19
Speaker 4: big box. And so although we might not be able
30:22
Speaker 4: to order our offer every bell and whistle that they can,
30:26
Speaker 4: I can for sure offer you customer service like no other.
30:29
Speaker 4: And but I need you to I need you to
30:32
Speaker 4: come into my store and see that. I need you
30:33
Speaker 4: to experience that. And so to do that, we do
30:36
Speaker 4: need to have our options that show that we are
30:39
Speaker 4: cutting edge still and that we're part of the modern
30:42
Speaker 4: age and that we're that we're doing the things that
30:44
Speaker 4: keep us up to date in technology. Because if we're not,
30:47
Speaker 4: then you wonder what else are we behind on? You know,
30:49
Speaker 4: if you never come and see us. You have to
30:51
Speaker 4: wonder as a pharmacy, are we up to part if
30:54
Speaker 4: we're not even in the digital age. So it is
30:58
Speaker 4: very important to have these these options out there. I mean,
31:02
Speaker 4: you know, for a lot of people that they may
31:04
Speaker 4: be fine with just checking out online, swinging through the
31:07
Speaker 4: drive through, have a great day and moving on. But
31:11
Speaker 4: you know, eventually those people may become parents, or they
31:14
Speaker 4: may be taking care of parents, and they may come
31:16
Speaker 4: to really appreciate the fact that they can come in
31:19
Speaker 4: and ask someone who knows them, knows their family, asks
31:23
Speaker 4: them a real question versus everything just being impersonal and
31:28
Speaker 4: through a phone or through a computer. So you know,
31:31
Speaker 4: it may not be important to you today to have
31:34
Speaker 4: a mom and pop type feel pharmacy that you can
31:36
Speaker 4: go to, but someday it will. Someday you may be
31:39
Speaker 4: on a medication that's important and that you've got a
31:42
Speaker 4: lot of questions about, or you may be caring for
31:44
Speaker 4: a loved one that you've got a lot of questions about,
31:46
Speaker 4: and you need to have that person that you can
31:48
Speaker 4: can contact, that's a real person that can show empathy,
31:53
Speaker 4: that can answer your questions. I mean, you can hit
31:56
Speaker 4: ai with a lot of questions and they'll probably give
31:59
Speaker 4: you some very good answers, but they're they're not going
32:01
Speaker 4: to personalize anything to you, and they're not going to
32:04
Speaker 4: look in your face and see either the fear or
32:07
Speaker 4: the sadness or the discomfort that you may have. And
32:10
Speaker 4: that's why we need That's why we need people. But
32:13
Speaker 4: we also need to understand that there's a lot of
32:15
Speaker 4: people that are going to get to us through a
32:17
Speaker 4: digital platform of some sort. And so here again, with
32:22
Speaker 4: a small corporate office and a very small IT T team,
32:25
Speaker 4: we may not even be aware of a lot of
32:28
Speaker 4: technology out there until, you know, until there's a lot
32:31
Speaker 4: of players in the market. So having some resources that
32:35
Speaker 4: we can go to that are that are out there
32:37
Speaker 4: all the time looking for the next step and looking
32:40
Speaker 4: for what the next new digital presence is going to
32:42
Speaker 4: be is so helpful for us because there is just
32:45
Speaker 4: no way that we would that we would be aware
32:47
Speaker 4: of everything that's out there.
32:49
Speaker 3: That's what your tech partners are there for and right
32:53
Speaker 3: well or very important.
32:55
Speaker 5: That's right.
32:56
Speaker 3: So what excites you about the future of of independent
33:00
Speaker 3: community pharmacy, Kathy, Because there's a lot of there's a
33:06
Speaker 3: lot of our owners right now are going through transition.
33:08
Speaker 3: They're either they're either designing and preparing for the future
33:14
Speaker 3: or they're getting out. And it's just like I hear
33:16
Speaker 3: a lot, it's like one or the other. So what
33:19
Speaker 3: are you excited about for the future of independent community pharmacy.
33:22
Speaker 4: I'm really excited to see how we get to explain,
33:25
Speaker 4: expand on some of our clinical services that we can offer.
33:28
Speaker 4: Of course, every state is so different, and being in
33:30
Speaker 4: eight states, we've got some states that are very progressive
33:34
Speaker 4: and what we're going to be able to do with
33:35
Speaker 4: test to treat options and you know, immunizations, I mean,
33:42
Speaker 4: just all the things that some states allow us to do,
33:44
Speaker 4: and then other states are a little further behind, and
33:47
Speaker 4: I hope that they catch up pretty soon. But in
33:49
Speaker 4: Arkansas where we're at, which is a very progressive pharmacy state,
33:53
Speaker 4: there's a lot of things that we can do with
33:54
Speaker 4: test to treat options, and you know, we're needing to
33:59
Speaker 4: we're needing to ed educate the public on the fact
34:01
Speaker 4: that you can you can come into a pharmacy and
34:03
Speaker 4: get tested for strip or for flu and get a
34:07
Speaker 4: prescription while you're there. It's not a two stop, you know,
34:10
Speaker 4: an urgent care and then the pharmacy. In a lot
34:13
Speaker 4: of states, you can now just go to the pharmacy,
34:15
Speaker 4: get tested. If you're positive, they follow a protocol and
34:18
Speaker 4: can get you a prescription right there. So for us,
34:21
Speaker 4: we need our technology partners to help us grow into that.
34:25
Speaker 4: Right So it's either you know, not necessarily making an appointment,
34:30
Speaker 4: because pharmacy is still for the whole kind of a
34:33
Speaker 4: walk in business. Appointments may be great someday, but for
34:36
Speaker 4: the most part, it's a walk in business. But just
34:39
Speaker 4: having a way for us to let patients know, hey,
34:41
Speaker 4: you don't have to go to an urgent care and
34:43
Speaker 4: then come to the pharmacy. You can actually go straight
34:46
Speaker 4: to the pharmacy, get the needs you need, and walk
34:50
Speaker 4: out with your prescription and not have to make two stops.
34:53
Speaker 4: So I think those are some great things coming down
34:55
Speaker 4: the pipeline. You know, basically, for pharmacies to continue to
35:00
Speaker 4: grow and exist, I mean, we've got to look outside
35:02
Speaker 4: the box of not just putting pills in a bottle.
35:05
Speaker 4: We've got to see what else can we do for
35:07
Speaker 4: our communities and for our patients that provide the healthcare
35:10
Speaker 4: that they need as well as also get them their prescriptions.
35:14
Speaker 4: But we can't have our whole business tied to just
35:17
Speaker 4: pills in a bottle. We've got to grow and expand.
35:20
Speaker 4: And here again, I don't think there's one person that
35:24
Speaker 4: can stay up to date on everything going in the
35:26
Speaker 4: world to be able to know what's the next best
35:29
Speaker 4: step for pharmacies to continue to grow. I think it's
35:31
Speaker 4: extremely important for us to have teams of people that
35:34
Speaker 4: we work with that are out there coming up with
35:37
Speaker 4: these new plans and how can we execute them, and
35:40
Speaker 4: how can we all work to the top of our
35:42
Speaker 4: license to provide the healthcare we need for patients and
35:46
Speaker 4: continue to grow our businesses.
35:49
Speaker 3: You said it, one of the fastest growing sectors inside
35:55
Speaker 3: community pharmacy is the long term care pharmacy at home model.
36:01
Speaker 3: And if you don't have a payment mechanism to make
36:03
Speaker 3: that environment super easy, to be able to make everything seamless,
36:08
Speaker 3: it's going to be very hard to grow because you're
36:10
Speaker 3: going to it's going to feel clunky to the client,
36:12
Speaker 3: it's going to feel clunky to the patient's caregiver or
36:16
Speaker 3: someone that's in touch with them. So having Nimble RX
36:20
Speaker 3: to be part of that solution is key. Scott a
36:24
Speaker 3: shout out to you and your team for the diligence
36:27
Speaker 3: and the work that you're doing the representation of the
36:32
Speaker 3: pharmacy industry. You're right alongside us, and it's exciting to
36:37
Speaker 3: see you at conferences and talk with you about some
36:40
Speaker 3: of the new stuff that's coming out. Thank you for
36:44
Speaker 3: sponsoring this podcast and the series that we're going to
36:47
Speaker 3: continue to expand upon. Kathy, you are a rock star.
36:51
Speaker 3: Congratulations on your continuing success with Express OURX. And you know,
36:57
Speaker 3: if our states can just follow Arkansas and Tennessee, absolutely.
37:05
Speaker 5: Things are going to be get get.
37:07
Speaker 4: Nothing else out of this message. If we could get
37:10
Speaker 4: the other states to follow along and realize that community
37:13
Speaker 4: pharmacies are an asset and if we just have more
37:18
Speaker 4: more power to help the communities that we're in, I mean,
37:22
Speaker 4: it would be it would be amazing. So yes, shout
37:26
Speaker 4: out to all those states that need to follow along.
37:29
Speaker 3: Right Scott, thank you so much for doing this and
37:31
Speaker 3: for being part of the Pharmacy Podcast Network, And shout
37:35
Speaker 3: out to our listeners. If you do not have a solution,
37:38
Speaker 3: if there's the you're lacking integration, if you're frustrated, just
37:43
Speaker 3: reach out and ask questions. Just reach out and just
37:46
Speaker 3: say Hey, how does this work? How does this integrate?
37:50
Speaker 3: How fast can we get it implemented? Nimbleurx dot com
37:54
Speaker 3: Once again, that's nimblearx dot com. Scott can't wait to
37:59
Speaker 3: see it the next National trade show and maybe sit
38:02
Speaker 3: down and get some bourbon or some ice water.
38:05
Speaker 6: Or something that sounds fantastic. I look forward to it,
38:09
Speaker 6: and Kathy, thank you again.
38:10
Speaker 7: You are I will echo todd sentiments to then absolute
38:13
Speaker 7: rock star and we love working with you.
38:15
Speaker 6: So thank you both.
38:17
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me