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Why Taking Fuller Advantage of Technology You Already Own Could Be Your Most Profitable Strategy | Pharmacy Crossroads · Pharmacy Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are giving you the mobile technology. We're giving you
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of the automated productivity features that are in
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: our software that are there for you to use to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: run your business in the most efficient way possible, hopefully
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: be able to get more done with less staff. I mean,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the software could more than pay for itself ten times
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: over if you use it. You are listening to the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: global network of podcasters dedicated to the pharmacy profession. Welcome
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: This is Pharmacy Crossroads with your host, community pharmacy business veteran,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: the road trip goth Bruce lealand Community Pharmacy is out
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: of Crossroads. Pharmacy owners across the country are evolving their
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: pharmacy businesses and making a bigger impact on their communities.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Bruce talks with the most innovative community pharmacy owners, pharmacy
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: industry experts, and people who are passionate about the business
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: of pharmacy and its impact on community healthcare. Pharmacy Crossroads
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: is a member of the Pharmacy Podcast Network. And now
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: here's our host, Bruce Neeland.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Well, hello everybody, this is Bruce Neeland with another episode
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: of Pharmacy Crossroads. Today I've got two industry experts and
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: we're going to dig into some sensitive issues in this industry.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Kevin Manassion, who's the president CEO, Big mucky muck of
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: a data scan pharmacy Systems. And then Sarah and Sarah Colorius,
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: who is the director of marketing and the person who
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: really makes things happen back there. She makes Kevin look
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: good all the time. And that's great. It's great to
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: meet you both. Kevin takes a minute and tell us
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: just a bit about yourself.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: How long you've been with data scant et cetera.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Well, I've been the head of the company now this
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: is my sixteenth year, but I've been around in my
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: whole life. My father started this company in nineteen eighty one,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and so I used to help out a lot when
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I was a kid. And then when I went away
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: to college and graduated, I wanted nothing to do with it,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and I started other businesses at post college. I owned
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: them for over a decade, and when my father was
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: ready to retire and wanted to sell the company, we
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: sat down and spoke about it again and hashed it out,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: and here I am. I bought the company just started
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: about sixteen years ago or so, and we are just
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: about four times the size we were back when I
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: came in to take the company over. We transformed a
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: lot our technology, our way of doing things. You know,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: we're a totally different company today than we were back then.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: And I'm really about a lot of the things we've
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: accomplished here, the team we've built, and where we're going.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: And it is a team that you've got and you're
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: doing some remarkable things.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: Sarah, who are you.
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: So?
• 3:13
  Speaker 6: I am Sarah Kellioris. I have been with Data Scan
• 3:16
  Speaker 6: for almost ten years, and prior to that, I was
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: actually a customer of Data Scans, managing a retail pharmacy
• 3:24
  Speaker 6: that I essentially grew up in. I was a patient
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: there with my parents and started working there in high school,
• 3:31
  Speaker 6: worked there all through college and graduated college, stayed in
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: the pharmacy, and I am fortunate to have kind of
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: a unique perspective, I think, in being a customer first
• 3:42
  Speaker 6: and then being a part of the team at Data Scan.
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: But tamyrror really everything that Kevin says. I'm so proud
• 3:49
  Speaker 6: of everything that we do here for independent pharmacies. Sitting
• 3:53
  Speaker 6: in this seat, I see that we're doing a remarkable
• 3:57
  Speaker 6: job engaging with our customers and really advocating for them
• 4:01
  Speaker 6: just as independent businesses just like we are.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Well, and I'm going to jump ahead on some of
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: the theme that we hope to get into. But what
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: I hear more than anything else is you guys have
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: been in a pharmacy before, right, Oh.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I was. I was.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I was probably eight years old going into pharmacies with
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: my father. I mean I've been around it my whole
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: life essentially.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And uh, and that's important when it comes to
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: building software and responding to issues. You can you can
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: comprehend and quick order what it is that the problem
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: is and try to and try to jump on it.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: And uh, you know, so let's jump into it, Kevin.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: We've got a lot of problems in the industry that
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: we don't need to reiterate. What what's the what's the
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: primary thing you want to jump off on and talk
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: about that you think needs to be discussed in this conversation.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Well, I think with relation to our part of the industry,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I think there's two major problems. Number one is that
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: you know, and we see it with our own clients,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: is that you know you're paying for this software every month. Right,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: you're paying for it. It's part of your life. It's
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: it's it's an integral part of what you do every
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: day in running your pharmacy. But it really boggles my
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: mind how many people don't bother to really dig into
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: the technology. That not just my company, but you know,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: many of my competitors are building into the software.
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: And we're doing it.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: And I know my business, my company data Scan, and
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: a few of my other competitors, we're doing it and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: we're not We're not a lacarding it. You know, this
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: isn't Peter Luger's. You don't get the stake, and if
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: you want to side, you got to pay for it.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: We are giving you the mobile technology, We're giving you
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of the automated productivity features that are in
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: our software that are there for you to use to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: run your business in the most efficient way possible, hopefully
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: be able to get more done with less staff. I mean,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the software could more than pay for itself ten times
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: over if you use it. And it's amazing to me
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: that we keep introducing new features and new functionality and
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: all these great things, and how many customers either claim
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: they don't have the time or they just don't bother
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to look at these features and how they can integrate
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: them into their day to day lives.
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: And it's there and you're not paying more for it,
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: but yet you're not using it.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, I can't tell you how many clients I
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: find that don't even offer their patients the mobile application,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: which we recently rebuild from the ground up. It's a
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: phenomenal product. I mean, we spent two years and wellness
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: six figures redeveloping the product, and it's free.
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: It's free for our customers, it's free for their patients.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: And the number one thing I always tell these people is,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: look at the way you live your life every single day,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: right even my seventy seven year old father, my seventy five,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: seventy five this Sunday mother. You know, you've got that
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: smartphone in your hand, and whether you're doing your banking
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: or you're in your Amazon account or whatever. The conveniences
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: that we are now used to day in and day out,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: we expect it everywhere we go. You know, it's not
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: like when I was a kid and you wanted to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: watch a movie, and you know, you had to go
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: to the store rent the movie and fast forward through
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: all the FBI.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: Warnings and the previews.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: You know, we click a button and it's right there
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: on our TV, whether it be Amazon Prime or Netflix
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: or Paramount or whatever. So when you go to your pharmacy,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: you don't want to call up wait for someone to
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: pick up the phone and say, hey, I need this
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: prescription refilmed. You want to open your app, you want
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to click a button, you're done, and you don't want
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: to show up there and find out it's not ready.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: You should have a notification on your phone it's ready,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: and if they offer delivery, I should be able to
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: click a button and set it for delivery. Hell I
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: should be able to click a button and pay for
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: it and have it show up at my door and
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: do nothing. That is what we expect as human beings
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: in our lives because of how spoiled we've become with technology.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: How can you not offer the same conveniences to your
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: patients because if you don't, they're going to go down
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the road to the chain or the other local guy
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: that is doing these things, and you're going to lose customers.
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: So one of the biggest things you need to look
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: at is convenience.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: You know, they don't want you to have to or
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: they don't want to have to call you and say, hey,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: oh no, I have this maintenance medication and there's no
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: refills left on it. That should be automated. It should
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: be done using the technology that you're paying for. So that,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: to me is a tremendous frustration because for me, the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: more my technology you're using, the more you're loving us,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: the more your life is easier, and the more likely
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: that you'll stay with us forever.
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: So we want you to use this stuff.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: We want your business to be successful because if you're not,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: you're going to sell off it.
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: We're going to lose you as a customer. So we
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: all benefit from you doing better.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And the thing that I love about the angle
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: that you take there is year talking about convincing our
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: pharmacy owners to look at their business from the patient's perspective.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: I was in a church.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: Meet committee planning meeting last night, and you know, I'm
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: an old geezer and we're sitting around talking about what's this,
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: what's that or whatever, and you know, musing and trying
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: to remember, and the twenty two year old kid at
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: the end of the table had it on Google and
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: pointed it out to us, and you know, in twenty seconds,
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: and you know, and and that's where customers are today.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: They do that kind of stuff, Sarah, I can hear
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: in Kevin's voice a little bit of passion on this topic.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Can you add something about some of the features that
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: are built into your software that pharmacists need to know
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: about and take advantage of.
• 9:57
  Speaker 6: Definitely, So are mobile app, like Kevin said, is probably
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: one of the things that I personally try and push
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: to our customers when I do demos. I'm so engaged
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: with our existing customers as well, so I'm always asking, Hey,
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: are you using it?
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: Why not?
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: Outside of that, there's a tremendous number of options and
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: features built into our product that automates a lot of
• 10:24
  Speaker 6: tasks that you would typically have a human being processing
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: different reports, sending out like Kevin said, refill requests to doctors,
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: reprocessing prior authorizations, a lot of those like day to
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: day office type administrative tasks. And if we can give
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: people back time, their staff, the owners, they can spend
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: more of that time doing community outreach, reaching out to doctors,
• 10:49
  Speaker 6: counseling patients, enrolling patients in adherence programs like med saying,
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: performing point of care testing. So all of these different
• 10:58
  Speaker 6: things I think culminate to a bigger picture of freeing
• 11:01
  Speaker 6: up time, saving money, and making their day a lot easier.
• 11:06
  Speaker 6: It's shocking to me how many customers will email me
• 11:10
  Speaker 6: or call me and ask, hey, I'd really love to
• 11:13
  Speaker 6: be able to got it this morning. I wish I
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: could send out refal requests automatically so that I don't
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: have to go through and call the doctors. And I'm like,
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: we've had that feature in the system for over a decade,
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: So it's really for us about engaging with them and
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: helping them free up that time so they can do
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: more and make more.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: And I mean, this is a problem I've seen. I've
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: been around for fifty years in this business, and it's
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: a problem I've seen since the very beginning.
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: I used to work.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: For the original health Maart operation, and part of our
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: package was as we sent people every month planograms, updated
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: planograms and pictures and all that. And I like to
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: say I could sell eight hundred pharmacies on spending fifty
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: dollars a month on planograms. I couldn't get half of
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: them to use them, even though they were paying for it. So,
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: you know, I've seen that phenomena since the very beginning.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: What are some of the things you do to try
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: to break through that that I'm too busy, I haven't
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: got time.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: It's just like marketing.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Everything is repetition, right, so you just have to keep
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: repeating yourself and keep showing them ways and hopefully.
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: And one of the.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Things that frustrates me is, you know, I wish that independent, successful,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: independent pharmacy owners were more willing to share their stories,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: their ideas, their successes, what makes them so good. They
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: feel like they're sharing the secret sauce. But here's the reality, right,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: if you own a pharmacy in a particular town, what
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: are the odds that you have another competing, independent pharmacy
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: within a few mile radius that is going to take
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: your ideas and still your patients. The odds of that
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: are very slim. Chances are editors in your area are
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: probably change small or large chains. Okay, their strength in numbers.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: You should want your other competing. If you will not
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: even competing, you should want your other fellow pharmacy owners
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: to be successful. You don't want to wake up tomorrow
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: and find out that that nineteen thousand and change independent
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: pharmacy numbers fifteen thousand, and a few years from there
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: it's twelve thousand. You need strength in numbers that if
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: you fight together against the PBMs like you are, if
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: you fight for your business and your industry and you
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: have greater numbers and you're going to do better, you're
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: going to have more success. So you know, if you listen,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I have independent pharmacy owner clients that can't wait to
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: get out of this business. They struggle, they hate it,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: they load it because why they're still running their business
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: like they did fifteen twenty years ago. They're so focused
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: on prescription profits and they're looking at all they're not
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: paying attention to the other opportunities there. Then I have
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: clients that see the picture. They cater to their to
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the niche market in the area that they serve, whether
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: it be high end or middle middle class or whatever
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: it is. In terms of their front end what they do.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, I have guys in high end areas in
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: the summertime in the Hamptons, they're doing they're doing facials
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: and they're selling you candles for ninety dollars apiece, and
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: they've got high end cosmetics and you know what, Yes,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: that's a different market. But you know, if you're in
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: a lower income market, what can you offer these folks
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and show them the savings. Because we're built with this
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: big box mentality. We think that if we go to
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: CVS or we go to Walmart, you know, like it's
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: like Costco or BJ's where when I go in and
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I want to buy my tile and all on my
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: over the counter goods, Oh, it's cheaper because they buy
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: in bulk. That's not the truth. That's where the change
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: are making their money. But you're not educating the people
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: in your in your local town. You're not doing a
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: price comparison what you sell something for versus the local chain.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Let them know that. Build your OTC out, get into
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: non sterile compounding. Maybe try to get into a local
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: facility to do some nursing care, or you know, there's
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: better reimbursements in it. You know, work with some local doctors.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: There are ways to build these businesses. The biggest failure,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: I believe, the biggest way to fail in owning an
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: independent pharmacy is by standing behind the counter, piping tumpt
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: typing out prescriptions and filling prescriptions. You are not a
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: business owner. You're a business operator. You're running your business
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: day to day, and there's nobody there to look at
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: other profit centers or look at ways to cut the waste,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: reinvest the money, and find ways to bring in better
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: profit centers. My clients that do that have fifty sixty
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: foot boats, vacation homes. They're living the life of Riley.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: And these are honest guys, old school guys that are
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: in their fifties, sixties, you know whatever. That they're not
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: there scamming anybody. They they're like me. They want to
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: put their head on the pillow at night and sleep
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: good knowing that nobody's coming to get them.
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: They're not doing any kind of scams. They're running their business.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: They're a business owner. And I feel like if we could,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and my father used to say, by the way, for years,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the thing that pissed them off the most was they
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: put you through pharmacy school, but they don't give you
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: business classes. And I think they changed that at some point,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: but not enough. You know, so many pharmacists come out
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: of pharmacy school. You know, maybe not as much anymore,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: but for years with this dream of not to go
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: work for a chain, but to open their own pharmacy,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: but they don't have the tools because they don't understand
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: about running a business. They don't understand the importance of
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: their numbers, the importance of the accounting piece of it,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: the importance of looking at wasteful spending. They're filling shelves
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: with inventory, whether it be front end back end. They've
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: all this money tied up and they don't understand why
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: they're not making any money.
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: And so if you're going to be a pharmacy owner,
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: you need to act like one. You can have a
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: technician typing prescriptions.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: You can just verify them if you don't have another
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: staff member to do it. But you need to get
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: out from behind that counter. You need to read publications,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: you need to do research. You need to get involved
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: in see look at models that are working for other
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: people out there, and see what you can do, what
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: technology you can implement, and what changes you can make
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: inside your business. And some guys, I get it, they're
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: so burnt out they feel like they missed the boat.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: And for that, I always say, look at the story
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: of good old Colonel Sanders. Look at the guy who
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: started KFC. I want to say he was almost seventy
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: years old. He was in his sixties or seventies when
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: he started it. You know, it's never too late. It's
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: never too late.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: You know, And that that's really a good final point
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: on that.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: Sarah.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: You talked about reports a little bit ago, and Kevin
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: just kind of hit on him as, I mean, pick
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: a reporter or too that you think has great value
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: that most people aren't taking advantage.
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: Jef.
• 17:51
  Speaker 6: So, I think number one, first and foremost the most
• 17:55
  Speaker 6: important types of reports that these people should be using
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: our inventory based report because that is where the majority
• 18:02
  Speaker 6: of their money sits. There's so much waste in inventory
• 18:05
  Speaker 6: in the back, you know, in the pharmacy in the
• 18:08
  Speaker 6: front end with all their OTC products that if they
• 18:11
  Speaker 6: could learn how to use these inventory type reports and
• 18:15
  Speaker 6: figure out slow movers, fast movers, certain medications that are
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: nearing expiration date that they could you know, they could
• 18:22
  Speaker 6: return and actually get credit back for, they could really
• 18:26
  Speaker 6: like minimize a lot of that wasted spend that's sitting
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: on their shelves. So I think that and analyzing and
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: using dashboards and tools within the software in addition to reporting,
• 18:37
  Speaker 6: helps them definitely with saving.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Okay, so let's switch subjects. So the other thing that
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: you were wanting to cover here, and it's one that's
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: close to my heart, is the consolidation in the pharmacy
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: management system industry, the consolidation and other aspects of this
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: business and how that's bringing corporatization if that's a word
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: to the industry, and these people have to look at
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: what they're being charged for.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: Kevin take off on that subject.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: So we've been talking about it for years, and for
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: over a decade. You know, our slogan has been the
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: independently owned software company for the independent pharmacy. The unfortunate
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: part is, up until now, it hasn't resonated as much
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: as I thought it would, which is a shame because
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: I always say, you, as an independent pharmacy owner, right,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: it would break your heart to see your patients walk
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: out the door and go to a local chain. I mean,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: you know in your heart that you can service those
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: people way better than the local chain. Ken, I mean,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: that's what makes you different, That's what makes you, that's
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: what's kept you alive and being able to survive all
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: these years. When these big chains move into town. It's
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: the same here, right. I also compare it to doing
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: business with like a big bank versus a little one.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: You know, if I go back a decade ago or more.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, we had so many small banks that were
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: around here on Long Island and you York where we're located,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: and you know, and we did business with them forever,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: and all of a sudden capital won and all these
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: big banks came in and they buy them out, and
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: here comes the big corporate red tape.
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Now, if there is a problem and you need somebody,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: it's like, well, you know, hold on a second, it
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: has to go through the process, right. I've had money
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: stolen from me on two different occasions from two different banks,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and when it was an independent, when it was a
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: small bank, they fixed it for me in twenty four
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: hours big bank. I ended up having to get put
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: in a government complaint to get the big bank to
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: respond and actually work with me on money that was
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: stolen from us that had nothing to do with us.
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: You know, when you have a.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Problem with your technology, and technology in this space moves
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: super fast. We don't have the ability to write it
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and test it for a year and then release it.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: We'll fall behind, you know, unbelievably. So you know it
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: moves fast in this space, and so there's always going
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: to be little issues and problems. But you need to
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: be able to pick up a phone, get somebody on
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the phone immediately and get that problem resolved. You don't
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: have the time for it. You're dealing with enough nonsense
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: in a day. You don't need to sit there waiting
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: for someone to pick up the phone to help you,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: or waiting for someone to fix your issue that you
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: opened two weeks ago that's still reoccurring and nobody's helping you.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: That's where data scin is different. And you know, we
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: are one of the last of the Mohicans, man, because
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I got to tell you a lot of people don't know.
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: This, but you know.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: So you know, black Rock, the big you know, I mean,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: one of the if not the largest, you know, private
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: equity company in the world, owns what was called TDS
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Transaction Data Systems, is now rebranded as Outcomes. And under
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: that umbrella live you have RX thirty and computer RX
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: being promoted, and to my knowledge, there's still a bunch
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: of legacy systems being supported that are still under that
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: umbrella waiting for them to move over. Then you have
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Red Sale, who is the corporate name. But it's not
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: even the private equity company that owns them, that owns
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Pioneer are X. They own QS one, Integra best Ox,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: and as of I believe a week ago, they closed
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: on micro Merchants. Micro Merchants is no longer owned by
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Tha Associates. So now micro Merchants has sold twice in
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a matter of about five or six years. And what
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: ends up happening is these companies you know private equity,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, look look it up, Google it. The entire
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: idea behind private equity is investors take their private funds,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: this is not on a public market like the NASDAC
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: or whatever, and they invest in these companies where they
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: higher risk, but the expectations of a much higher return
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: when you control such a large.
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: Part of the market.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: When you talk about independent pharmacy for example, and software
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: right red Sale now controls well more than fifty percent
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: of the market in terms of you know, user base,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: where you control that, how do you continue to give
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: your investors, how do you give them higher returns and
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: better profits?
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: Right, Well, it's harder to land.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: More customers because you're running out of companies to acquire.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: And now the only way you're getting customers is a
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: if somebody opens a new pharmacy or be somebody's really
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: meant at their existing vendor. Well, at this point, if
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: they're really meant at their existing vendor, it might be
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: them because they own so many of the software companies. Right,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: So now, how are you going to grow the profits? Well,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: there's two ways to do it, raise prices and cut costs.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: And what ends up happening with these big companies is
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: you have a lot of turnover. Now the people that
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: you liked, maybe that you were doing business with, the
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: managers that maybe came from the industry, that understood our industry,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: which is very unique in its own right now they're
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: gone and you're bringing in these corporate big wigs that
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: may or may not understand our business. They start to
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: make changes. Those changes start to hurt you the pharmacy
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: owner because a you're paying more. For example, a lot
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: of people don't know Pioneer RX is now charging their
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: customers to fill cash prescriptions, and forty five years in
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: this business, Data Scan has never charged the customer a
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: penny to fill a cash prescription. You can fill a
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: million of them a year. You're never going to pay
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: anything for that, okay, and that's been the industry standard.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: So you're starting to see these different fees. You're watching
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the monthly fees raise. We give our customers our mobile application,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: whereas some of these companies are one hundred, one hundred
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and fifty dollars a month for that.
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: All of a sudden, you start to realize that you're
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: spending more and more and more and more.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: And then these people they realize that the level of
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: service isn't what it used to be. And then many
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: of them when they want to leave, they realize they're
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: locked into such a tremendous contract with such a penalty
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: that many of them feel stuck where they are. And
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: that's something that we always say, is the data scan promise.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: We don't sneak in and start raising your prices. We
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: don't do stuff like that. We guarantee that you will
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: always speak to live people. We are never going to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: put AI into our support loop where you're going to
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: have to talk to a computer to get help, you know,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and we are always going to focus on our product,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: our service, and our price to deliver the best value
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: to our customers.
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: You know, I'm forty eight years old.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: I am nowhere near ready to retire at this point,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and Sarah is younger than me. So you have two
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: people that know this business, that have been around it
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: a long time that are the head of this company.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Sarah by the way, he is my vice president and
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: has been for a couple of years now. So you know,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you have two people that get the business, that understand
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: it and listen, the proof is in the putting man.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I've owned companies for twenty six years. I started a
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: company from scratch and built at the six and a
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: half million dollars a year in sales online right out
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: of college. I came into this company. It was twenty
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: eight years old. It had about I don't know, one
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty hundred and sixty accounts. Today we're sitting
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: just SEU. It's just shy of six hundred accounts. Our profitability,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: our client base, everything is nearly four times what it was. Well,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I think that you have some people here at the
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Helm that know what they're doing and can help you
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and your business without ripping you off. And obviously our
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: goal is to never stress you out. So when somebody's upset,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: because it's going to happen, right, it happens when somebody's upset.
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: Here. We have a hierarchy, and.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: It's very very easy to get to Sarah or myself
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: in that manner. Sarah's always the best, though. I mean
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: she's a lot swe of and nicer than I am.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: So I always say, you know, but I mean Sarah,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: sometimes sometimes I tell her she's crazy. I mean, you know,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: she'll have a customer that's just, you know, upset about something,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: and she could deal with it the next day. And
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Saturday night, at eight o'clock at night, she's texting somebody
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: or she's emailing somebody back to make sure that they're okay.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: And I appreciate her for that, you know, and the
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: customers appreciate that. So, you know, doing business with us
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: is like the way you treat your patience. You rely
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: on us every day, day in and day out. And
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: now you see all of this, these mergers and acquisitions,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: and I'll tell you right now, we're hearing it left
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: and right. Services is not what it was, of course
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: it's not. You know, now you're one of twelve thousand
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: or fifteen whatever it is, you know, versus one of
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: a few hundred, which is what the way it used
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: to be, and then these companies came in and they
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: started buying them up and merging them, merging them, and
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: these companies got bigger and bigger. I know my competitors.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: I've been friendly with a lot of these guys for years.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, in fact, some of them that have sold
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: off and left, I'm still in touch.
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: With, you know. I love these guys. The fact. Friends
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: of mine were laughing last week in Florida. They were
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: visiting me in.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: My house in Florida, and one of my competitors called
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: on the phone and I answered the phone and we're
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: laughing and talking to each other about some of the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: recent changes in the industry. And I got off the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: phone and my friend said, Wow, you really are friendly
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: with your competitors.
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: They said, absolutely, the ones.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: That do it the right way, the honest way, that
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: aren't disparaging one another, and we love each other.
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: Well, you've hit on a couple of topics there, but
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: there's one more, and I'm going to go to Sarah
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: for this. One of the biggest complaints I hear with
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: the consolidation is you can't get into anybody to tell
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: them about a problem or to fix something. How do
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: you handle calls from people who are asking you to
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: fix something or create something new. What's the process that
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: data scan for somebody who's who needs help with something?
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: Sarah.
• 28:19
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so our help desk is always the fastest and
• 28:22
  Speaker 6: easiest way to reach somebody. And we really tell all
• 28:24
  Speaker 6: of our customers pick up the phone and call them.
• 28:27
  Speaker 6: They'll they'll help you in you know, thirty seconds or less.
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: I actually was doing a demo for someone yesterday and
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: I had said to her, don't even take my word
• 28:36
  Speaker 6: for it. When we hang up, call into my support
• 28:39
  Speaker 6: and see how quickly you get someone. And she started
• 28:41
  Speaker 6: laughing and she said, I have to confess I actually
• 28:43
  Speaker 6: did that yesterday before our demo. And she said, they
• 28:45
  Speaker 6: picked up the phone so quickly it caught me off
• 28:47
  Speaker 6: guard and I didn't even know what to say to them.
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: And really, you.
• 28:52
  Speaker 6: Know, their time is everything. They have a patient more
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: than likely standing there staring at them, who is sick.
• 28:58
  Speaker 6: They want their medication. They don't have the time to
• 29:01
  Speaker 6: just keep saying sorry, you know I have a glitch
• 29:03
  Speaker 6: in my system. Sorry I'm waiting on the help desk.
• 29:06
  Speaker 6: The patient doesn't care. They want their prescription. So we've
• 29:09
  Speaker 6: kind of ingrained that in our support staff and they
• 29:12
  Speaker 6: understand that it's got to be done quickly and it's
• 29:15
  Speaker 6: got to be done efficiently. Our process with any type
• 29:19
  Speaker 6: of customer that maybe is frustrated or they want something,
• 29:24
  Speaker 6: you know, escalated, we have a support manager who is
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: available to any of our customers at any point should
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: they have an issue that requires immediate attention and they're
• 29:34
  Speaker 6: unhappy with our general support. It's rare, but it happens
• 29:37
  Speaker 6: beyond that. Like Kevin said, I make myself available to
• 29:41
  Speaker 6: all of our customers at any point, day or night, weekends, holidays,
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: if they text me, if they email me, if they
• 29:48
  Speaker 6: call me, I'm involved and we make sure that their
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: issue gets resolved next to immediately, and it's really a
• 29:55
  Speaker 6: simple process for them. It's rare that we need. Kevin,
• 30:00
  Speaker 6: it's good, you know, it's good for him. He can
• 30:01
  Speaker 6: focus on doing everything here, making us bigger, better marketing
• 30:05
  Speaker 6: and stuff like that, and our customers are aware that
• 30:09
  Speaker 6: they have the support when they need it.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: Well, we're coming to the end of this thing. I
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: remember I actually sold pharmacy computers in nineteen eighty for
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: a company called Pharmacist. It got bought and I lost
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: my job. I've seen TBL Pharmacist, PAM, a bunch of
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: companies just get swallowed and evaporate. And the industry has changed.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: And if people are frustrated and they're open to looking
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: for something new, how do they find you, Kevin Off,
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: I mean our website for starters data Scanpharmacy dot com.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: They can call our office eight seven seven two two
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: two our x r X. We did that to make
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: it easy to remember, or just six three one, six
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: nine eight sixty eight five and a simple search on
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: the Internet of Data Scan Pharmacy software will yield all kinds.
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: Of results for us. We're very easy to find and
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: we're very easy to get in touch with.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Sarah, you get the last word, what do you think?
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: What what's the one last thing you'd like people to
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: know about your company?
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: So I don't think we touched on this, but I
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: think before we started recording, you know, Kevin had mentioned
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: that Data Scan sponsor is an independent organization called PUTT
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: Pharmacist United for Truths and Transparency, which I'm going to
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: give them a nice plug and tell everyone that if
• 31:36
  Speaker 6: they're not members, they should join because they advocate for
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: you every single day. But in their own podcast. They
• 31:42
  Speaker 6: were talking with Mark Cuban and they were talking about
• 31:46
  Speaker 6: cost Plus and a lot of things, and he had questioned,
• 31:49
  Speaker 6: you know, are there still independent vendors out there when
• 31:52
  Speaker 6: it comes to software? And they said, of course, we
• 31:55
  Speaker 6: love data scan and they're talking more about data scan
• 31:58
  Speaker 6: and what we do, and Cuban says, why isn't everyone
• 32:01
  Speaker 6: using data scan? And I think that's where I would
• 32:04
  Speaker 6: leave it and ask everyone, why are you all not
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: using data scan?
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: Did you actually get to talk to Mark Kevin?
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: We emailed each other.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: He has he has to be introduced to me and
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Mark and I we've emailed each other a few times.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: And as I read more about cost Plus recently, I
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: realized that pharmacies can actually benefit become by by becoming
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: like a.
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: Fulfillment for cost Plus.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: So I emailed them again this past week and he
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: introduced me to one of the goals in the in
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: the in his organization, and she sent me some information
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: I'm going to look over and possibly promoted to our
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: clients because they're guaranteeing them, you know, like minimal dispense
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: rates and things like that to make sure that they're
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: filling their prescriptions. Uh, you know where it's profitable to
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the pharmacy, and I love that he's advocating for that.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: He's actually he's actually fighting for independent pharmacy and he
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: actually did it recently in front of I believe it was.
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: Congress or something.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that this could help everybody in
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of ways. And I'm I'm and I'm happy
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: that we have someone with so much visibility out there
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: fighting for the industry.
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: Now. I think that this is going to be a
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: good thing.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: Well, listen, this has been a delightful half hour. I'm
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: thrilled to get better acquainted with both of you, admire
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: what you're doing, and it's time to call this to
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: an end. So, friends and neighbors, this is Bruce neland
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: is calling it an end of the podcast with Kevin
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: and Sarah of Data Scan Pharmacy Systems. Here's hoping that
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: you have a great day and you can do more
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: and be better.
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: Take care.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Pharmacy Crossroads. If you're interested in
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: talking with Bruce, please contact the show visit Pharmacycrossroads dot com.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: We look forward to hearing from you.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Y