"When I look at delivery models, I see basically three different types," says Dr. Mark Fulton. "It usually starts with pharmacies having their own drivers, and as you scale up, that becomes unsustainable. Then you either transition to a hybrid model managing delivery with both in-house and outsourced drivers or you adopt a completely outsourced delivery model using one or even multiple courier companies."

LTC pharmacies face a variety of delivery options, including in-house drivers, third-party couriers, direct mail through package delivery channels (FedEx, USPS, DHL, etc.), drop shipping, or a combination of these options. However, managing multiple disconnected and disparate systems for delivery is a challenge for LTC pharmacies.

"I have lived through portal hell at some of my old jobs," reminisces Dr. Fulton. "The biggest thing I see pharmacies need is tracking and data integration because we are using these disparate sources. The biggest challenge I've found with working with multiple portals is that they're not always easy to navigate, and you don't have the same information available on all the portals, sometimes missing key data that I need."

"Virtue Technologies offers a single pane of glass for our pharmacies so they don't live in portal oblivion. We are removing all the manual processes," says Gibran Ameer, CEO of Virtue Technologies. "Through our integration with FrameworkLTC and all of the last-mile carriers, we are able to consolidate data, present it back to these last-mile carriers, deliver the product the way they would like to receive it, and capture data back and present it back into the pharmacy management system."

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FrameworkFocus is the first-ever podcast focused on Long Term Care Pharmacy. We release a new episode on the second Wednesday of every month, addressing the hottest topics in LTC pharmacy, interviewing industry trailblazers, thought leaders, and LTC pharmacists. Follow us wherever you listen to catch each upcoming episode."