Customer retention is critical for achieving success and maximizing performance in the long-term care (LTC) pharmacy business.

According to Lou Ann Brubaker, a consultant with more than 30 years of experience in post-acute care, two key factors dictate customer retention for LTC and post-acute care pharmacies: marketplace consolidation and knowledge (or lack thereof) of what facilities deal with from a financial, operational, and regulatory perspective. 

“If you’re providing pharmacy services in the post-acute care world, you’d better have a really nuanced understanding of what facilities face on a daily basis. If you don’t have that kind of understanding, then facilities may go shopping,” Brubaker explained.

Fortunately, LTC pharmacies can improve customer retention with the right technology and the right strategic approach. Brubaker recommends taking the following steps to improve customer retention as an LTC pharmacy.

Make Improvements to Boost Short- and Long-Term Retention

Start by making internal improvements where possible to improve both your short- and long-term customer retention. You can do so in the short term by closely monitoring treatment plans for short- and ultra-short-stay patients because these medication regimens tend to be inherently dynamic and prone to frequent changes. 

Closely monitoring short-stay patient drug regimens enables pharmacy staff to quickly adjust orders as needed. Plus, it helps develop a better understanding of physician prescribing habits, which medications cost the most each month, and whether recommendations made by consulting pharmacists aren’t being followed.

On a longer-term basis, aggregated pharmacy data can also help pinpoint new treatment areas for facility customers. For instance, an increasing number of LTC facilities are expected to focus on new clinical areas of opportunity, such as respiratory therapy, bariatric care, cardiac care, and behavioral health. 

Additionally, LTC pharmacies can help monitor prescribing habits in order to identify the most cost-effective treatment solutions. This can be achieved by comparing oral and IV medications and tracking dose changes and reductions over time. 

Deliver the Right Data Insights Based on Customers’ Needs

These days, most business decisions are driven by data—or at least they should be. You can improve your retention by staying in constant communication with your facility customers and regularly sharing relevant data, or the insights they want most. 

Consider holding quarterly business reviews with your facility customers. This will present the opportunity to review critical key performance indicators (KPIs)—such as drug costs, generic utilization, non-covered items, infection prevention, and antibiotic utilization—and share meaningful trends and outliers with facility leaders.

This will also help empower facilities to make data-driven decisions and help facility managers prove their effectiveness to stakeholders. Armed with real-time and relevant data, facility customers can easily make the case for sticking with your pharmacy.

A pharmacy management system (PMS) designed for long-term care, such as FrameworkLTC, can help LTC pharmacies provide the metrics that are most important to their customers. Pharmacies can set up dashboards for easy data tracking, and the dashboards are completely customizable based on the data each client wants to see. 

Master the Art of Customer Retention with FrameworkLTC

Developing a proactive and holistic understanding of your facility customers’ needs will help you increase the likelihood of retaining them over time. With FrameworkLTC, your pharmacy can provide the services and data that LTC facilities need to succeed. 

FrameworkLTC supports the operational and customer support needs of LTC pharmacies, helping to build mutually beneficial relationships while providing the best possible patient care. Get in touch to learn more about FrameworkLTC and how it helps LTC pharmacies and their facility partners take data-driven action.