RD Hill Chemist's NMS Success with Pharmacy Services

In March 2023, RD Hill Chemist achieved a remarkable milestone by delivering a whopping 200 NMS and reaching the 42nd position in England, the highest ever recorded.

Their success continues to soar, as evidenced by their outstanding performance in June 2023, where they delivered 176 services, exceeding the NHS target by an impressive 71.3%.

RD Hill has been at the forefront of adopting Pharmacy Services with Pharmacy Manager PMR since its launch last year. By utilising this platform to streamline their operational processes for NMS, they have experienced significant improvements, resulting in a 16% growth in average monthly revenue from NMS Service, reaching £4,335 from £3,724.

Stephen Pollock, the Pharmacist Manager who joined RD Hill Chemist in June 2022, recognised the potential of NMS to increase revenue and benefit their patients.Given the challenging funding climate in the Pharmacy industry, the importance of boosting service numbers and ensuring they are claimed each month was paramount to them. He said;

"We identified NMS as being a really useful service both commercially and in terms of patient benefit to get going straight away. We needed to find a robust solution for recording the clinical interventions and looked to Pharmacy Services and their new NMS Module to do that. In the current funding climate in Pharmacy it really is important to to get those service numbers up, make sure they're claimed every month and you're getting basically as much as you can out of providing those services."

 

 

Providing clinical services is increasingly crucial in Community Pharmacy, as it ensures patients have easy access to healthcare professionals. RD Hill recognises this importance and places great emphasis on a reliable platform to efficiently manage clinical records and consultations.

Continuing his statement, Stephen emphasises that...

“Providing Clinical Services is ever more important in Community Pharmacy. Patients benefit from it because they have a readily accessible Healthcare Professional. Having a good platform to make these clinical records for these sorts of consultations is vital to us now and going into the future.”

Time Saving Digital Solutions

Pharmacies that have not yet embraced a digital solution often face difficulties with their paper-based approach when delivering services like NMS. This traditional method proves to be slow, labour-intensive, and comes with costly GDPR implications and risks. However, RD Hill Chemist has successfully surmounted these challenges by using our comprehensive digital solution, consistently delivering a high volume of NMS services and maximising their payments per service. Their data analysis shows they have achieved an average performance of 65% over the span of 12 months.

To efficiently manage the NMS service, the RD Hill Chemist team implemented a process for identifying and enrolling patients onto NMS. They utilised the prompts in Pharmacy Manager to identify patients starting on new medicines, ensuring that pharmacists receive timely alerts or make necessary notes on prescriptions. By integrating these two systems, RD Hill Chemist has streamlined their NMS service process.

Stephen went on to explain...

“We had to bring in a process for identifying and recruiting patients onto NMS. Pharmacy Manager prompts highlight the patients who have been started on a relevant new medicine.

Using the two systems together has made that really easy. When we sign up a new patient we schedule the first call for a week's time. The scheduling part of the NMS module makes that really easy on Pharmacy services."

Delight Patients - Deliver Pharmacy Services Anywhere

The RD Hill Chemist team has experienced significant benefits since adopting Pharmacy Services, not only in terms of time savings but also in enhancing the patient experience. Users have reported that engagement time for an NMS has been reduced to less than one minute, streamlining service delivery and minimising administrative efforts

The New Medicine Service plays a critical role in promoting medicine compliance and ensuring patient safety. However, while the service presents a promising income opportunity, pharmacies often struggle to optimise revenue due to the complex NHS payment framework. Unlike other NHS services, NMS follows a unique payment structure, with each service valued between £20 and £28, depending on the volume provided. The NHS pays per service on a sliding scale, up to 1% of the total items claimed in a month.

RD Hill Chemist credits their success to the features offered by Pharmacy Services, including the recent update to the NMS module, which provides clear information on both the completed services and the number of services to be claimed. With upcoming automatic claiming features, the risk of missed claims will be further minimised, ensuring maximum revenue potential for the pharmacy.

Stephen credits Pharmacy Services features for supporting this;

“A recent update to the NMS module was a feature that tells you very clearly how many services you've completed that month and how many you need to claim for. It's simply a case of putting the number into MYS. Coming up soon we'll have the automatic claiming which will be really good and make it even less likely that any claims go missed!”

Customer Discovery Informing Product Development

As an active member of the Pharmacy Discovery Panel, RD Hill Chemist is continuously contributing to the development of solutions tailored to their needs, ensuring ongoing refinement of their approach. The upcoming integration of the MYS API for automated claiming, expected to be available in autumn, will further enhance their operational efficiency.

With the upcoming inclusion of antidepressants in NMS, the potential for NMS activity will increase significantly, making it an opportune time for pharmacies to streamline processes and embrace digital solutions to eliminate time-consuming tasks.

To unlock the full potential of delivering and receiving payment for more services, addressing the financial penalties faced until the 40% volume with NMS is achieved becomes essential. The objective is to ensure that pharmacies receive full payment for all completed services.

Pharmacy Intelligence Hub offers real-time visibility of NMS activity, providing comprehensive information on eligible patients, performance across multiple episodes, and the volume of services completed and claimed. This valuable data is instantly accessible to management users through the Pharmacy Intelligence Hub integration in Pharmacy Manager, enabling effective performance management and income optimisation.

Furthermore, the advanced technology powered by machine learning will predict the number of items your pharmacy is expected to claim each month. This real-time monitoring of performance will provide valuable insights.

Stay tuned for more details on this exciting development.

At Cegedim, our aim is to help pharmacies focus on the opportunities presented by managing clinical services, enabling them to thrive as profitable businesses. Together, we can explore ways to optimise NMS revenue and ensure pharmacies receive the full benefits they deserve.

*(NHS BSA Pharmacy & Appliance Contractor Dispensing Data Jan 2022-Dec 2022)