Most modern private medical clinics shouldn't still just be using paper prescriptions, emails and manual calls with pharmacies.
Electronic prescribing can take a lot of that manual work away. With the right platform in place, a clinician can create and sign a prescription online, the patient can then pay for their medication and have it delivered.
With the right platform in place, the clinic doesn't have to spend time chasing pharmacies or answering questions about where a prescription has got to. But choosing the right platform is the important part here.
E-prescribing platforms can look very similar when you're comparing them online. Most will tell you they're quick, secure and easy to use. The differences show up once you've actually started using them.
What do you do if the medication isn't in stock? How much does the patient pay? Can you scale easily? What happens when you go from five prescribers to 50? Those are the questions we'd be asking.
At Healistic, our platform is designed to make e-prescribing easy. It’s completely free for clinics to use and has fulfilment and delivery built in.
What should you look for in an electronic prescribing system for your clinic?
A good electronic prescribing system should save your clinic time, cut admin and make it easier for patients to get the medication they need.
It’s important to look beyond the prescription and consider the whole process: How much does it cost? How easy is it to use? Does it allow for automation? How does it manage stock availability? Delivery? Controlled drugs? And scaling with your clinic?
Having all these questions in your mind upfront can prevent you from making an expensive mistake.
How much does electronic prescribing cost?
Start with what your clinic is actually going to pay.
Some e-prescribing platforms charge clinics per prescription or use prescription tokens, while others are free for clinics to use. A small fee might not matter when you're issuing 20 prescriptions a week, but it looks different when that becomes 200 a month.
Ask about setup fees, subscriptions, prescription charges and whether the cost changes as you add clinicians or prescribe more.
Healistic is free for clinics to use, with no platform fee or prescription token charge.
Patients matter here too. Look at medication prices and delivery charges, and whether patients know what they're paying before they commit.
Healistic provides live medication pricing, while nationwide delivery currently costs £3.50.
Is the system actually easy for your team to use?
Think about how prescriptions are managed in your clinic now.
Does the doctor do everything? Does a medical secretary prepare prescriptions? Who handles repeat requests?
One thing that's worth looking out for is user permissions. If assistants or secretaries can prepare prescriptions for a clinician to review and approve, that can take a lot of admin away from prescribers.
If only the prescriber can touch the prescription, you could end up pushing more work onto your most expensive members of staff.
Don't just watch someone issue one prescription during a demo. Ask them to show you how your own team would use the system on a normal working day.
Onboarding matters too. Adding a new prescriber should be simple, especially if you're regularly adding more clinicians or opening new locations.
What can the e-prescribing system automate?
This is where electronic prescribing can save clinics a lot of time.
Repeat prescriptions are a good example. If you regularly prescribe the same medication to patients, re-writing and staying on top of each prescription manually creates work that doesn't need to be there.
Look at what happens after the prescription is signed too. Who takes payment? Who contacts the patient? Who finds the medication and arranges delivery?
If a system makes issuing the prescription easy but leaves your team to handle everything around it, you've only solved part of the problem.
What happens if medication is out of stock?
This is one of the biggest questions to ask. It’s easy to get so caught up in the information that you forget to ask about stock availability.
The problem is, out of stock medication but it quickly becomes the clinic's problem when a patient can't get what they need.
Find out where and how prescriptions are dispensed and what happens when something isn't available.
If a company relies on one dispensing pharmacy and that pharmacy is out of stock, does somebody look elsewhere or does the patient have to wait?
Healistic works with a nationwide network of pharmacies rather than relying on one location. If one pharmacy can't fulfil a prescription, there is the option to source the medication through another pharmacy in the network.
That's worth paying attention to if your clinic regularly prescribes medication that can be difficult to source.
How quickly can patients get their medication?
Electronic prescribing should make the whole process quicker, not just the prescribing part.
A prescription that takes 30 seconds to issue isn't much help if the patient then waits three days for their medication.
Ask about delivery times upfront. You should also check whether fast delivery is genuinely supported nationwide or limited to certain areas.
Healistic currently offers two-hour delivery in London, Manchester and Birmingham and 24-hour delivery across the rest of the UK.
Speed won't matter equally for every prescription, but if you treat patients who need medication quickly, it's something we'd put fairly high on the list.
Can the system handle controlled drugs?
If your clinic prescribes controlled drugs, ask about this before choosing a platform.
Don't assume every electronic prescribing system handles them in the same way.
Find out which schedules are supported, what the clinician needs to do and how those prescriptions are processed and fulfilled.
Healistic supports prescribing Schedule 2-5 controlled drugs and we have a dedicated process in place for Schedule 2-3 prescriptions.
Even if controlled drugs only account for a small proportion of your prescribing now, it can make a big difference later down the line.
Will the electronic prescribing system scale with your clinic?
Choose a platform with where you're going in mind, not just where you are today.
A platform might work perfectly well with three clinicians and 100 prescriptions a month. What happens when you have 20 clinicians, locations all over the country and thousands of prescriptions?
Ask how easy it is to add prescribers and assistants, whether there are limits and whether costs increase as you grow.
What support will you get from the company?
Every e-prescribing system works nicely when everything goes to plan. It's what happens when something goes wrong that's worth paying attention to.
Inevitably, things will go wrong. So when they do, who deals with it?
If every problem ends up back with your receptionist, the system isn't taking as much work away as you thought.
Ask what support is available to both clinicians and patients and how quickly questions are answered.
Your clinic should also have a clear record of what's happened to each prescription. You should be able to see who created it, who authorised it and where it is in the process without piecing everything together from emails.
What questions should you ask an e-prescribing provider?
Before choosing a system, we'd ask:
- What does the platform cost our clinic?
- What will patients pay for medication and delivery?
- Can patients see prices before paying?
- Can assistants prepare prescriptions for clinicians to approve?
- Are repeat prescriptions automated?
- Which controlled drugs are supported?
- What happens if medication is out of stock?
- Does the platform use one pharmacy or a wider network to dispense medication?
- How quickly can medication reach patients?
- How easy is it to add new prescribers?
- What support is available when something goes wrong?
- Can the platform integrate with our other systems?
- Which electronic prescribing system is right for your clinic?
There isn't one answer for every clinic. A private doctor that works on their own may care most about cost. A growing clinic might put automation and scalability much higher up the list.
At Healistic, we've built our electronic prescribing platform around how clinics actually work. It's free for clinics to use, supports assistant accounts, repeat prescription automation and Schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs, and works with a network of pharmacies to help source medication when stock is low.
Patients can also see live medication pricing and arrange delivery, including two-hour delivery in London, Manchester and Birmingham and 24-hour delivery across the UK.
If you're comparing electronic prescribing systems for your clinic, book a demo with Healistic and see how it could fit into the way your team already works.
