Back to school can be a crazy time. With shopping for supplies, possibly moving a college-aged student, and trying to soak in the last few days of summer – it can be a lot on families. So, what can we do at the pharmacy to help ease this burden? How can we help our communities have a smooth back to school transition? In today’s blog, we’re going to provide you with a few tips.
Promoting Your Back-to-School Products & Services via Social Media
Social media is a great way to engage with your patients and community. Using this tool, you can create banners or images with information regarding services you offer. For instance, you can use social media to promote your ability to provide routine immunizations. You can also use social media to educate on illnesses that tend to occur when kids are back in school, like the common cold or head lice. Social media is also a great tool to market OTC items your pharmacy offers that parents may want to stock up on.
Preparing your Pharmacy Front End for Back-to-School
With kids back in school, many prescription medications that weren’t dispensed as often during the summer will need to be back in stock. Pharmacies should prepare for higher volumes of controlled substance prescriptions used to treat ADHD like amphetamine salts, dextroamphetamine, lisdexamfetamine, methylphenidate, and dexmethylphenidate. Many children with ADHD may take drug holidays during the summer so ensuring your controlled medication orders reflect the back to school demand is necessary. Additionally pharmacies should prepare for higher than normal scripts of antibiotics for the treatment of infections that potentially spread more easily when children are in enclosed spaces, like a classroom, etc.
Preparing Your Pharmacy Rx Inventory for Back-to-School
The front end of the pharmacy is an integral component of the patient experience and helps to increase store sales. Keeping the front-end stocked with proper back to school items is helpful for the shoppers of the local community. These items may include backpacks, pens/pencils, earphones/headphones, erasers, folders, cases/covers for tablets/laptops, etc. Also, ensuring you are fully stocked with supplies of common cough and cold or allergy medications is crucial. Examples of these medications include dextromethorphan, diphenhydramine, cetirizine, levocetirizine, loratadine, desloratadine, and cough lozenges. Items for sports-related injuries, such as ACE bandages, topical anesthetics/counterirritants, would also be great to keep fully stocked.
Providing Routine Vaccinations
Most students require some sort of routine immunization before heading back to school. At the pharmacy, we can educate on what may be due for them and provide those vaccinations.
You can appoint a “team immunization captain” to lead this effort. This can be the point person who creates pamphlets or flyers to hand out to patients or who handles the education when someone comes into the pharmacy inquiring. Having a seamless system for back-to-school immunizations and encouraging your patients to schedule vaccines through your pharmacy website or mobile app, will make this process extremely easy for you and your community.
Educating on Diseases That Occur in Schools
With kids back in school, many prescription medications that weren’t dispensed as often during the summer will need to be back in stock. Pharmacies should prepare for higher volumes of controlled substance prescriptions used to treat ADHD like amphetamine salts, dextroamphetamine, lisdexamfetamine, methylphenidate, and dexmethylphenidate. Many children with ADHD may take drug holidays during the summer so ensuring your controlled medication orders reflect the back to school demand is necessary. Additionally pharmacies should prepare for higher than normal scripts of antibiotics for the treatment of infections that potentially spread more easily when children are in enclosed spaces, like a classroom, etc.
