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With over six million nominations already set, contractors can no longer afford to ignore EPS. Andy Charlesworth, Numark’s IT services manager, explains how to stay abreast of the nomination process

EPS Release 2 is a ‘game changer’, and itsintroduction will fundamentally alter the way patients choose and use pharmacies. EPS – alongside the emerging service-led pharmacy model – highlights the need for pharmacy to place a much greater emphasis on patient loyalty.

Many, particularly larger, contractors and some online pharmacies have already realised this and are making the most of the opportunity to steal business via the nomination process.

Time to capture nominations

The impetus around EPS and patient nomination is increasing. It is fair to say that 2014 has been, and will continue to be, the year that EPS tops the pharmacy agenda in England. With well over six million nominations already set and after a very slow start, EPS is gaining unprecedented momentum.

This diagram shows current EPS statistics as presented on the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) website. You can find more up-to-date information on http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/eps/stats.

If you’re a pharmacy owner or manager in England, you should be asking yourself: l How many patients do I have?

• How many are on repeat medication?
• How many of my repeat patients have nominated my pharmacy?
• How many have I registered on the NHS Spine?

EPS provides an opportunity to engage with patients and build, but more crucially protect, patient loyalty. But for contractors in England, time has almost run out.

It takes an average of seven minutes per patient to complete the patient nomination process, if you consider the whole process of talking to the patient, gaining their consent, completing the forms and registering them onto the NHS Spine.

 

*** IMAGE - Latest statistics***

 

This means that, for a pharmacy with around 3,000 patients, it will take almost nine weeks to get all patients nominated – that is if every one of your patients came through the door one after the other every day and one person did nothing other than sign patients up and administer them onto the spine.

Stiff competition

Competition can appear in different guises. But what is certain is that each of your competitors will have their own strategies to capture nominations to secure existing and new patients – your patients!

The internet pharmacy business model benefits massively from EPS Release 2, as physical prescriptions and repeat prescription requests don’t have to be posted backwards and forwards to surgeries.

At least one very large internet pharmacy has been targeting all patients in areas of England where it sees that GPs have, or are soon to have, gone live with EPS. This personal, targeted approach is a genuine threat to your business and should not be underestimated. This is another reason why capturing nominations now is so important.

Do you have a handle on the number of patients that may have taken their nominations elsewhere? Your dispensary system can provide you with a report that will give you a snapshot of the number of your patients currently registered on the NHS Spine, as well as potential nominations that you can capture. Use this tool – it is crucial for sustained long-term business.

The latest stats

Numark has recently reached agreement with HSCIC, which will provide members in England with valuable nomination information. With a member’s permission, Numark can provide a snapshot of nomination statistics for their pharmacy from the NHS Spine on a monthly basis.

If you are interested in receiving this information you need to give us your consent on a form that you can access via www.numarknet.com/2197. This will provide you with a more accurate picture of how many patients have nominated your pharmacy.

By monitoring these statistics, you will get a feel for whether or not you are losing patient nominations to another pharmacy.

 

Together with the production of a nomination support pack for members, allowing patient nomination and a required audit trail of patient consent, Numark has produced a series of videos aimed at the whole pharmacy team, covering the basics of EPS including understanding nomination, best practice and how to collect nominations. Sign in to www.numarknet.com/2197 and follow the links to view the videos, or contact Andy Charlesworth on 0800 783 5709.