Lemonaid Community Pharmacy is a locally-owned pharmacy serving the community of St. Louis, MO.
Dedicated to providing outstanding customer service at affordable prices, the pharmacy serves as a one-stop-shop for pharmacy and medical needs. They offer free delivery, COVID testing and vaccinations, health screenings, immunizations, medication synchronization, medication therapy management, pet care, and more.
Pharmacist and manager Clayton Maxfield started searching for vaccine management solutions last year during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. As soon as their state confirmed they would be receiving COVID vaccines, Maxfield knew they needed a way to manage their patient waitlists and appointment scheduling. Upon the announcement to their community that they would be receiving doses, their waitlist went from 250 to 3,000 people overnight, followed by 5,000 sign-ups the next week.
“We basically had a countdown for when Digital Pharmacist’s scheduler was going to launch because we knew that it was going to be exactly what we needed.” Maxfield said.
In the span of 1 week, Lemonaid Community Pharmacy:
700+
scheduled covid vaccination appointments
50+
COVID shots administered per day
13,000+
waitlisted patients interested in the vaccine
“I can go in, open a range of dates, and select how many appointments I want for each time. I can plan for one person every 10 minutes or I can make that two or three or four, depending on how it’s progressing or how quickly I think I can get through people. It also tells me how many slots are available. The algorithm even suggests how many people should be contacted if we anticipate a 75% response rate, for example.”
On April 1, 2021 Digital Pharmacist released a new tool for messaging and COVID-19 vaccination management, the Vaccination Scheduler. Lemonaid Community Pharmacy has been an avid user of the scheduler since, praising how much time it has saved their pharmacy in addition to eliminating tedious, manual processes.
With no formal training, Lemonaid Community Pharmacy scheduled 700+ appointments in the span of a week. Maxfield and his team jumped into using the Vaccination Scheduler right away after watching a few training videos.
“No one received formal training, but we were able to pick it up and run with it because it’s so user-friendly.” Maxfield said.
Before using the Digital Pharmacist solution, Maxfield said they were tracking waitlisted patients through spreadsheets and one on one calling to coordinate each appointment.
Lemonaid Community Pharmacy also explored an alternative process through Calendly, a third-party calendar application. While the Lemonaid team was able to leverage Calendly, it had limited automation and required workarounds to remain HIPAA compliant. Given the all-in-one platform capabilities and secure messaging/scheduling functionalities, Digital Pharmacist was selected as the pharmacy’s sole scheduling tool.
“The time-saving behind the scheduler is the biggest thing for us. We can now send 500 appointment reminders at once and keep track of them in one place, all without having to jump between a bunch of windows or making extra phone calls.” Maxfield commented.
Maxfield also speaks highly of how the platform allows them to create appointment workflows that are directly integrated with their Digital Pharmacist waitlists, letting them bulk message and schedule appointments in just a few clicks.
“That’s the best, just to know that I can see my visual progress through the waitlist tiers, how many people I’m contacting each day, who’s declining, who’s scheduling, or who still hasn’t responded to any of our messages yet.” says Maxfield.
Lemonaid Community Pharmacy further optimized their appointment system by using the scheduler’s real-time configuration.
“I can go in, open a range of dates, and select how many appointments I want for each time. I can plan for one person every 10 minutes or I can make that two or three or four, depending on how it’s progressing or how quickly I think I can get through people. It also tells me how many slots are available. The algorithm even suggests how many people should be contacted if we anticipate a 75% response rate, for example.” Maxfield explained.
Maxfield further explained that the patient’s experience was just as intuitive as it was for the pharmacy.
Beyond vaccination scheduling, Lemonaid Community Pharmacy is also using Digital Pharmacist’s digital marketing, reputation management, IVR, branded healthsite/mobile app, and patient engagement platform.
Join thousands of independent pharmacies partnering with Digital Pharmacist to digitally transform your business with the Vaccination Waitlist, Vaccination Scheduler, and other products.
