How to Effectively Add Supplements to Your Treatment Plans
DrChrono partner Fullscript hosted a webinar earlier this year around the booming interest in health supplements and how to implement supplement dispensing into your practice. Here are some key takeaways from their presentation.
Growing Demand for Health Alternatives
The demand for supplements is here, and it’s growing. A NBJ 2020 Supplement Business report indicated a 12.7% spike in sales across the nutritional supplement industry in 2020. This notable boost makes it clear that consumers are making their personal health a priority. Moreover, interest is burgeoning in alternative approaches to health and wellness from traditional pharmaceutical products.
Patients have increasingly sought out medical advice on which supplements to take from their healthcare providers. If you look beyond the financial opportunities available through supplement dispensing, you will find a chance to improve your patient care, as patients will respond well to more customized treatment plans made possible with a larger inventory of supplements.
However, the financial opportunities are nothing to scoff at. The industry grew from $48 billion to $54 billion between 2019 to 2020. According to the same report, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to renewed concerns about personal health issues like healthy diets, immunity or quality of sleep. Specifically, sales of melatonin for sleep increased by 20% in 2020, and sales of probiotics increased by 9.3%.
Though the drastic spikes may not be repeatable, year-over-year growth is expected to continue. This is a worthwhile avenue to explore for traditional providers, but it’s especially promising for alternative medicine practitioners such as acupuncturists.
The Benefits of Working With an Online Dispensary
One particular growth area in this industry is ecommerce which is projected to account for 20% of sales by 2023. While the financial growth in the sector is enticing, online supplement dispensaries will be a crucial component to any practice’s supplement plans for several other reasons.
First, they can reduce the risk involved with having a full in-house inventory of products. Having an online inventory means your practice doesn’t need to find the physical space to store those products.
It also reduces the investment needed to fully stock a practice. Now, a practice can focus on fewer supplements to keep in their physical inventory. Additionally, this lessens the burden on your staff to maintain and track inventory.
Online dispensary tools can also expand the selection of products that a practice can offer. Practitioners would not be limited to what they happen to have stocked in their offices. This is especially useful for practices that have shifted operations to a primarily online setting.
Finally, the wider array of products allows practitioners to even further personalize their treatment plans. Many healthcare providers are seeing patients across diverse demographics, and these patients all have a unique medical history with different needs to be met. There are no true all-encompassing options in healthcare. As such, having access to a greater range of supplements allows providers to find the best solution for each specific patient.
Fullscript is an online dispensing platform that integrates with DrChrono to make dispensing supplements to your patients that much easier. By integrating directly into your EHR system, it also helps keep information more organized and accessible. Their inventory includes over 300 high quality practitioner-grade supplements, allowing you to find the right solution for your patients.
According to Fullscript’s data, practitioners using their platform have experienced a 58% increase in patient adherence and a 40% increase in refill rates. This indicated that patients are responding well to the service. The improved patient relationships built with the help of this tool, in addition to the increased revenue possibilities, make it a great option for a variety of practices.
To see how Fullscript integrates with DrChrono, you can view the full webinar here.