Not many pharmacies give a lot of thought to growing their pediatric business. That’s a shame. Because when you take a step back and think about it, while kids will never match up against older adults in terms of script volume, the benefits of a robust pediatric business are enormous.

For starters, helping a child get well when he or she is sick can be tremendously gratifying. It’s the kind of stuff that helps you sleep well at night. Beyond that, parents – especially moms – are great customers. If you provide them with stellar service for their child, they’ll probably end up bringing all their families script business your way. And they’ll most certainly tell family and friends that your pharmacy is THE place to go for health products. Here’s another secret. Moms spend money. So if you have a front-end in your pharmacy, these are the kinds of customers you need in your store.

Alright, so we’ve sold you on why you need to get more moms and kids in your pharmacy. How are you going to do it? It just so happens, we talked with some of the best pediatric-friendly pharmacies in the country. Here’s what they’ve done to build their pediatric pharmacy business:

• Give ‘Em a Gift – A kid-friendly gift bag for every new pediatric customer and/or a birthday present from the pharmacy can make a lasting impression and will generate buzz for your pharmacy.

• Parent Referral Bonus – Give moms a discount off future services if they refer someone to your pharmacy. No one can spread the word like a mom can!

• Use Facebook – Moms love to hang out on Facebook. So create a Facebook page for your pharmacy and promote it heavily in your store. You should also try targeted ads to moms in your community. For a good primer on how to start a Facebook page for your business and make it grow, this is a good read.

• Make it fun – We’ve seen quite a few pharmacies have success giving out compliance trackers that kids can color in every time they take their medicine. When they’re finished taking all their medicine, they bring the completed tracker back to the pharmacy. In exchange for taking all their medicine, you give them a prize – stickers, sugar-free gum, a dollar, anything really. This really leaves an impression on kids and gives mom a ‘Wow!’ experience too. We offer compliance coloring sheets. Email us at info@flavorx.com to find out more.

• Pediatricians – Talk to the pediatricians in your neighborhood about the great services you provide. Ask the Office Manager if you can put some posters up in the office. We offer Doctor Detailing kits to help drive traffic to your pharmacy. Of course you have to be a FLAVORx customer to get these detailing materials. Which leads us to tip #6…

• Flavoring – Offering mom a choice of flavors for her child’s medicine can be a real customer-service win. This is the type of thing that really get’s mom talking. A lot of pharmacists and technicians will tell their customers that medicines are already flavored. Heck, this happens at pharmacies that carry FLAVORx all the time. So imagine being the pharmacy that tells mom, or even the child, that the medicine can come flavored any way they like it. That’s a ‘Wow!’ Check out our product catalog for info on what’s new, including the Fillmaster Plus.
  

Hopefully a few of these tips make it into your pharmacy’s everyday practice. Based on what we’ve seen out in the field, you’ll be very happy you took the time to build your pediatric pharmacy business.

1) Set a monthly team flavoring goal. If the goal is achieved, provide a pizza lunch to your team. Setting a goal for the entire team is a great way to foster teamwork and drive flavoring sales forward.

2) Choose a “Flavor of the Month”. This is great way to keep things fresh and exciting for your Pharmacy team and your customers. With your team, vote in a new focus Flavor of the Month. You may choose to slightly discount your focus flavor for a limited time. Set a team sales goal for the focus flavor. If the goal is achieved, provide bagels, juice, and coffee to the team to say “Well done”! We’re happy to supply you with pre-made Flavor of the Month artwork for you to print in-house. Just email

3) Host a March Madness style contest. Everybody loves brackets this time of year, right? Well why not try FLAVORx Madness. We can supply you with an easy to use template to monitor the flavoring tournament. Just send an email to info@flavorx.com for the template. Then track everyone’s performance by developing a poster board with each person’s name. Have your team members put a mark next to their name each time they make a flavoring sale. The person with the most flavoring sales moves on to the next week of competition until the final head-to-head matchup. A plaque or trophy for the winner is a great reward!

4) Give them $$$! Offer a financial reward (25 cents for example) on each sale made. You can again track this by creating a poster board with everyone’s names and have them make a mark with each sale. Who doesn’t love a little extra cash? The staff will be happy as will all of those happy families who are receiving superior customer service and personalized service in your Pharmacy! You can also offer to donate the money to a local charity, if you feel that could be more of a motivation for your pharmacy.
With just a little bit of extra motivation, your pharmacy can achieve phenomenal results with the flavoring service. Remember, when it’s all said and done, the big winners are the kids, who will have a much easier time taking their medicine and are more compliant.

P.S. – If your pharmacy has some real ‘blow away’ strategies that you use, please share them in the comments field below or send them to us at info@flavorx.com.

United Supermarkets, LLC, the Texas-based operator of 43 pharmacies under the United Supermarkets, Market Street and Amigos United banners, and FLAVORx, makers of medication flavor choice and taste improvement systems, have agreed to terms on a chainwide rollout of the new Fillmaster Plus dispensing technology.

“United Supermarkets is making a strong statement with its investment in the Fillmaster Plus”, said Stuart R. Amos, President & CEO of FLAVORx. “It says a lot about the company’s commitment to improving not only the lives of its customers, but of its employees behind the counter as well.”

The Fillmaster PLUS combines the unique aspects of what Fillmaster Systems and FLAVORx offer into a leading-edge piece of pharmacy equipment. With the new device, pharmaceutical reconstitution, which in many cases is a manual process, is now accomplished by United Supermarket pharmacy staff at the push of a button. When a prescription bottle is scanned using the Fillmaster PLUS, the unit instantly displays the medication’s name, volume, strength and the amount of purified water it needs for reconstitution. This process reduces the risk of dispensing errors. At the same time, reconstitution is accomplished in a matter of seconds, for extremely efficient workflow.

In addition, the Fillmaster Plus technology gives pharmacy team members the ability to customize the taste of liquid medication quickly and easily. Children and parents can choose the taste of any liquid prescription or OTC medications they are picking up at United Supermarkets. This has a very positive impact on prescription compliance, or how well a person, in this case a child, sticks with the medication directions as prescribed by the doctor.

Improving the Palatibiltiy of Medications to Help Children Be More Compliant

First study of its kind reveals which pediatric medications are common candidates for taste improvement and the flavor options parents and children choose most often.

FLAVORx, the U.S.-based medication compliance and adherence company, recently unveiled a groundbreaking study at the 3rd annual European Paediatric Formulation Initiative (EuPFi) Conference held in Strasbourg, France. The study, based on millions of data points generated from use of the proprietary FLAVORx Online Formulary, examined the real-world demand for taste improvement of pediatric liquid medications. In addition to identifying which pediatric medications receive the most requests for taste improvement in U.S. pharmacies, the study also shed light on the flavor options that parents and children choose for their medicine.

“We were honored to have our poster accepted for display at this year’s EuPFi conference”, said Stuart R. Amos, President and CEO of FLAVORx. “It validates our long-held belief that a parent’s ability to choose how their child’s medicine will taste plays an important role in increasing pediatric compliance.”

The study, titled “Improving the Palatability of Medications to Help Children be More Compliant”, shows, for example, that amoxicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanate, and azithromycin are common candidates for flavor choice and taste improvement. Grape, bubblegum, and strawberry are three of the more popular flavor options in the U.S. market. The poster also includes information related to physicians perception of taste as a barrier to higher pediatric compliance and reiterated the positive findings from compliance studies previously performed using the FLAVORx Pediatric system.

The EuPFi is a consortium of 14 institutions working to improve pediatric drug formulations from a safety and compliance standpoint. Its members hail from academia, hospital pharmacy, and the pharmaceutical industry. Founded in 2007, the groups aim is to resolve scientific, regulatory and technological issues associated with pediatric formulation development.

Technology is Making Medications Tastier to Swallow For Children
Just a spoon full of flavor makes the medicine go down easier for kids.
By Sarah Lieu

CHARLESTON — When it comes to antibiotics, pharmacists at Loop Pharmarcy are mixing up tastier medicine the high-tech way. Technology is making it more interactive for parents and their kids to pick the flavor. A new machine at Loop Pharmacy’s location in Kanawha City in Charleston lets the pharmacist scan the bar code from the prescription bottle. Information about the prescription flashes on the screen with the exact amount of flavoring that should go into the medication. “With this new tool, everything is done visually. In fact, it’s so fast that it takes five minutes instead of 30 minutes these days,” said pharmacy owner Bill McFarland.

For the discerning kid, the system dispenses popular flavors like apple, bubblegum, grape, strawberry and watermelon. Flavoring medicine has been around for years. This makes it more interactive, allowing families to feel more in charge of their health care. “They’re involved in it and they see how easy it is. They see that their children actually get choices. They see that their children will absolutely take their medication and if you get a child that helps in that decision-making process, it’s much easier for them to take their medication,” McFarland said.

Loop Pharmacy flavors mostly antibiotics for children, which McFarland says doesn’t really pose a danger if the child accidentally gets into the child-proof bottle. “The truth is though, if they took this entire bottle of antibiotic, the worst thing that would happen to them is that they would get a real good case of diarrhea,” McFarland said. At least it tastes good going down. This system also can flavor many over-the-counter medicines, like your antihistamines, Tylenol or Motrin.

Fillmaster Plus reconstitution and flavoring device uses bar code scanning to save time and reduce the risk of dispensing error while promoting higher patient compliance.

Independent pharmacists looking for innovative ways to provide stellar customer service, improve the bottom-line and gain efficiency behind the counter should make a beeline for booth #1116 at McKesson ideaShare 2011. There, FLAVORx, the medication compliance experts, and Fillmaster Systems, producers of advanced pharmaceutical reconstitution equipment, will demonstrate the one-of-a-kind Fillmaster Plus automated dispensing device.

The Fillmaster Plus combines the unique aspects of what Fillmaster Systems and FLAVORx offer into a leading-edge piece of pharmacy automation equipment. Pharmaceutical reconstitution, which in many cases is a manual, time-consuming, error-prone process, can now be accomplished at the push of a button with great accuracy. Reconstitution is performed in a matter of seconds for extremely efficient workflow in the pharmacy. This frees up time behind the counter, and keeps customer wait time to a minimum. The integrated FLAVORx prescription flavoring system allows pharmacists and technicians to promote higher pediatric medication compliance without putting an extra burden on the staff.

In addition to the live demonstrations at the FLAVORx booth (#1116) in the McKesson ideaShare exhibit hall, the Fillmaster Plus will be on display and available for hands-on use in the Health Mart corporate booth.

While the Fillmaster Plus is understandably the star of the show, FLAVORx will be exhibiting two additional products that are exciting in their own right. The FLAVORx Veterinary system provides independent pharmacists with a turn-key way to attract profitable pet pharmacy business to their store. And Pill Glide, a new OTC product from FLAVORx, finally gives pharmacists a proven solution to recommend to any patients who have difficulty swallowing tablets and capsules.

McKesson ideaShare 2011 takes place from June 29 – July 3 2011 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA

Companies strike deal to promote FLAVORx flavoring systems and Fillmaster dispensing devices to independent pharmacies

FLAVORx and Rochester Drug Cooperative (RDC) today announced they have entered into a long-term distribution agreement. The partnership is designed to bring the FLAVORx brand to more than 950 independent pharmacies serviced by RDC throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Connecticut. At the same time, RDC expects the FLAVORx product line, including the new Fillmaster Plus, to provide their customers with unique offerings that add to the value they already bring to independent pharmacies in the region.

“We are delighted to partner with RDC to better serve the needs of independent pharmacies in the region,” said Natasha Hobson, FLAVORx Director of Accounts. “The team at RDC has a deep understanding of the independent pharmacy market and truly cares about the continued success of their customers. Adding FLAVORx and Fillmaster to their portfolio is a progressive step that will give their customers access to unique products designed to enhance workflow and customer service while improving patient outcomes.”

As part of the partnership, RDC representatives will now offer the new Fillmaster Plus. This one-of-a-kind pharmacy automation device automates drug reconstitution, while making the process of flavoring liquid medications quick and easy. FLAVORx has provided RDC sales representatives with full demo versions of the Fillmaster Plus for use when detailing interested pharmacy owners and store managers. RDC will also promote the FLAVORx Pediatric Medication Flavoring System, the backbone of FLAVORx since its inception in 1994.

“RDC is excited to be partnering with FLAVORx in order to offer our customers a complete affordable flavoring system,” said Lanny Doud, RDC Director of Sales “The newly designed Fillmaster Plus makes the task of filling and flavoring prescriptions quick and easy.”

As pharmacists across the country are compounding Tamiflu capsules into a liquid form for children, FLAVORx provides flavoring guidance to improve compliance.

With the 2010-2011 flu season in full swing, pharmacies are dealing with a shortage in supply of the commercially prepared liquid form of Tamiflu for children. To satisfy demand for this essential antiviral drug, pharmacists are compounding the widely-available capsule form of the medication into liquid. To ensure children are compliant with this compounded version of Tamiflu, FLAVORx – the nation’s leading provider of pediatric medication flavorings – is supplying updated flavoring recipes to member pharmacies across the country.

“During flu season, Tamiflu suspension is one of the most commonly flavored medications,” said Chad Baker, vice president of marketing at FLAVORx. “As pharmacies ran out of liquid Tamiflu supply during last year’s H1N1 outbreak, we were quick to react with updated flavoring formulations for the compounded version. Faced with the same shortage this year, our pharmacy partners can continue to promote high Tamiflu compliance with flavoring.”

With the seasonal flu virus, children are normally two times more likely than older adults to contract the flu. It is critical that children who contract or are exposed to the flu virus take their prescribed antiviral and antibiotic medications as directed. Because the taste associated with these liquid medications is often a barrier to doing so, improving the medicine’s taste with FLAVORx can lead to positive increases in medication compliance. In fact, studies have shown that compliance rates for children on liquid medications are higher than 90% when FLAVORx flavors are added.

For older children or adults who take the capsule form of Tamiflu, FLAVORx also offers Pill Glide. Pill Glide is designed to help both children and adults swallow tablets and capsules, including antivirals and antibiotics.

Tamiflu is prescribed for children and adults who have contracted the flu virus, to keep it from spreading in the body. Tamiflu is the most commonly-prescribed antiviral medication and is not an alternative to the flu vaccine.

The only thing worse than a sick child is trying to give her medicine when she doesn’t like to take it. As most parents know, it’s not as easy as Mary Poppins makes it out to be–and frankly, a spoonful of sugar is probably the last thing they need. Luckily, we found four tricks that also help the medicine go down.

1. Make it “rocket medicine.” Use a dropper to give liquid meds (no spills) and let your child fill it himself.
2. Ask your pharmacist if she can add a kid-friendly flavor, like FLAVORx, to bitter-tasting liquid medicines.
3. Crush the pill and mix it with applesauce or flavored yogurt.
4. Look for chewables in flavors he likes, such as grape or bubble gum.