4 Tips for Finding the Best Pharmacy POS System
Point of sales (POS) software improves the productivity of many businesses. For pharmacies they can really help maintain the accuracy of all prescription and patient data. This includes keeping track of prescriptions filled and patients’ signature to prevent fraud. Because credit card transactions can be handled anywhere in the store the experience is better for the store and customer. The use of POS software in rising and, as of 2014, was worth about $3.2 billion. The retail pharmacy pos systems 2014 were a big part of that industry.
Moving to a POS system can be challenging. Some businesses think the work to find, install and train employees on how to use POS systems for pharmacies is more than it will be worth. The first step is to find the right POS system for your business.
Tips for finding the best POS System for you:
- Your pharmacy pos system has to comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements. These are the standards all companies that take credit card payments must meet. Basically, this is to ensure all credit card transactions are done securely. Any United States pharmacy pos systems company needs to show they are in compliance with the PCI DSS. If any of your customer data is leaked, you could face serious consequences. In 2014, each breach of personal data such as credit card information cost the business $145. A pharmacy pos systems 2014 would have prevented at least some of that.
- Be prepared to update everything once a year. The PCI DSS requirements are not static, they change. The technology advances. New threats emerge. Your retail pharmacy pos systems company will need to be able to adapt to these changes. If they are not, your business will suffer. If you had a pharmacy pos systems 2014 and did no updates to it, it would be so far out of date by now that it would be worse than worthless.
- Put a firewall between the POS system and your other software. Unfortunately, the POS system can be a weak spot in your overall system. Hackers and others with nefarious intentions know that these are often vulnerable areas for a business and look to attack them with malware because of it.
- Know your options for encryption. When looking at different POS systems, ask about their encryption. Some offer this as part of their service while others charge a separate fee for it. You may be able to save money and time if they offer the end-to-end encryption so be sure you ask about that.
Having a POS in a pharmacy settling can really help improve patient safety. Most senior citizens, for instance, take at least eight different medications a day. Not all will always tell their different doctors what they are on but the POS system keeps track of all prescriptions filled so the pharmacist can make sure they will not interact in a bad way.