For veterinary hospitals, keeping 503B manufactured drugs on-hand for office use and dispensing is critical to top-quality patient care. But stocking these manufactured products provides another opportunity for veterinary staff—building stronger client relationships.
With 503B drugs on hand, you can deepen client relationships in ways that can’t be replaced by online pharmacies. It gives you the opportunity to provide the highest quality medication, consulting services on storage and administration, and added convenience. Below we take a deeper dive into three important ways your 503B medication stock will improve vet-client relationships and build loyalty for your practice.
By federal law, veterinary hospitals can legally stock and dispense our manufactured drugs. Traditional 503A compounding pharmacies were never intended to provide office stock as the intent was to provide individual patient prescriptions.
Quality builds trust and loyalty
It’s common for online retailers, unauthorized pharmacies, and street vendors to sell counterfeit pet medications—often at a large discount—that resemble the real thing. Sadly, over 1 in 10 pet owners have been duped by online counterfeit pet medications. These imitations pose a real threat to pets because of their incorrect dosing, unknown active ingredients, or no ingredients at all.
Offering reliable, high-quality medications to your clients directly from your practice increases client confidence and trust. You and your client can come out of an appointment knowing the medication is coming from a reputable source where products are manufactured with extensive testing for purity and stability, meets their pet’s needs, and it’s in a dosage form or flavor that makes at-home treatment easier.
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, clients are 40% more likely to follow veterinary recommendations when communication is clear, thorough, and trustworthy. That’s why it’s so important to be thorough with the information you share about treatment recommendations and medication instructions. It provides a great opportunity to educate pet owners on reputable pharmacies.
Reinforce your consultative role
Veterinarians are the people whom pet owners trust the most, influenced more by the knowledge, quality of care, and compassion given than by price or convenience. Having a positive relationship with a pet owner creates better opportunities to counsel clients on proper medication storage and usage.
To further the trust between the vet and the client, the relationship should exist beyond the appointment. A follow-up phone call regarding at-home treatment enhances the level of care and helps a client know they can depend on their veterinary staff. Research shows one of the main reasons clients switch vets is due to confusing communication and treatment recommendations. Following through, providing clarity, and fostering a consultative role will strengthen the overall relationship you have with your clients.
Meet pet owners’ needs for convenience
Speed and convenience are essential to nearly any customer experience in today’s increasingly fast-paced world. Retail sales of pet medication purchased online has grown to 16% and allowed online pharmacies to successfully draw from this revenue stream for veterinary hospitals and clinics.
However, by stocking manufactured 503B drugs, veterinary practices can recoup some of this revenue by making high-quality medications readily available to clients. When a client can walk out of the vet’s office with the exact medication they need to give their pet, it eliminates the need to wait on a local (503A) compounding pharmacy or to find a reputable online pharmacy, which may or may not be experiencing a shortage.
Direct dispensing also reduces the stress vet visits can cause for both pets and owners. After diagnosing, explaining, and setting expectations for the new medication with the client, at-home treatment education can get lost in the information overload. With the drug in-house and handed directly to the pet owner, you can take the time to reinforce administration guidance.
Take advantage of ordering with Epicur. All drugs are ready to ship same day with 1-2 days in transit.
When a pet owner walks out the door with no medication in hand, they have many other options where they could purchase their needed veterinary pharmaceuticals. Other well-known stores such as Walmart, PetRx, and Chewy Rx are popular for pet food, supplies, and now pet medications, where clients can fill their prescriptions instead.
Keeping 503B medications in stock helps you provide the safest, highest-quality treatment while reinforcing your trusted relationship.
Partner with Epicur for your bulk stock and dispensing.
Call us at 888-508-5032 to start your order!
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