Pharmacy POS in Zimbabwe: eight things it must do
A pharmacy is a shop with a dispensary inside it, and most tills only understand the shop. Before you pay for pharmacy software, or for a till that claims to do pharmacy, check it does these eight things. Each one is something an inspector, a medical aid or ZIMRA will ask about sooner or later.
1. Stop prescription-only medicines being sold without a prescription
Every product should carry its MCAZ schedule (P, PP, SR and the rest), and the pharmacy should be able to mark which products need a prescription. A marked product must not go through the till until a prescription is captured. A warning the cashier can tap past is not control.
2. Keep patient records
Patient, doctor, prescription number, directions, repeats and allergies, with a dispensing history you can search. When a patient comes back for a repeat, the last dispensing should be one search away.
3. Print dispensing labels
Each item dispensed needs a label with the patient's name, the medicine, directions, date, prescription number, batch, expiry and the pharmacy's name. Writing them by hand is slow and is where mistakes start.
4. Track batch and expiry
Stock should be received with its batch number and expiry date, and the till should sell the earliest expiry first. You need a near-expiry report to move stock in time, and an expired report to pull it.
5. Keep the controlled drugs register
Sales of the most restricted schedules belong in a register: who, what, how much, on whose prescription. If it comes straight from the sales, it is complete and it is ready when the inspector asks.
6. Split the bill with medical aid
The medical aid pays its share and the patient pays the co-payment at the till. The system should keep the claim against each medical aid and let you mark it paid when the money arrives, so you can see what each aid owes you.
7. Fiscalise every line correctly
Medicines, toiletries and food on one receipt may not share a VAT treatment. The till must fiscalise each line at its own rate through ZIMRA FDMS, and refunds must be credit notes.
8. Keep the shop simple
A pharmacy does not need restaurant tables or room bookings on its screens. Features for other trades should be out of the way, so staff learn one thing and do it well. And when the power or the line goes, dispensing must carry on.
How Syncro POS does it
Syncro POS has all eight: prescription control by product and MCAZ schedule, patients and prescriptions, dispensing labels, batch and expiry sold earliest first, the controlled drugs register, medical aid claims, ZIMRA fiscalisation, and a pharmacy mode that hides the other trades.