In today’s competitive pharmacy landscape — whether you run an independent community pharmacy, a specialty pharmacy, a multi-location network, operate a health system or an LTC pharmacy — procurement is more than just ordering products. It’s a strategic function that affects your bottom line, compliance status and patient care quality.
Over years of listening to our pharmacy customers of all sizes share their experiences, I’ve seen what works, what doesn’t and where the biggest cost and efficiency gains are hiding. Here are the top 10 pharmacy procurement strategies I’ve learned that can transform your operations.
1. Centralize Your Purchasing Operations
Disorganized procurement across spreadsheets, portals and systems creates costly errors and inefficiencies. Centralizing all vendors, contracts and pricing in one platform streamlines workflows and ensures everyone is working from the same data.
2. Automate to Eliminate Hidden Costs
Manual purchasing tasks waste hours and leave room for error. One off-contract order or missed rebate can cost more than a modern procurement system. Automating price comparisons, contract checks and ordering helps protect margins and free up staff time.
3. Make Compliance Part of Your Workflow
GPO and DSCSA compliance should be embedded in your daily process, not tacked on later. Platforms that provide real-time contract and compliance visibility prevent costly mistakes and make audits painless.
4. Use Real-Time Data for Decision Making
Outdated purchasing data leads to reactive decisions. Real-time insights into pricing, availability and contract status enable your team to act proactively, capturing savings and avoiding non-compliance.
5. Build a Shortage-Response Strategy
Drug shortages are inevitable. The best pharmacies have a plan: access to compliant alternatives, an understanding of contract implications and the tools to act quickly — without sacrificing savings or compliance. To learn more about being proactive not reactive when it comes to drug shortages, read our latest white paper and book a meeting with us to learn how SureCost can help your pharmacy manage drug shortages with SureCost Drug Shortage InsightsTM powered by SureCost CoPilotTM (coming soon).
6. Prioritize Inventory Accuracy
Overstocking and expirations are profit killers. Implementing perpetual inventory tracking across all locations ensures you buy based on need, not guesswork, reducing waste and emergency orders.
7. Turn Data into Actionable Insights
You may have procurement data, but without analysis it’s just noise. Dashboards that highlight contract compliance, your vendor performance and missed rebate opportunities transform data into cost-saving actions.
8. Align Buyers with Strategy
Even with good contracts, misaligned purchasing behavior erodes savings. Providing buyers with real-time guidance toward the most strategic, compliant choices ensures purchases match your business goals.
9. Integrate, Don’t Isolate
The best procurement tools integrate with existing pharmacy management systems, 340B tools and vendor catalogs, creating a seamless workflow that eliminates silos without forcing you to start from scratch.
10. Reinvest Time Saved Into Patient Care
Reducing purchasing time by 50% or more with SureCost isn’t just about saving labor costs. It’s about freeing your team to focus on patient care, training and growth — the things that drive long-term success for your pharmacy.
Data-driven Procurement Matters
Pharmacies that treat procurement as a strategic advantage rather than an operational chore gain a measurable edge in cost control, compliance and efficiency. Whether you’re a health system, LTC, independent, chain or specialty pharmacy, these strategies can help you work smarter, save more and deliver better care.
Ready to Modernize Your Procurement Process?
SureCost helps pharmacies centralize purchasing, automate compliance and gain real-time inventory visibility — saving money, improving compliance and reducing your team's workload.
📅 Book a 30-Minute Meeting and see how you can put these strategies into action today.
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