Digital transformation for Quebec in-pharmacy vaccination

Since 1970, the Association québécoise des pharmaciens propriétaires (AQPP) has represented all Quebec pharmacist-owners, whether they are associated with a chain, a commercial banner, or independent. The objective of the AQPP is to research, protect, defend, and advance the economic, social, legal, and professional interests of its members and community pharmacy in Quebec. Its primary purpose revolves around the protection of property rights and professional freedom.

The AQPP now represents over 2,000 pharmacists in Quebec who operate almost 1,900pharmacies, and it manages its members using Pivotal by Gestisoft - an association management solution with professional associations and orders in mind.

In March 2021, the AQPP was entrusted with the handling of COVID-19 vaccination orders for community pharmacies, a crucial role in the everyday lives of its members. Because the amount of vaccination doses was restricted, an impartial player had to be named to guarantee that vaccines were distributed fairly across all pharmacies, according to the criteria established by Public Health and the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS). The AQPP thus became the key point of coordination between the MSSS, vaccination distributors, and pharmacists with just a few days' notice. As a result, it sought out Gestisoft to create a comprehensive, reliable, and secure COVID vaccination order management tool as fast as possible, directly connected with its member management system.

Significant challenges

Guidelines tend to change quickly in a health emergency, and requirements must be met as soon as possible. To understand the needs and create a solution that fulfills them from the first iteration, all stakeholders have to be adaptable and open to collaboration. Gestisoft's solution had to meet a number of requirements, including:

• Managing vaccination phases over time;
• Managing the maximum authorized vaccine quantities per region;
• Managing pharmacies associated with administrative regions;
• Managing vaccine deliveries approved by each pharmacy; and
• Autonomous in-pharmacy management of deliveries by phase.

The solution, at the highest level, provides for the administration and centralization of information that is delivered to multiple stakeholders, as shown below.

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Flexibility

In order to add vaccination stages and pharmacies as the scenario changed, the created module needed to be flexible. Pharmacies had to be able to customize everything, from various amounts for different locations, overlapping vaccination periods, to partial acceptance of a delivery, and so on.

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The AQPP may now handle the various vaccination phases from their application as soon as the information is provided to them by the government. It is also possible to change the maximum number of doses allowed per pharmacy per region when creating a phase.

For instance, a pharmacy in the Montérégie region may be limited to 300 doses for Phase 3 and 500 doses for Phase 4. Meanwhile, a pharmacy in the Gaspé area might be permitted a maximum of 200 doses for Phase 3 and 350 doses for Phase 4.

Autonomy

It was critical that pharmacy owners be able to be autonomous in signaling their vaccination capacity and managing their vaccine orders according to the several phases of the vaccines delivery on Canadian territory, in order to make everyone's job easier.

As a result, pharmacist owners may manage their participation in the various phases directly from a platform that they are already familiar with. They can participate in stages based on their capability, accepting all or part of the planned supplies.

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"It's a really user-friendly tool for managing our COVID vaccinations!” - Guillaume Latulippe, Pharmacist-Owner

Transformation

Security

When every dose matters, it's critical to keep the margin of error to a minimum. The AQPP was able to greatly minimize the possibility for error by shifting from an Excel file where all of the information was compiled by hand to a strong and secure solution.

Productivity

The module adopted allowed AQPP staff to focus their attention on other duties important to the efficient functioning of the vaccination campaign in pharmacies by allowing pharmacy owners to submit their own information regarding vaccination capacity and vaccine reception.

Experience

Understanding

Gestisoft was highly attentive to the client's demands and responded diligently to the urgency of the issue, fully aware of the impact on the Quebec's society.

Availability

The Gestisoft team made themselves accessible to fulfill the AQPP's demands and prioritized this project. This is how, only five working days after the initial requirements assessment meeting, the first version of the module was already delivered in production.

Contribution

Gestisoft is delighted to have helped to handle this health issue in its own small manner.

"It's really satisfying to be able to provide a solution that directly addresses a client's issue. I'm also delighted to have been able to make a significant contribution to Quebec's vaccination campaign."  - Pierre-Antoine Chesnel, Gestisoft Developer-Analyst

When a client has an issue like this, our staff is there to help and eager to provide a solution.

Why create a bespoke application for a business?

As previously stated, the AQPP manages its members, pharmacies, and training via Pivotal by Gestisoft - a highly adaptable tool that may be tailored to a wide range of circumstances and requirements. Given that most of the information needed to coordinate vaccine distribution was already in the application, it was clear that designing the module around this solution was the best solution.

Gestisoft's specialists took the issue straight on, and they're still working to enhance the solution and adapt to their clients' new circumstances. Since 1997, Gestisoft has worked with associations and professional orders, and its member administration system - Legio - has been powered by Microsoft Business Applications. Access to the profession, registry, renewal, discipline, investigation, requests and complaints, courtesy, events, elections, members' Web portal, mass communications, and other services are all included in this solution.

Do you have a challenge to overcome? Would you like to speak with professionals to further understand how our solutions could satisfy your requirements? To discover more about how to begin your digital transformation, contact Gestisoft today.