Pharmacy management software is the software that runs a pharmacy: it fills prescriptions, keeps the stock, bills the customer and records every sale. The best-known products in this group are sold in America to independent pharmacies, which are pharmacies not owned by a large chain. There, the software also bills the patient's insurer, and records paid clinical services such as vaccines. It is also called a pharmacy system or pharmacy dispensing software.
In America, most prescriptions are paid for partly by insurance. A company called a pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM, handles the medicine bills for each insurer. So, before the pharmacist hands over the medicine, the software sends a claim to the PBM. A claim is a bill sent to the insurer. The PBM replies within seconds: whether the medicine is covered, how much it will pay the pharmacy, and how much the patient must pay. The patient's share is called the copay. Deciding a claim in this way is called claims adjudication.
Imagine an independent pharmacy in a small town in Kansas, in America. A patient's doctor sends a prescription for a cholesterol tablet, electronically, from the clinic's ambulatory EHR. The prescription appears in the pharmacy software's queue. The software checks the patient's other medicines and warns that one of them can interact with the new tablet. The pharmacist reads the warning and decides that the combination is safe at this dose. The software sends the claim to the PBM. Two seconds later, the PBM replies that the tablet is covered, and that the patient's copay is $10. The software prints the label. At the counter, the patient pays $10 at the till, which runs on point of sale (POS) software. While she is there, the pharmacist offers her a flu vaccine. He gives it, and the software records it and bills her insurer for it, as a clinical service.
The software also scans the code on each pack of medicine. In America, every prescription pack carries its own number, so that the pharmacy can check that the pack is genuine. This is explained in serialisation and track-and-trace. For very expensive branded medicines, the pharmacy may work with a specialty pharmacy hub, which finds the cheapest way for the patient to pay.
India's chemists use similar software, but for different jobs. Most Indian patients pay for medicines themselves, so there is usually no insurer to bill. Instead, the software tracks each medicine's batch number and expiry date, and adds GST to each bill. It also keeps the register that the law requires for some prescription-only medicines, such as certain antibiotics.
How is this different from a hospital pharmacy? A hospital pharmacy gives medicines to patients on the wards, often through hospital pharmacy automation. Pharmacy management software serves walk-in customers at a counter, as one of the three settings in pharmacy technology.