Don’t Just Give the Vaccine – Create a Reason to Come Back

Many patients regularly use sharps at home, and that audience extends well beyond the patients visiting your pharmacy for vaccines.

Think about patients managing diabetes, using injectable medications or GLP-1 therapies, receiving certain specialty medications, or administering other injections at home. They may know exactly where to get their medication, but do they know what to do with the sharps afterward?

The FDA recommends placing used needles and other sharps immediately into an appropriate sharp’s disposal container and notes that pharmacies can serve as collection locations where permitted. Disposal requirements and available programs can vary by community and state.

That creates an opportunity for an independent pharmacy to become part of the solution.

Instead of thinking only about the products patients purchase from you, ask:

What problem can we solve that brings them back through our doors?

1. Put sharps containers near your vaccine area.
   Offer appropriately sized home sharps containers for purchase and train employees to mention them when relevant. A simple, “Do you have a safe way to dispose of your sharps at home?” can start a conversation. Don’t limit that conversation to vaccine patients. Your diabetes and injectable medication populations may be an even better audience. Don’t forget to mention that sharps disposal containers used for medical need may be eligible for purchase with HSA or FSA funds. That can make a practical safety product an even easier add-on.

2. Explore a Community Sharps Disposal Day. Consider hosting a quarterly or semiannual safe sharps disposal event. Already have a drug take-back day? Add it! Promote it through social media, bag stuffers, text campaigns, and local organizations. Beyond providing valuable community service, the event can introduce your pharmacy to people who may currently fill prescriptions elsewhere. Just be sure to confirm state and local requirements and proper procedures before accepting sharps.

3. Create an “Injection Support” section. Bring several related needs together instead of placing products in different areas of the store. Depending on what your pharmacy offers, this could include sharps containers, alcohol prep pads, bandages and other appropriate injection-support supplies. Don’t forget a simple sign. Sometimes you have to ask! “Using injectable medication at home? Ask us about safe sharps disposal.” Now you’ve created a conversation, not just a shelf.

The return doesn’t have to come entirely from selling a sharps container.

Imagine your pharmacy promotes a disposal event and 25 people participate. If just five are new to your pharmacy and two eventually become regular patients, you’ve potentially gained two long-term patient relationships from one community event.

Or consider retail sales.

If your pharmacy earns an illustrative $10 gross profit per home disposal kit and sells 20 kits per month, that’s:

$200/month → $2,400/year

That’s useful incremental revenue, but the bigger opportunity is what surrounds the transaction.

A patient who comes in looking for a sharp’s solution may also discover that your pharmacy offers vaccinations, diabetes supplies, medication synchronization, delivery, clinical services or other cash-based products and services.

That’s where a $10 margin can become much more valuable.

You don’t have to build the disposal process from scratch.

PureWay Compliance, an IPC preferred vendor, offers sharps disposal solutions that pharmacies can explore for both their own operations and patient needs. PureWay offers mail-back systems in multiple sizes, and its programs include prepaid return shipping and disposal documentation.

Available in sizes ranging from 1.4 quart to 18 gallons, PureWay’s sharps containers offer convenient options for different injection and disposal needs. Smaller sizes are ideal for patients who self-inject medications at home, while larger-capacity options are great for pharmacies to keep on hand for vaccines and other injections administered on-site. Offering multiple sizes makes it easy to support safe, convenient sharps disposal both in the pharmacy and at home.

That gives pharmacies an opportunity to explore two sides of the equation: managing their own sharps waste while considering solutions for patients who need safe at-home disposal options.

Vaccine season is already here, and the opportunity is already walking through your door. Don’t wait until next vaccine season to build a strategy. Use the traffic you have right now.

Take 15 minutes with your team this week and answer four questions:

1. Which patients may also use sharps at home? Think diabetes, GLP-1 therapies, and other self-administered injections.
2. Are we asking patients how they’re disposing of their sharps? Would a Will-Call bag stuffer help start those conversations?
3. Could we offer home sharps disposal options or host a safe disposal event soon?
4. What other pharmacy services could we introduce during these conversations?

Then choose one action to put in place this month. It could be as simple as adding sharps containers near the vaccination area and giving your team a one-sentence conversation starter.

Track your results through the end of the year. How many valuable conversations did your team start? How many of those interactions led to other pharmacy services? The goal isn’t to simply sell more sharps containers. It’s to turn today’s vaccine visits into tomorrow’s patient relationships.

Cash opportunities don’t always start with a brand-new clinical service or a major investment. Sometimes they start by noticing a small problem your community already has and becoming the pharmacy willing to solve it.