Community Pharmacy IT survey results: 83% of pharmacies support going paperless
The results of the Community Pharmacy IT Group’s (CP ITG’s) IT arrangements survey have now been published. Community pharmacy teams were asked to complete the survey between late 2021 and October 2022.
The survey was designed to gather information on frontline pharmacy teams’ perspectives about community pharmacy IT and their pharmacies’ IT arrangements.
Some of the key findings are listed below.
| Summary findings included | Related guidance from PSNC |
| More than half of pharmacies experience at least one IT outage per month (lasting at least one hour) | IT contingency hub |
| Over 40% reported poor mobile phone signal and limited internet connectivity options at their pharmacy | Getting the most out of your connection |
| 83% support the goal to move to paperless | Paperless |
| 80% agreed that mobile devices would help working within pharmacy, but most reported no laptop and no tablet device available for use in the pharmacy | Using mobile devices within pharmacies |
Commenting on the survey results, PSNC’s Community Pharmacy IT Policy Manager, Daniel Ah-Thion, said:
“We were delighted to learn that most contractors now support the idea of going paperless. Aside from the obvious environmental benefits, community pharmacy going paperless will also help reduce costs and streamline contractors’ business operations in the long term. PSNC and the Community Pharmacy IT Group will continue to share best practice examples on how pharmacy teams can remove the use of paper from their systems.”
