A review of the latest customer usage data has revealed that Positive Solutions’ Analyst PMR system provided users with a 99.9% availability to dispense during the first three months of 2017.

The software, which controls the ability to dispense items safely and in compliance with NHS procedures, owes its dependability to a resilient infrastructure that ensures effective back-up and a consistent N3 connection.

In contrast to many systems available on the market, Analyst PMR enables terminals to operate independently. By implementing a local message broker set-up, users are able to reduce the critical importance of central servers and components, thus gaining a system that is far less likely to be interrupted. With the addition of a dedicated support team, Analyst PMR ensures pharmacies can dispense 24/7.

Commenting on the latest usage data, Charlie Denwood, MD at Positive Solutions, said: “Losing a connection to the N3 spine can have significant implications for a pharmacy business.   A major outage not only results in the immediate inability to dispense, it can also have a negative impact on customer loyalty. If your PMR system is down, but a rival pharmacy’s is up and running, customers can simply walk across the road and place their business in the hands of your competitors.

“During a time when community pharmacies are facing more competition than ever before, and in light of the funding cuts which came into effect in December, the long term harm to a pharmacy’s revenue associated with what could easily become a loss of repeat business can be significant.”

Customer satisfaction with Analyst PMR has also been attributed to added resilience elements, such as the software’s ability to accommodate potential failures within the NHS infrastructure. In the event of a failure on the side of the NHS spine itself, Analyst PMR ensures a continued ability to dispense scripts that have already processed. By downloading electronic prescriptions as soon as they are received and storing them locally within the system, pharmacies can continue to dispense even if the N3 connection is subsequently down.