Every parent knows the headache of getting a sick kid to take their bad-tasting medication.

As the president and owner of Whaley’s Pharmacy, an independent pharmacy that services countless pediatric patients, Stacy Welling is no stranger to this struggle. “The most common complaint we hear from parents is: My kids won’t take their antibiotics because the medicine tastes bad,” she said.

Ms. Welling and Whaley’s Pharmacy addressed this common problem by offering customers flavored medicine through FLAVORx.

“Parents first looked at flavoring as a fancy additional offering that cost them extra money,” Ms. Welling said. “But now, [flavoring] is a service parents expect.”

Flavored medicine makes medicine time less stressful for parents and kids alike. Getting children to take their medication on time, every time, through the course of the prescription can help patients feel better, faster.

“If the antibiotics don’t taste good, the kids fight it and spit it out, and that puts the child’s health at risk,” Ms. Welling said. “The child hates taking their medicine throughout their illness, so they stop taking it as soon as they start to feel a little better, even if there are a few days left on the prescription. Then they get sick again.”

As a parent, Ms. Welling appreciates FLAVORx because it supports a child’s healthy medicine habits.

Allowing kids to choose their medicine flavor gives them a sense of empowerment. Children are less like to struggle with their parents during medicine time if they feel like the decision is theirs.

“I’ve found that kids love to pick their flavors,” Ms. Welling said. It’s fun, and it makes the kids more committed to the process because flavoring changes their whole mentality.”

To that point, Ms. Welling appreciates FLAVORx because it fosters a dialogue between her pharmacy staff and customers.

“Our staff is really transparent with our patients, talking honestly with them about how different medicines taste, the challenges that yucky-tasting medicine presents, and how flavored medicine is a solution,” Ms. Welling said. “Our customers appreciate that we’re trying to help them and they appreciate that we’ve allowed them to pick a flavor, customers really value that choice.”

FLAVORx & Fillmaster Systems 

(pictured above: The Fillmaster Auto)

Ms. Welling’s proactive approach makes customers feel seen and valued. Moreover, it strengthens the relationship those customers have with the pharmacy staff, leading to repeat business. However, she credits Fillmaster Systems for enabling her team to offer flavored medicine.

“We’re committed to being a full-service pharmacy and think of ourselves as patient care advocates,” Ms. Welling said. “Flavoring is a piece of that, but it wouldn’t be possible without Fillmaster which automated our process for reconstitution process.”

Before Fillmaster, the staff at Whaley’s would reconstitute medications by hand, which could take five minutes or longer for each prescription. Now, that fully automated process takes just a few seconds, helping sick patients get their medicine faster.

Together, Fillmaster and FLAVORx represent Whaley’s commitment to customer care.

“FLAVORx helps us exceed our patients’ expectations, and Fillmaster helps us take better care of  them because it allows our staff to offer customers a faster way to fill prescriptions and an easier way to take their medicine, which they appreciate,” Ms. Welling said. “Now our staff looks at flavored medicine as something we should do, because it helps our patients feel better, and Fillmaster made that possible.”

The staff at Whaley’s Pharmacy understand the difficulties of administering medication - especially foul tasting prescriptions - to kids, which is why they do everything in their power to educate customers.

“We know parents have limited options for improving their kids’ medication, so we don’t want them to leave our pharmacy without offering all the best options to them,” Ms. Welling said. “We owe it to them to offer flavored medicine. FLAVORx is a win-win-win: we’ve improved the taste of a yucky medicine for the sick kiddo, reduced the stress for the parents, and demonstrates to our customers how much we care about them by offering a valuable service, rather than upselling.”

Interested in having FLAVORx or Fillmaster Systems in your Pharmacy? Get in touch with us.

Parents, the FLAVORx program is located in a Pharmacy near you! Find it here.