Stop and think for a minute about the things that are taking up a significant amount of your clinical and front office staff’s time. Chances are, one of those things is phone calls related to medication refills. Medical practices have long operated with an extremely inefficient medication refill process where:
- Patients or pharmacy employees have to call in to notify you they need a refill
- Your staff contacts the pharmacy by phone or fax to initiate and approve the refill
Clinics looking for ways to improve efficiency have found that e-prescribing offers a lot of benefits both to your practice and to your patients. E-prescribe software allows you to move the entire process—including initial prescriptions and refills—online. You submit prescriptions directly to pharmacies to be filled, patients request refills through an online portal, and you or your staff can immediately approve them with the click of a button.
Eliminate Wasted Staff Time
Your front office staff already has a lot to do, and answering more phone calls only gets in the way of duties like greeting patients when they arrive for an appointment, preparing patient charts, checking insurance, and collecting copays or other payment for visits. Moving your prescribing processes can significantly streamline workflows and free up staff to do other things throughout the day.
Reduce Fraud
You can eliminate opportunities for fraud by prescribing through an electronic portal. These allow you to conduct (sometimes mandatory) checks on opioid prescriptions to reduce “doctor shopping.” They can also prevent fraud from stolen Rx pads and forged prescriptions.
Monitor Medication Adherence
E-prescribe allows you to immediately send prescriptions to the pharmacy, so patients won’t lose their paper prescription or forget to take it to be filled. Many pharmacies even offer mail-order services so you can guarantee the patient will get the prescription and there won’t be any barriers (like lack of transportation) that prevent them from filling it. Some e-prescribing platforms also allow you to monitor when they refill it and get notifications when patients miss refills so you can reach out to them.
Reduce Errors
Both patients and providers benefit from eliminating prescribing errors. Paper prescriptions open up more possibilities for errors, for example, if the pharmacists cannot read the writing to determine the correct medication and dosage. E-prescribe software ensures the correct information is sent to the pharmacy each time. You can also set up your system to alert you of any contraindications by evaluating existing medications when you prescribe a new one.
Added Convenience
Patients and staff will appreciate the added convenience of simple refill requests through the patient portal. No more phone tag or trying to find time to make a call to get a refill, and no delays between when your clinic receives the request and can submit it to the pharmacy.
Find Out More
Learn more about how the AdvancedMD e-prescribe system can save you and your patients time and hassle, and improve patient care and satisfaction.
