Improve Workflows and Free Up Staff Time with ePrescribing
Millions of patients rely on prescriptions to manage their health, particularly those with chronic conditions who are taking medications on an ongoing basis. Your staff probably spend a lot of time taking phone calls from patients who need medication refills, then calling the pharmacy or faxing over refill requests. The ability to do all of this electronically—both on the patient side and the pharmacy side—can save your staff significant time, freeing them up to take care of your patients. Plus it can have other benefits for tracking, reporting, and keeping patients healthy.
The Benefit to Patients
As more patients’ lives go digital, electronic portals that allow patients to manage medications are in high demand. These technologies make it easier for patients to request refills and ask questions (if necessary) about any medications they are taking. Since patients can request refills online anytime, either through a patient portal or other platform, they won’t get frustrated if they can’t call easily during office hours.
Operational Benefits
From an operations standpoint, ePrescribing frees up staff time because they no longer need to take phone calls from patients for medication refills. Even if it doesn’t entirely eliminate medication refill phone calls, ePrescribing can significantly reduce them. With a few simple clicks you can approve medication refills or alert patients they need to come in for an appointment in order to renew medications. That can reduce staffing needs for your practice, or eliminate the need to hire third-party phone services to handle call volume.
These platforms reduce callbacks from the pharmacy with questions or further clarification, which also take up valuable staff time on the phone. They also lead to fewer preventable errors made in filling prescriptions because of bad handwriting, such as wrong prescriptions, incorrect doses, medication interactions, or improper timing and instructions.
Reporting & Tracking Benefits
Electronic prescribing offers enhanced tools to monitor your patients’ medication needs and report on medication compliance. Your ePrescribing tools can track whether patients are refilling their medications, and your team can follow up with those who are not (an indicator that the patient is not taking the medication as prescribed). Through regular medication reconciliations, your staff can also check for potential medication interactions and reduce the risk of adverse outcomes, especially for patients that were recently discharged from the hospital or who are taking medications prescribed by another physician’s office.
You can use tools within the platform to review prices and benefit information for patients, giving them the best options when generics or lower-cost alternatives are available, saving patients money and reducing the total cost of care.
Finally, electronic medication management tools allow your office to comply with digitally tracking and reporting on controlled substances for your patients.