Best Practices for E-Prescribing Pharmacies
We applaud your decision to adopt electronic prescribing. We have worked with pharmacists and physicians who are seasoned pros in the area of e-prescribing. From their experiences, we�ve collected the most critical �Best Practices� to help your pharmacy. We hope you will find the following information valuable.
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Inform local physicians that you are enabled to accept prescriptions electronically, and that you can start sending renewal authorization requests immediately. Once your pharmacy software vendor activates your connection to the Surescripts network, your pharmacy becomes visible on all Surescripts certified physician e-prescribing software. It can be beneficial to contact your local high prescribing physicians personally to inform them of your electronic prescribing capability. A letter or call from your pharmacy will prompt those physicians who are not yet connected to do so, and will remind physicians who are connected to respond promptly to your pharmacy�s renewal authorization requests. Surescripts provides some sample faxes and letters at the following link that you can download and customize to inform physicians about your capability. |
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If you do not receive a prompt response from a physician for a prescription renewal authorization request you�ve sent electronically, please do not resend another request for the same prescription within 24 hours. Just as with faxed or called-in renewal authorization requests, sometimes a physician may not be able to provide a prompt response to an electronic renewal request. Surescripts works with connected physicians to make every effort that you receive a response within 24 hours. Calling the physician�s office to follow up on a delayed response in an emergency situation will be more effective than resending the request. Duplicate electronic requests for the same prescription may cause additional review and confusion in both the physician�s office and your pharmacy. |
| 3 | Communicate prescription fill-time expectations to local physicians and their staffs, as well as patients. With the speed that electronic prescriptions reach the pharmacy, some patients and physicians mistakenly believe that the prescriptions will be ready for pickup immediately. It is helpful to inform your patients and physicians that adequate preparation time is still required along with the time frames they should expect. You can also remind the physician to note on the electronic prescription that a patient plans to come immediately to your pharmacy. They can do this by utilizing the free text or comment section of the electronic prescription. |
| 4 | Ensure that information in your pharmacy system about local doctors is up-to-date. Your pharmacy software vendor, who assisted you in connecting to the Surescripts network, should also work with you to keep your doctor file up to date regarding local doctors who become activated for e-prescribing. If you maintain files store by store, you need to make sure all the data is updated in each store to be consistent. As additional physicians in your area become accessible through the network, you should institute a regularly scheduled process to update their information in your doctor file. Your vendor should provide updates on which physicians are eligible to receive prescription renewal requests. You can also obtain this information on our Web site at the following link. |
| 5 | Follow DEA regulations by refraining from accepting prescriptions for controlled substances electronically until regulations are changed to allow electronic transmission. Prescriptions for Schedule II drugs can not be sent electronically at this time. Hand signed hard copies of prescriptions for Schedule III through V drugs can be sent using manual fax technologies. Neither computer-generated faxes containing electronic signatures nor totally electronic prescriptions for controlled substances can be sent to pharmacies at this time according to DEA regulations. |
| 6 | Educate the entire staff about the electronic prescribing functionality of your pharmacy management software. As with any new pharmacy system feature , it is important that each member of your staff understands your new electronic prescribing capability. Train each member on any changes to their individual responsibilities, and on how to answer common inquires about electronic prescriptions from your customers and physician offices. If your pharmacy system places electronic prescription messages in a different queue from one your staff commonly uses, make sure you put a process in place to regularly check that queue for New Prescriptions and renewal responses. |
| 7 | Take full advantage of your efficient renewal authorization request process. If a physician wants patients to contact your pharmacy to initiate the refill authorization process for additional refills, you can gain additional customer service advantage from this by showing both the physician practice and the patient the ease and speed of processing renewal authorization requests electronically. |
| 8 | Identify a staff member to become your local expert on your pharmacy�s electronic prescribing ability. Although everyone should be taught to use the software, having a thoroughly knowledgeable person on hand for other staff members to ask questions will help eliminate any confusion with the new functions, and, resolve any problems quickly. |
| 9 | Never turn away a patient! While electronic prescribing is not new, in some markets the volume of prescriptions received electronically may be low in comparison to your overall prescription volume. As a result, the staff may forget to look in the electronic prescription queue or check only the fax and phone queues when a patient arrives to pick up a prescription that has been sent electronically. Ensure all possible locations are checked before telling the patient the prescription was not received. |
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