CP: Remember when offices used to write prescriptions phor patients at their office visits and the patients would bring those hard copies to the pharmacies to phill?
ME: Of course; it's where our story began.
MICE ELF: Natch.
CP: I realise times have changed and pine phor those days.
ME: Pining phor the fjords?
MICE ELF: Not pining. Those days are dead.
CP: And I miss them greatly. I dislike our new options so much but I was thinking the other day how, with the advancement of technology and e-scripts and online charts, etc, we seem to have regressed with side effects of all of these.
ME: Side effects?
MICE ELF: Of e-scripts?
ME & MICE ELF: <sardonically> Say it ain't so!
CP: Prescribers have essentially broken themselves into two basic camps today: those who mandate the pharmacy request patient refills via phax/e-script, and those who mandate the patient request their own refills, not accepting contact via pharmacy.
ME & MICE ELF: <nodding> uh-huh, and?
CP: And I ask which of these is actually better, or arguably worse, phor the patient?
ME: Prescribers who rely on the pharmacy!
MICE ELF: Prescribers who rely on the patient!
CP: If I send the requests, I know the dates and times I electronically submitted my request(s). I can explain to the patient the office is ignoring me and set the upset patient on the office. "Sic 'em! Sic balls, Chopper!"
ME: Nice. All it takes is a patient phoning in their refill for the system to automatically send the request. We aren't even involved. Easy.
CP: And we can make an emergency script if needed showing how the office ignored us.
MICE ELF: But I think the patient should be responsible for their own medications.
CP: Good point. We have argued that many times. My issue is how many offices are difficult to reach, even phor the pharmacies. Imagine how much trouble it is phor the patients.
MICE ELF: They can wait on hold. Or they have e-chart access.
CP: Easy to understand for those under 60yo, or those with smartphones and internet access. What about the situation where the patient has been ringing the office for 7 days and the prescriber hasn't sent in the Rx? What happens? Now the pharmacy has to make an emergency Rx with no record of how long the patient has actually been trying for a refill. The patient comes to us in a panic and they need our help.
ME: Wouldn't prescribing rights help this?
CP: It would, but that's not the issue. If prescribers are going to require patients to contact the office for refills, they should be responsible about sending refills and contacting the patients in a reasonable time.
As much as I loathe the "please contact your pharmacy phor refills", I do prefer it over offices that don't respond to their patients.
MICE ELF: Well e-script requests get ignored often as well.
ME: I didn't realise patients' requests were often delayed.
CP: That's the problem. Neither of these is perfect; phar phrom it. Instead of accepting refills phrom only one source, perhaps they should accept requests phrom both.
ME: Do you know how many offices will hate that? Conjugal Visits w/Satan notoriously is responsible for inundating offices with multiple requests phor the same patients, same medications, and even old, discontinued meds.
MICE ELF: How about we go old school?
CP: Either in person at the visit or via MyChart? Covers all ages.
ME: No calls, no phaxes, no responsibility on our part.
MICE ELF: But I have to have these or I'll die.
CP: Should've asked at the last visit or learned to use that iPhone your grandkids got you for Christmas.
ME: Ouch.
MICE ELF:
Which of the phollowing is more annoying:
1. Offices that require pharmacies to submit all patient refill requests?
2. Offices that require patients to call phor their own refill requests (and phorget to actually send them)?
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