I have begun using the eRx tab of the AC Prescription Writer this week. I can send prescriptions electronically to pharmacies and have begun to receive refill requests as well. A few observations, for anyone comtemplating using AC and its partners (NewCrop & SureScripts) for eRx:
1. The ability to transmit begins as soon as you sign up and get your approval codes, but I had to email NewCrop (customerservice@newcroprx.com) to begin to receive refill requests from the pharmacies. However, NewCrops' email customer service is very pleasant, prompt and connected me efficiently.
2. There is no "batch" method to approve refill requests. You must open each patients chart and open the eRx tab in the AC Rx Writer window. The patient demographics transfer automatically, but you have enter the meds you want to transmit and patient allergies manually (lots of little windows to open). However, once done, the meds and allergies are saved for the next session for that patient.
3. The staff can log in to AC and do the data entry and either leave the Rx to be approved in the "Doctor's Review List", or just approve the Rx and transmit it to the pharmacy. Hmm, does anyone think that this is like leaving some signed blank Rxs around?
4. When I'm transmitting one patient's Rxs, I can be notified (by a flag in the window I'm working on) when refill requests have been received from pharmacies. Although I can look at these requests by clicking a tab, I have to close the active patient and open each of the other patient's files to approve the refills.
5. The only way to check for pending Rxs in the Doctor's Review Box or refill requests received from pharmacies is to open up the Electronic Prescribing tab in a patient's chart. There needs to be a way to check this more efficiently.
6. On completion of the session, the eRx window pops up a dialog box, offering to sync the "online" eRx med list with the med list in that patient's AC chart. However, it has never successfully done so for me. Therefore, if I get a call from the patient that their electronically transmitted Rx was not at their pharmacy, I have to open the ERx tab in their AC chart to verify this. Contrast this with paper Rxs done with AC, which show the refill dates when clicking on the med in the med list.
I'm going to continue using the eRx in AC, since I think this is the future, but I can't as yet say that it's either efficient or easy.
