OK, when I first began ePrescribing, I thought it was the greatest thing since...well, the prescription pad...then the fax. But, now it is driving me crazy. We only ePrescribe 30 to 50 scripts a day, but we are now averaging 5 to 10 patient calls saying they aren't there. Some make it in five minutes, some in more than an hour.
It's hideous, because I used to tell my patients, "Well, you saw me email your script directly to your pharmacy. So they can't tell you it isn't there." But, that's exactly what they tell them 25% of the time. We don't hear that as often, but I think the pharmacies tell them it is on the way.
Faxing had an issue of not making it about 8% of the time, but it was a hell of a lot faster. A local pharmacy told me yesterday that they got 45 ePrescribes in the morning which were sent the evening before.
I guess, from what a pharacist told me, the script doesn't go directly to the pharmacy PC which would make sense. Just like an email, it would be there in seconds. No, it goes up to SureScripts which does something like validate it or something, which takes time, BUT if the pharmacy you send to has a different vendor, it must check it on the way down.
Maybe it will improve. I hope so. I was thinking of something today, but it will never happen. It would be helpful if when you send the ePrescribe, the actual script did its thing possibly arriving in 30 minutes, but an actual small packet or email got sent directly to the pharmacy saying so and so practice sent Zithromax on an D. B. It wouldn't need to have all the particulars or even a name. This way when the patient arrives, the pharmacy wouldn't say, "We never got that." They could tell him or her that they received notification that a script is on its way. It should be here soon.
Have you ever noticed that a pharmacy never tells the patient, "We don't have that yet, but it may have been sent and not gotten here yet or maybe we have lost it or whatever." No the patient always thinks we didn't send it even if they watched us fax it.
Lastly, while I certainly understand a patient wondering why he or she is leaving without a script, I always laugh. I mean in the days when I wrote a script, I NEVER asked them their pharmacy. Now, I am starting at a computer, and I ask them their pharmacy. I then basically in front of them, run through the ePrescribe database or fax addresses and send it. When they ask at the front desk, "Isn't Dr. whatever supposed to give me a script," I can't help but think do they ever wonder why I asked them what their pharmacy was.
