After taking a couple days off for Thanksgiving, I am barraged with the usual refill requests along with some patient upset that their medications were not immediately filled the day they wanted them. I would like to transition into a model whereby meds are reconciled every visit and enough refills are sent to last until the next appointment. The problem is, the patients are used to calling for refills and many seniors do not even understand what they are taking. I have had a sign up requesting them to bring in pill bottles for some time, but it goes ignored.
At this time, it seems the only way to get everyone on board is to just quit doing phone refills, make them come in for med reconciliation, and then they will realize they need to actually get their meds refilled when they are in. This will probably cause all sorts of consternation. However, it will be much better in the future when no one is running out when I'm on vacation.
Can anyone help with ideas on this transition?
