Home Forums Discussions Problems Preferred Pharmacy

Yes. Say they live in Bangor and their zip code is 04401. All of the pharmacies in 04401 would be listed as choices.

But, if they choose a pharmacy in Brewer, the easiest thing to do is change the zip code to 04412. This gives you all of the pharmacies in 04412 (Brewer)

You then find the pharmacy they chose and select it. The check mark is already there. When you send it, that pharmacy will always be there. If they say to you, oh can you send it to such and such this time, I am going right by there, you uncheck it and send it. The next time it will default back to their original pharmacy.

Sometimes, I will change the zip code to 044 and wait for them to give me a pharmacy, then quickly add the last two digits again.

As an addendum, anything you put in the pharmacy in demographics using Find and then SAVE, it will override and show up as the default pharmacy in ePrescribe. But, if you choose another pharmacy with the box checked, and send it, it becomes the default pharmacy. BUT....it will not change the default pharmacy in demographics.

I guess it is still worth it to have it put in ahead of time. It isn't necessary, but makes you look pretty good when you "guess" their pharmacy.

Even afer my post from above, I still find that most people are:

1. Not that impressed by the fact that you know their pharmacy,
and
2. Still ask at the front desk where their prescription is.

You want to say, "Oh, here it is. The reason Dr..... asked you what pharmacy you use is it's a hobby of his."

My patients ARE impressed that I know what pharmacy they use and that their script is already there (hopefully). But, there are still many that ask the front desk where their script is.

I have just started using V6 and I and appalled to find that the pts preferred pharmacy is still not remembered by the script writer. I had this function in my old script writer 12 years ago. In addition, I now have to wait 20 seconds for every single med to populate the refill box. This confirms the general opinion I encounter that AC is simply not a very functional EMR

It remembers them for us. It sounds like this is a sporadic problem; we never had the issue in older versions either.

It remembers them for us? Is it a New Crop problem. Do you have interactions turned on. Allergy checks? We have both off, and meds pop right off.

What version did you use before v6?

I thought interactions and allergy checks were required for meaningful use?

Probably are. I just don't want to do meaningful medicine. I am not using 6.0 yet, but I tried using interactions, and I just couldn't sit there and watch it check for interactions.

That's what pharmacists are for.

I'm not trying to be sarcastic. This is the problem with meaningful use. Certainly interactions is a good thing. Although in the 5.x versions, you can't do just allergies, which would be good and would be fast.

I just try to watch out for Depakote and Lamictal.

interactions has indeed slowed us down considerably.

When we populate the preferred pharmacy info, it is not populating the back end of the chart for eRx. Anyone else have this issue?

Interactions slow us down some but not bad enough to be a problem unless the pt is on many meds. Usually I give some pt instructions while it's loading. At least I don't have to individually note that I saw each interaction like on the awful hospital EMR (the most dangerous drug at my hospital is the dreaded Fleets enema which seems to interact with everything). The favorite pharmacy seems to be saved with no problem. So far I am happy with the ScriptWriter function.

Not having the preferred pharmacy is the ERx is an ongoing problem for me too, even in Version 6.0.9. Would love to hear a solution.

The only problem I have ever had with preferred pharmacy is when my staff enters them in demograhics and does not actually search and find - they type in the name, it looks like it is in there, but does not transfer. Mine has always worked so I am not sure what problem people have.

You should experiment - go into demographics and find one - then write scrip and see if in there, next leave blank in demographics and go into write scrip - choose at time of service, send scrip and then go back and see if still in there.

The testing Steven proposes brings up a question...other than calling a pharmacy and telling them to ignore a prescription, is there any way send to one as a test and see if it goes through? Is there some sort of "test pharmacy" number?

Jon,

You could always write something in the comments section to the effect of "THIS IS A TEST PRESCRIPTION. DO NOT FILL AND PLEASE LET US KNOW YOU RECEIVED THIS"

I have a patient named "Test patient" who will occasionally have erxing done. Message is "Please call or fax back if you receive this." Response rates from pharmacists has been about 100%.

Gene