Home Forums Discussions Problems Italicized (Non-codified) pharmacy refill requests

Has anyone noticed that some pharmacy refill requests end up in Rx Writer as italicized (and Non-codified) drugs (even replacing prior codified drug listing). So subsequent refills have to be written anew and the italicized listing removed? Am I doing in wrong? Is it me? Is it them? It's them, right? Sorry if someone else already reported this.

It might be that you recently upgraded to V11.1
Some things that were codified in earlier versions seem not in the new version. I have a few, and even a few that I have written on 11 but come back and are no longer codified.
It's not you and more of a nuisance since it really doesn't happen to me all that often.
I have been beta testing 11 for a very long time.

I have noticed the same. If pharmacy refill request is fullfilled electronically, then some medications are auto-populated in patient chart as ITALICIZED form replacing Pior CODIFIED drug listing.

OK, I guess a bit of a bug that will need to be addressed. Thanks for everyone's input.

I notice several medications that are now italicized and not codified, I have not noticed if it is related to refills. I noticed it after changing to version 11.1.1. Just seems to be certain medications. Hopefully this doesn't happen each time you refill those medications that have already been fixed.

I now have had 2 pharmacies say that what I have in my computer is not what they see on their side. I can not remember the specifics of the one because I just blew it off (not a major medication) as a technician error on the pharmacy side. The second scared me a little in that it was a blood pressure medication. I prescribed a refill of the pt's blood pressure medication at 20mg and the pharmacy says they got a 5mg script. They sent me a screen shot of the prescription. I looked in my system and there is only 20mg for this pt, NEVER a 5mg. I printed a screen shot and sent to the pharmacy. This is 2 different pharmacies!

Hi Chris,

I have not run into this. Definitely scary.

I would let Amazing Charts tech support know about this.

Gene

Thanks DocGene, I know AC support needs this info. I also want to talk to them about the italicized, no longer codified, med problem. I was hoping to have Mark@AC comment on this thread.

Hi Chris.

I have been watching this thread. Any information you have (de-identified screen shots, meds names, pharmacies, dates, etc) would be helpful. Please send it to techSupport@amazingcharts.com, along with your practice name.

For the italicized drugs getting replaced. Can you list some specific examples of the drugs?

Hi Mark,

So, if you have been watching, thank you. Here is the one thing I would ask for (out of 10) that would make the script writer so much better. If once the script is loaded and ready to go, if there were any way to hover over the pharmacy and see which one it is. I mean if it says: Hannaford pharmacy if you could hover and it would say Hannaford Pharmacy, Union St. I know you can do this the step before, but it doesn't really work in the work flow and once past that step you can't go back. It really would be super helpful. Very few things make parents and pharmacies more upset than scripts sent to the wrong pharmacy.

I agree that would be helpful.

ok.. I have created 2 enhancement requests in our system for AC. One is to give users the ability to see the pharmacy address on the transmission screen (either have the address visible by default or by hovering over the line). The other is to give prescribers the ability to change the pharmacy from the transmission screen as well as the write scripts screen.

Now, that is no guarantee that these changes will happen, but they are at least submitted for consideration.

The new version of AC is quite frankly, unworkable. The changes to prescribing, a very important part of my day, make my day much more difficult. Is this program working for me or am I working for AC? Having to scroll trough the UOM list to get to tablet, what for?? Why do creams autopopulate with grams and solutions with milliliters???
I am not going to put up with this. If youall dont fix this and soon I will start looking for a new EMR. Period. Full Stop.

Hi psov,

I agree this is a nusiance.

Did you try typing in "tab" or "cap" rather than scrolling? Quicker than scrolling.

Gene

The question is, why cant AC populate for tablets and capsules, the majority of rxes. Topicals auto fill with grams so why cant the others. If one can then if others cannot it is the fault of the program which makes me do more work. Damned if I have to hire a scribe to help me? That's not happening. And then the struggle with the pharmacy selected by the program which MORE THAN HALF THE TIME IS FREAKING WRONG!!! This is plain and simple stupid alterations to a part of the program that was OK before, and now makes it more difficult to do a simple thing. HAve yet to hear from AC as I have sent this problem in as a critical bug that needs fixing. As the corporation gets bigger and bigger, the less concern there is about hteir customers

Hi PSOV,

I did address this in another thread about the subject, but I did submit an enhancement request to our development department to have the UOM auto-populate based on the medication selected. This would require a fair amount of mapping behind the scenes, so this may not be a quick fix if/when the dev team moves ahead with this, but it had been brought to their attention, which is as far as I can push it (along with frequent reminders to Chris C about it).

As for the pharmacy selection. That is based of the favorite pharmacies in the patient's demographics. When you write a medication, it will auto-populate with the first pharmacy on the patient's favorite list. You can see the pharmacy selected by hovering over the medication in the pending meds list, and you change that pharmacy by clicking the magnifying glass next to the medication. This lets you select a different pharmacy before prescribing.

That being said, I can see where this would cause a bunch of extra work if the patient's regular pharmacy is not the first one on the list. I have added another enhancement request this morning about the issue. My recommended solution would be to have the ability to mark a pharmacy as the default one, or be able to reorder the pharmacies so the desired one is on top.

Once you prescribe a medication for a patient, when you refill the med by clicking on the med name in the current meds list to the left, the system will remember the last pharmacy you sent the med to.

If you have other suggestions, please let me know.

I am still on Version 11.1.2 just to clarify but wondering if the enhancements Mark@AC has put in have made it tot he latest version of 11.1.4? I am having problems with pharmacies saying they are not getting scripts, changing doses!!!!!(one dose I had never prescribed for the pt) and saying that I sent in #30 when AC shows the #90 I know I sent. The codify issue is still the biggest PIA I have encountered with this program.

This prescription problem is ridiculous. At this point I would not recommend Amazing Charts to a new provider. If this is corrected in one of the newer versions I will repost after I update and change my mind but as for now this is the pits. If you do not do your own refills and rely on staff to do them ask your staff how bad the italicized medications are and how much time they are WASTING going back in and fixing these problems.

I probably shouldn't comment here, but is this due to AC or NC or SureScripts?

I have no idea but didn't start until Version 11!!!!

Hi Chris,

This sounds awful. I am on AC 11.1.2 and have not run into this (maybe for Vitamin D refills, nothing else)

Have you contacted AC support? What did they say?

Gene

OK, i thought we were on 11.1.2 but I checked and we are on 11.1.1. I have reached out to AC when I first noticed and was told it was a known problem. One of the problems I see is that there is no communication when a new version (ie 11.1.4) come out that might correct problems like this. I guess I need to contact them again but will update to version 11.1.4 first.

Hi Chris,

You might consider having AC support do the upgrade for you. Up until recently, I did these myself, but it just seems things have gotten more.... complicated...... recently.

I have had uniformly superb dealings with AC support over the last few months. They will prescheduled the time, and do all the work on the main computer. I then upgraded the workstations myself, but I think they would help you with that if necessary.

Otherwise, if something goes wrong, you are then starting from scratch with support.

I had a major server crash in August, installing version 11. It was a problem with our server, not AC. I called support, after hours, in a panic. They stayed with me until close to midnight getting everything up and running.

Good luck with everything.

Gene

I have never had a bad response from support, one of the reasons I recommend AC to others. This is the first time I have had an issue that frustrated me to the point I want to say ANYTHING bad about AC. I have not experienced the problems others have eluded to her eon the board with support. The only thing I have noticed with support is that they are not as readily available after hours and weekends as they used to be. I have been using AC for over 10 years and never had a problem this frustrating. I have always thought all EMRs have their problems........

In the office early this morning to update the computers.......will see over the next few day if 11.1.4 helps with my frustration!

Keep us informed please. Hope the updates are flawless.

Gene

Installed updates without issues, I can never get the network to show the file and transfer to other computers so just download onto each unit and installed. Seems to take a little longer but works. I will monitor the refills, will take a few days of watching and will post an update. I added a new laptop and can not get it to download all of AC, stops on some type of Microsoft program. I will wait for tech availability for this one. It is for a new employee so not a crucial workstation.

Saw there was a break for the tech support and someone beat me in filling out the form so back to waiting! Again, not complaining about tech support because they have always been able to fix my problems but would be nice if there was a way to leave a message in a que to be notified when they are available for chat.

Did you call them? I've had a better response to phone requests.

Gene

Tech Support to the rescue! Rebecca was able to get the new computer set up, seemed to be some kind of Windows 11 issue, she also fixed an automatic process on the server that was sending an error code and then the chat was just in time to fix one of the desktops that went haywire. Never had this happen before but one of the desktops that I updated this morning locked up and had to be restarted. When I restarted this computer it reverted back to 11.1.1 and then would not let me run the update. She had to uninstall 11.1.1 and then reinstall 11.1.4 so I am back in business for that computer.

Glad to hear this!

Gene

OK, this thread kind of wandered, but back to the original question: What is happening with the italicizing of prescriptions. Is it fixed yet? Is this a New Crop problem? Time required to fix this is kind of adding up....

@Headcase,
I don't think this thread has wandered all that far......couple of comments and questions about prescribing that were addressed by Mark with my comments about those and other problems I am experiencing with prescribing and about your original question, the italicized medication issue. I see it as something that is all tied together with Version 11.

What Version of 11 are you currently using? As I posted, we are now on 11.1.4.....monitoring to see if this has changed the italicized med problem. We are still finding meds that we changed to italicized that were not before version 11.1.1 At one point, Mark@AC asked what specific medications. I am not able to clearly answer that because I have found several that were changed, montelukast, olmesartan, lorazepam, Vitamin D...can't remember all of them.

I am not sure if it is fixed yet, updated to 11.1.4 and monitoring but has only been a week. Will keep you updated as I can.

Does not seem to be New Crop issue because it started with version 11 as Wendell365 stated.

I agree "Time required to fix this is kind of adding up...." thus my rant above. I have been waiting to see if Mark@AC would come back and comment, give us some heads up on something changing. Maybe your questions will be better answered by him.

Thanks Chris,

I'm on 11.1.1 and was waiting until this was fixed before updating to a new version.

Thanks Headcase,

My recommendation at this point would be to do the 11.1.4 update. So far it seems more stable and I feel like there is less changing of the prescriptions to non-codify, italicized meds. I will keep looking at it with refills this morning I checked 3 different pts and all are good. I have noticed that some meds have shown up now double in the chart but I can not see a pattern. When i say double, there will be an italicized version and a bold version, not sure how this happened.

I also had a problem this week (Wednesday) with the EPCS where it just would not work. Sent an error code and would not take phone or token. Seemed fixed yesterday. When I did a chat with AC support (remote in) we tried some different things but the only fix was to put the med back into the New Crop screen for the EPCS. What a pain. Meds just seemed to disappear and the UOM was not moving from AC to the New Crop screen. The UOM problem still seems to be happening but no more meds disappearing.

One other note on prescribing, as mentioned before, the RX Change system seems like it will be nice if it will ever work but as of right now it still will not allow me to do anything and I can't even get rid of the 173 messages.

Hi Chris and Jack.

Sorry I haven't commented on this. I have had my head buried in upcoming regulatory changes for 2022 (I'm trying to make MIPS easy for everyone). I haven't heard any update on this issue. Let me reach out to support and see what I can find.

Thanks Mark for checking in. The problem with the UOM from AC to the EPCS New Crop screen continues to happen ( put tablet in AC and then go to New Crop and it says unspecified) but at least I am not losing meds anymore. I also feel like the italicized issue is fixed. Time will tell for sure.