Innovative PrescribeIT service helps pharmacists optimize time and resources

If there is any silver lining to these pandemic times, it’s that pharmacists are finally being recognized for playing a vital role in the delivery of health care services. All throughout COVID-19, pharmacies have been a lifeline for patients seeking trusted advice for everything from minor ailments and chronic conditions to vaccinations and prescriptions refills. Even now, with most health care providers open for services again, pharmacists remain at the forefront of patient care, often the first line of contact and a vital link between patients and the care they need. As pharmacists continue to take on more and more in practice and virtual care becomes more mainstream, innovative technologies are helping to improve efficiencies so pharmacists can continue to meet the evolving needs of patients. PrescribeIT is an e-prescribing service that is proving to be an essential part of optimizing pharmacy workflow while improving communication and enforcing patient safety. It enables pharmacies to receive prescriptions directly in their pharmacy management systems and allows them to electronically request prescription renewals from physicians and other prescribers. It also offers the ability for prescribers and pharmacies to send secure clinical communication to each other through an integrated messaging tool, which improves response times and enhances collaboration between providers. This means pharmacists and prescribers can quickly align on an appropriate course of action and provide the best medication approach for their patients. Andy Donald, a certified geriatric pharmacist and CEO of The Health Depot Pharmacy, which he co-founded with his wife, Agata, in London, Ontario, has been using PrescribeIT since he launched his pharmacy in 2019. He says the service has saved him so much time, which would have been otherwise spent printing and scanning faxed prescriptions or following up with physicians via phone or email to clarify prescriptions. In receiving scripts electronically, he sees them exactly the way they were prescribed, with no worry of transcribing errors. “Now with so much e-prescribing going on as doctors work from home, the turnaround time for fixing potential errors or getting slight alterations for therapy is much quicker too,” he says. “It also ensures there are fewer gaps in care as patients get their medications faster.” A recent survey from Infoway showed that 80% of people want their health care provider to send a prescription directly to their pharmacy, without receiving a paper script. Having to return to a doctor’s office to refill or replace a script is not only time-consuming, it’s a substantial financial drain, estimated at $35 million in lost productivity, travel and other costs. Donald says using e-prescribing also reduces the potential for stolen or fraudulent prescriptions (88% of pharmacy staff using PrescribeIT say it improves their confidence in authenticating opioid/controlled substance prescriptions). “When you have prescriptions for controlled drugs that have the potential to be misused, that direct, secure communication between the doctor and the pharmacist makes it a lot safer,” he says. Another selling point of the service is the fact it can integrate with existing pharmacy software systems and takes very little time to get staff on board. “It took us about 30 minutes of training to find out how to work PrescribeIT within our current workflow,” says Donald. “It’s just an add-on module and works phenomenally with our software.” With less time spent on administrative tasks and improved pharmacy workflow, he says pharmacists can focus on those clinical tasks that will positively impact patients. As the role of pharmacists continue to evolve and expand, seamless and secure communication between providers will be more important than ever. “If we can complement doctors more and have a great communication tool with PrescribeIT, it can be game-changing,” believes Donald. “There’s definitely going to be a much bigger clinical side to pharmacy going forward to make sure patients are on the right medications, and this tool can help everybody to be more seamless together.”

Innovative PrescribeIT service helps pharmacists optimize time and resources

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