Autorefills

[PharmDstudent]

If a patient doesn't purchase their autorefill prescription, our system will just autorefill it again that day. We can select to remove the script from autorefill, but I don't do that unless the patient calls and wants to know what the hell was autorefilled and why and wants it taken off because "[they] didn't ask for that to be refilled!!!!]".

Soooo...

I think they're a huge waste of time and pharmacy resources. Anyone else?

 

[Ackj]

We've discussed this before. For the right patients, it's wonderful. Putting the wrong patients on it will be a nightmare. Compliance issues, sporadic refills, patient doesn't know what the heck is going on? Not a good choice. Compliant patient, gets their stuff refilled every 30 days? Good choice. Super expensive medicine that only one person gets, and you don't want to tie up your inventory all month long? Good choice. There are nuances to each system that you'll need to figure out, such as automated voicemails, when the auto-refill shows in the queue vs when the patient needs it, etc. Train your patients to listen carefully to the phone calls, because not every one says "come to the pharmacy, something is ready" since some actually say "you are due for XXX do you want to fill it? press 1" and also let them know that it is automated, and they cannot talk to it. Thankfully we no longer have a quota to meet, since meeting that quota meant enrolling lots of patients who were not good candidates, and ended up being much more work. I suppose it does open the door to talk about the compliance issues in patients who "oh, I don't need that yet, I have plenty of them at home!"

 

[joetrisman]

If a patient doesn't purchase their autorefill prescription, our system will just autorefill it again that day. We can select to remove the script from autorefill, but I don't do that unless the patient calls and wants to know what the hell was autorefilled and why and wants it taken off because "[they] didn't ask for that to be refilled!!!!]".

Soooo...

I think they're a huge waste of time and pharmacy resources. Anyone else?

what's with the new avatar? /post #666

 

[PharmDstudent]

We've discussed this before. For the right patients, it's wonderful. Putting the wrong patients on it will be a nightmare. Compliance issues, sporadic refills, patient doesn't know what the heck is going on? Not a good choice. Compliant patient, gets their stuff refilled every 30 days? Good choice. Super expensive medicine that only one person gets, and you don't want to tie up your inventory all month long? Good choice. There are nuances to each system that you'll need to figure out, such as automated voicemails, when the auto-refill shows in the queue vs when the patient needs it, etc. Train your patients to listen carefully to the phone calls, because not every one says "come to the pharmacy, something is ready" since some actually say "you are due for XXX do you want to fill it? press 1" and also let them know that it is automated, and they cannot talk to it. Thankfully we no longer have a quota to meet, since meeting that quota meant enrolling lots of patients who were not good candidates, and ended up being much more work. I suppose it does open the door to talk about the compliance issues in patients who "oh, I don't need that yet, I have plenty of them at home!"

I guess I always sipped the kool-aid on this one and truly thought that it helped patients, but now, I don't believe that anymore. It confuses most of our patients and causes our "super smart" inventory system to order more and more and more.

what's with the new avatar? /post #666

I really wanted to post Amy Winehouse's video "Back to Black" at 1:08, where she sings, "my odds are stacked", but then I thought Youtube would route it and blank it out.

The video reminds me of NOLA, too.