Assistance With Common Support Issues
Although the vast majority of prescription information
that is exchanged electronically with pharmacies is
dispensed without incident, issues that require your
attention may occur from time to time. The following
information can help your practice resolve these issues if
they occur. To get started, please select from the following
options:
The pharmacy cannot find the prescription that I sent
electronically.
I am enabled for electronic prescription renewals yet I
still receive faxed refill requests.
For all other issues please contact your e-prescribing or
EMR software vendor.
Access a downloadable summary of this information by
clicking here.
Issue: A patient or pharmacy calls and reports that they
did not receive a prescription that you sent to them using
your electronic prescribing/EMR system.
Possible Causes:
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|
A technical issue
with your electronic prescribing software, the
pharmacy computer system, or network
connectivity may have caused you to receive an
error message on the prescription's
transmission. |
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The prescription
may have arrived to the pharmacy's fax machine
instead of their computer. Reasons can include
the medication being a controlled substance, a
temporary loss of network connectivity, or the
fact that the pharmacy is not yet enabled for
e-prescribing. |
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|
The prescription
may have been successfully received but put "on
hold" due to an out-of-stock medication, an
interruption during dispensing, or other issue.
A simple miscommunication between staff members
to the patient or to your office may have
reported it as "not received". |
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If the pharmacy is inexperienced with e-prescribing, the staff member may not have adequately checked their pharmacy system for the successfully delivered prescription. |
What to do:
| 1 |
To ensure that the
patient's needs are taken care of, provide the
pharmacy with the verbal order for the
prescription so it can be dispensed immediately.
|
| 2 |
Review your
e-prescribing system for any errors that may
indicate the prescription was not successfully
delivered and that it was addressed to the
correct pharmacy. |
| 3 |
If the prescription
was successfully delivered, ask the pharmacy to
ensure that, in the future, they review their
computer system, their fax machine, and all
points within their workflow before calling for
a verbal order. |
| 4 | Report the incident to your e-prescribing software vendor so that they can open a support case on your behalf which will help reduce the chance of a future occurrence. |
As an additional resource to help mitigate this issue,
Electronic Prescription Notification Cards are available
through your e-prescribing/EMR vendor. A template of these
cards can also be
downloaded here.
Issue: A pharmacy sends prescription refill requests to
your practice by fax and you believe they are capable of
sending the requests electronically.
Possible Causes:
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The directory information a pharmacy has on file for you may not match the information provided by your e-prescribing/EMR software vendor |
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You may have decided to replace the refill request with a new prescription, and did not clear the original request with a ‘deny’ and/or ‘new script to follow’ response. The pharmacy has faxed to try and get a response. |
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The request is for
a controlled medication, which can only be
delivered by fax or phone. |
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The pharmacy has not received a response to its original electronic refill request within 24 hours and has faxed to try and get a response. |
What to Do:
| 1 |
Respond to the
faxed refill request to ensure that your
patient’s request is taken care of. |
| 2 |
Contact your technology vendor to ensure that your setup information reflects the correct address, phone, fax, and other information for your practice (information should match that on your prescription pad). |
| 3 |
If you feel that the issue is frequent enough to be a problem, report it to your technology vendor, with the name, location, and phone number of the pharmacy, or click here to report the issue to Surescripts. |
Checklist:
Electronic renewals are by far the most efficient method for
managing refill authorizations for prescribers and
pharmacists alike, so all parties should want to minimize
the use of faxes. However, there are instances where
pharmacies will continue to fax you a refill request for
legitimate reasons. Please use the following "checklist" to
help determine whether or not the refill was intentionally
sent to you via fax:
1. Is the refill request for a controlled substance?
Some pharmacies will continue to send refill requests for
controlled substances by fax. Prescriptions for Schedule II
drugs can never be sent electronically. Hand-signed hard
copies of prescriptions for Schedule III through V drugs can
be sent using manual fax technologies. Neither
computer-generated faxes containing electronic signatures
nor totally electronic prescriptions for controlled
substances can be sent to pharmacies at this time.
If you
answered "Yes" to this question, the faxed refill request
was likely intentional
If you
answered "No" to this question, please proceed to question 2
2. Is the fax a follow up to an electronic refill request
has been pending for more than 24 hours?
To help ensure that patients' refill requests are processed
in a timely manner, some pharmacies will automatically fax a
duplicate refill request if they do not hear back from you
within 24 hours.
If you
answered "Yes" to this question, the faxed refill request
was likely intentional
If you
answered "No" to this question, please proceed to question 3
3. Is the pharmacy that faxed the refill request enabled
for e-prescribing?
More than 75% of the nation's pharmacies are enabled for
e-prescribing. However, pharmacies that are not yet enabled
for e-prescribing will continue to fax refill requests to
you. Click here to see which pharmacies are enabled for
e-prescribing via the Surescripts network in your area.
If you
answered "No" to this question, the faxed refill request was
likely intentional
If you
answered "Yes" to this question, please proceed to question
4
4. Have I sent at least five new prescriptions using my
e-prescribing/EMR system since my practice established a
connection to the Surescripts network?
Pharmacies will not start sending you electronic renewals
until you send five new prescriptions electronically via the
Surescripts network. This is to help ensure that your
practice has been trained on your e-prescribing or EMR
software and is ready to receive and respond to refill
requests electronically. For some pharmacies, additional
time may be needed to update their prescriber information.
If you
answered "No" to this question, the faxed refill request was
likely intentional
If you
answered "Yes" to this question, please see below for
further instructions.
If you completed the checklist and answered "No" to
questions 1 and 2, and "Yes" to questions 3 and 4, there may
be a technical problem that is preventing the pharmacy from
sending you e-refills. Please report the issue to your
e-prescribing/EMR vendor or
click here to report the faxed
refill directly to Surescripts.
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