New pharmacy faxing system an all-around hit
By Michele Rainford
FEB. 14, 2007--UTMB’s new Pharmacy Faxing system, a recently instituted function of the comprehensive Epic Electronic Medical Records system, allows doctors to submit prescription orders directly from their computers to a participating pharmacy—selected by the patient—while the patient is still in the office.
This new fax system has simplified the process of ordering and filling prescriptions without sacrificing safety and security.
Approximately 150 pharmacies in Galveston and surrounding cities where UTMB’s community-based clinics are located, including Alvin, Friendswood, League City and Texas City/La Marque, are participating in this program, which requires them to have a dedicated fax line for prescriptions that is safe, confidential and monitored.
Currently, more than 1,000 prescriptions are submitted each week via the new system.
“The faxing system is an incredible time saver for the physician as well as the patient,” said Dr. Cynthia Judice, chief medical director of community-based clinics and associate professor of pediatrics at UTMB. “Choose a pharmacy, write the prescription, sign the order electronically and you are done. The patient need not wait on you to go through the process. Patients are quite impressed!”
Here’s how it works: The physician orders the medication electronically using the Epic EMR system, selects the patients preferred pharmacy and electronically signs the order. The order is sent digitally by the UTMB central fax server, which in turn, routes the order to the designated pharmacy’s fax line, where the pharmacy collects the prescription and fills the order.
“First and foremost, the fax system is a huge patient satisfier. By faxing directly from the office at the time of the patient’s visit, the prescription is often ready to be picked up by the time the patient arrives at the pharmacy. Second, it saves the physician and nurse’s time by reducing the number of phone calls to the pharmacies,” said Marsha Sweatt, senior practice coordinator in the Texas City Family Practice Clinic and a proponent of the faxing system.
“I would think it would also save time for the pharmacies; plus, faxed prescriptions are typed so they are more easily read, which decreases the possibility of errors,” she continued.
Guidelines are in place to ensure the system works effectively. If a fax fails because of a busy signal, the server will keep trying to send the fax for a full hour before it indicates a failure to the IS team responsible for monitoring the system at UTMB. At that time, the IS staff will contact the clinic and report the failure so the prescription can be called in via the telephone. Usually the pharmacy and/or patient will call the clinic before this happens.
“The system is a great feature that not only helps our staff and saves time, but also makes our patients very happy,” Sweatt said.
This is another fine example of the way UTMB continuously strives to provide the best service to patients in its hospitals and clinics, while enhancing the tools available to staff and clinicians.
UTMB is in the fourth year of a five-year, multi-phased effort to implement electronic medical records in all its hospitals and clinics.