Adding a home-delivery pharmacy for practices that prescribe from Epic

Adding our partner pharmacy in Epic

In most e-prescribing systems, including Epic, a prescription can be sent to any pharmacy that appears in the electronic pharmacy directory. Adding a mail-order or home-delivery pharmacy generally means finding it in that directory and saving it, so it shows up alongside the local pharmacies your patients already use.

In larger Epic organisations, the pharmacy list and preference lists are often looked after by an IT or clinical applications team rather than by the clinic itself. That's normal, and it's one of the reasons our training team works with you directly: they help you understand who in your organisation handles changes and what to ask them for.

Once the partner pharmacy is saved and visible to your prescribers, it can be selected for a patient the same way any other pharmacy is selected. Our training team helps practices add our partner pharmacy in Epic's e-prescribing and walks the practice through it.

• Prescriptions go to pharmacies listed in the e-prescribing directory
• Adding a pharmacy generally means searching for it and saving it
• In health systems, an internal team may manage pharmacy lists
• Our training team helps you through the steps for your setup

What our training team does

A full training department helps install it so it doesn't impact your workflow. In practice, that means a setup conversation about how your clinic prescribes today, who manages Epic changes in your organisation, and which clinicians and staff need to know where to find the partner pharmacy.

The team then walks your staff through locating and selecting our partner pharmacy for a patient, and is available for questions as you start using it. If your organisation has a formal request process for changes, they help you prepare what that process will need.

We connect to most major EMR and e-prescribing systems, so the training team is used to working across different configurations rather than following a single script.

What stays the same in your workflow

Prescribing in Epic stays as it is. Clinicians open the order, choose the medication, and pick a pharmacy for the patient. The only difference is that our partner pharmacy is one of the choices.

Your organisation's prescribing policies, controlled-substance safeguards, documentation standards and patient communication stay in place. The prescriber decides what to prescribe and where to send it, and the prescribing doctor decides refills.

• Same order entry and signing
• Same internal policies and safeguards
• Patients can still use any local pharmacy
• Medication is dispensed by our licensed partner pharmacy

Before your setup call

A little preparation makes setup smoother in a large organisation. It helps to know which departments and clinicians will use the option, and who your Epic contact is for pharmacy-list changes.

Enrollment itself starts with one form, after which we send the agreements. Have your practice details, each prescriber's licence and DEA numbers with copies, and a W-9 ready.

• Your Epic or clinical applications contact
• The clinics and prescribers who will use the option
• Practice details and a W-9
• Prescriber licence and DEA numbers with copies

Patients and refills

For patients, the experience is simple: their prescriber sends the prescription to our partner pharmacy, and medication is delivered to the patient's door. A $5 dispensing fee applies, and a delivery fee applies. Whether a workers' comp claim or auto policy covers the medication is something the patient's adjuster or insurer can tell them.

The prescribing doctor decides refills. Refill requests follow the same path your clinic uses today. Some medications, such as Schedule II controlled substances, may not be available by mail — your partner pharmacy will advise.