Prescription home delivery for occupational medicine clinics

Why home delivery fits occupational medicine patients

Your patients often arrive straight from the job site. Some were driven in by a supervisor and don't have their own car at the clinic. Some came by company van. Others have a sprained ankle, a strained back or a hand wrapped in gauze and are about to go home for the rest of the day. Sending them off to find a pharmacy on the way is one more hurdle at an awkward moment.

First-visit prescriptions are written when the paperwork is least settled. The worker may not have a claim number yet, may not know who the adjuster is, and may be unsure whether to use their own insurance. Having the prescription go to one pharmacy chosen by the provider simplifies the next step for the patient.

Return visits are frequent in occupational medicine too, for work status updates and modified-duty checks. Delivery means medication doesn't depend on how the patient gets to and from those appointments.

Occupational medicine clinics also see the full range of industries: construction labourers, healthcare workers with needlestick or lifting injuries, delivery drivers who can no longer drive their route, office staff with repetitive strain. What they share is that the injury has disrupted their normal day, and the clinic is trying to get them safely home and back to work.

• Workers brought in by an employer without their own transport
• First prescriptions written while the claim is still being opened
• Sprains, strains, cuts, eye injuries and minor fractures
• Frequent work-status rechecks

How joining works

Fill out one form and we send the agreements. Our training team then helps install our partner pharmacy in your EMR or e-prescribing system. Once that's done, your physicians, NPs and PAs prescribe as usual and select the partner pharmacy for patients who want delivery.

Many occupational medicine groups run several clinic sites on one system. Let us know how your sites and providers are set up, and setup can be planned to match.

Clinics that run walk-in hours alongside scheduled rechecks may want to involve the providers on each shift, so everyone sees the partner pharmacy in the same place in the pharmacy list. The training team can work around shift patterns rather than asking you to pull everyone in at once.

What changes for your clinic — and what doesn't

Your intake, employer communication and work-status processes stay exactly as they are. The change sits inside e-prescribing: one more pharmacy saved in the pharmacy list.

A full training department helps install it so it doesn't impact your workflow. Providers keep deciding what to prescribe and where to send it, and the prescribing doctor decides refills.

Case managers who coordinate with employers and adjusters can also benefit. When a patient calls to say they never picked up their prescription because they had no ride, a delivery option gives the case manager something constructive to suggest back to the provider.

• No new forms for employers
• Same prescribing habits for providers
• Delivery is a choice offered to the patient
• Medication is dispensed by our licensed partner pharmacy

What to have ready

List every provider at every site who prescribes. The enrollment basics are the same for each.

It also helps to name one person who looks after your e-prescribing settings, since they'll work most closely with the training team.

• Practice details for each clinic location
• Each prescriber's licence number and a copy
• Each prescriber's DEA number and a copy
• A W-9
• Your EMR or e-prescribing system

Questions to ask before you join

Because your patients often don't have claim details at the first visit, ask how the partner pharmacy handles a prescription when claim information is still coming. Ask what patients pay: a $5 dispensing fee applies, and a delivery fee applies, and the adjuster or insurer can tell the patient what their claim covers.

Also ask which medications can't go by mail. Some medications, such as Schedule II controlled substances, may not be available by mail — your partner pharmacy will advise.