Patients suffering from illnesses such as cancer, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, HIV, and AIDS need to have their prescription medication refilled promptly when their supply is exhausted or expired in order to increase the treatment’s chance for success. Medications used to treat these illnesses are often surrounded with regulations from the government and insurance companies. These regulations can mean that a terminally ill patient has to wait weeks before the doctor knows if a prescription will be approved. These are valuable weeks that can be used exploring other options that will increase the survivability for the patient.
One government regulations that surrounds some of the drugs used for treatment of terminal illnesses requires that both a doctor and a pharmacist sign off on prescriptions and refills. This requirement has caused complications when a pharmacist is unable to sign an authorization form due to miscommunications, missing forms, missing medical records, missed phone calls, or missed faxes. These events have led to the deterioration of patients who were not able to get their medication in time.
Develop a custom software solution that integrates into existing prescription management software. The custom software modules would automate the process of gathering the required paper work and signatures for potent and experimental drugs used in the treatment of terminally ill patients. The software’s operator would be alerted to any missing forms that would cause a delay, those forms can then filled out by a doctor prior to making the first request for the prescription. When all the required forms are in the system a pharmacist will be sent a fax that includes a prescription request along with any medical records or forms required by the government for approval of the medication.
The software was integrated with the existing prescription management software at a medical facility in order to fax prescription and refill requests for terminally ill patients to the facility’s pharmacy. Since the software was deployed the number of prescriptions and refills approved during the first request has drastically increased. Doctors and nurses can now determine whether a prescription might be declined due to rules imposed by the pharmacy, government, or insurance company before making a request leaving other options available to discuss with the patient. This check before a request is made eliminates the need for the patient and doctor to wait for a response that will deny the medication and possibly make requests for alternative treatment impossible. The system provides computerized due diligence for highly regulated drugs and allows doctors to make quick, informed decisions regarding what medications are a good option for each patient.