Hello..

I am a CPhT for Safeway in VA.  I agree with Mr. Haas.  I think that deactivating an Rx and holding it for a further fill date is not good business at all.  Not only can prescriptions be lost if not given back to the patient it can create clutter in the pharmacy which creates confusion and anxiety.  When an Rx is put into the system on hold, at least it's known where it is by the staff and to floater pharmacists and technicians that might be filling in at that pharmacy.  Holding them for their actual fill date to put them in the system to get a paid claim is not the way to go. The pharmacist that puts the Rx on hold should be the one that is responsible for the Rx going out the right way.  If it's put in the system correctly to begin with there will be no errors.  I understand that it's only human to make errors but not so much for our business practice.  We have to be perfect 100% of the time and it's not going to help if we are searching through 100 or more Rx's for "Mrs. Jones" that dropped off an orignial Rx at the beginning of the month.   She gets aggrevated because we are taking longer than normal to retrieve her Rx because we have to sift through the 100 or more Rx's that we are holding to be filled and that creates a longer wait time, chaos and anxiety.  The most simple way I have found is to just put everything on hold in the computer and if the patient wants it filled, deactivate the Rx, make a copy of it to put in the file and then fill it as new.  It's easier than holding onto prescriptions  that may or may not ever be filled.  But that takes more time too.  Isn't there a simpler way to do this?

I, too, agree with Mr. E. Hass. Currrently, phamacies are made to enter an "on hold" prescription twice. The first time entered is when the patient drops it off and the second time is when the patient or insurance allows us to fill the script, at which time we are made to deactivate the "on hold" prescription and reprocess THE SAME PRESCRIPTION for the fill date. This allows for double the chance of errors and in our field of work that is not okay. It is also double the work which means more time and money wasted. If this process of entering and filling the prescription on the actual fill date was mandated to better research/audit pharmacy records, couldn't you just look back at the patient's profile, pick an "on hold" prescription and see that nothing was dispensed when it was originally put on hold and that the first fill date was the next entry on the patients profile?

I don't understand this change and to be frank, it seems to be a bit redundant. There must be an alternative.

This amendment is a good idea - with the computer systems used in pharmacies today, a 'Held' prescription should be treated just like an original new prescription.  Having to search for the Held prescription and reprocess it, with a different RX number, just opens the door for potential errors and misfiled prescriptions.  This amendment would make the process much more logical