Click on the Newsletter Reader's Forum link to access a forum from which you can express your comment or viewpoint on this article.
The author values your input, so please take the time to register your details, and participate in the only free debate on the future of Australian pharmacy.
Registration is free, and required once only, for permanent access.
You do not need to register if you only wish to view comments.

Who said that the present system of dispensing based around a prescription had to continue?
What is the single most contentious issue poisoning good working relationships between Doctors and Pharmacists?
Was there ever a time when the full NHS claim you sent in was paid out correctly?
Why does paper handling constitute the major part of your work when you were trained as a Dispenser not as a Data entry clerk?
There is a better way!
For years we have heard about paperless claims and it has come to nought. They didn't mean prescription-less claims, just you didn't send the paperwork with the Claim Disk.
Big deal.
I am talking about a prescription-less claim start to finish.
Here is how.
Accreditation has tightened up processes within Aged Care facilities enormously except prescription handling.
Script ordering and handling is appaling and dangerous and getting out of hand. The bandaid approach to "owing" prescriptions has pharmacists everywhere being driven to bend rules to accomodate a broken system.
Many homes have asked their pharmacists to manage the scripts and owings in the belief this will work.
It didn't.
If the Doctor didn't write scripts promptly for the home they sure as heck ain't gonna for the Pharmacy!
I have presented the following alternative to both Pharmacy Guild and to the Health Insurance Commission and if you want change, it is time to aggitate the H.I.C. to make it happen.
Currently, the doctor orders a medication in Aged Care by writing up the order in the medication chart or faxing the order to the pharmacy and he/she has 24 hours in which to then call in and write the order in the chart.
If the order is for a finite time (such as antibiotics) this is shown too.
Nurses will not give out Medication without that written instruction being in place.
A Pharmacist will then dispense the order as "owing" because, obviously, the script is following.
If you're lucky!
The HIC demand that script must be processed within seven days or 24 hours in the case of a DD.
If not, then you aren't paid because that script should be a private script. Worse still the item is an Authority and it was approved a day later when the doctor got around to it.
Ever tried to recover the cost of a private Fosamax from a pensioner!
Who made that our problem!
That written medication chart order must be our only documentation to both dispense from and to claim. The saving to HIC would be enormous if they had the will to change the present flawed system.
Can you imagine the legions of people in HIC checking millions of pieces of paper for dates,signatures,etc?
Why are they all located in sites of prime real estate at huge cost.
Why couldn't some of them be trained as field auditors and the rest laid off?
A Pharmacist would supply and claim on the Medication Chart.
Those drugs that are ongoing would be in monthly supplies e.g. 30 Temazepam (what is it with the 25?) or say, 60 Celebrex if 2 a day are ordered.
Fellow Pharmacists, the loss of multiple dispensing fess would be more than offset by savings in paper handling in the Pharmacy.
No owings.
Better cash-flow.
Authority mechanisms could still exist.
No hounding of Doctors for scripts.
If MS Contin bd is ordered to continue why is it that 3 times a month I am ringing a doctor at home to authorise supply (we all know that the Nursing Home staff leave the order until after hours or weekend).
More timely deliveries as PLANNING would be possible.
Further, is there not a pharmacist who hasn't had a fight with a doctor about non arrival of a script that got "lost" in the mail?
Again, with no scripts to be diverted (e.g. DD and Benzodiazepam scripts are hot), the safety of what I propose is unquestioned.
To summarise:
All orders from Med. Chart.
All monthly supplies.
All easily audited by HIC (Med.Chart=Pharmacists claim).
What a Pharmacist claims they get paid.
Easily lends itself to electronic networking. Dr surgery/Pharmacy/Home/HIC, so all see the same information.
If you see your future being tied to weekly post outs of owing scripts and endless handling of paper and endless prepararion of paper claims then do nothing.
Your future is bright.
If you want freedom to practice as an ethical professional contributing to the health and economic welfare of this country then fax or email or write me immediately and I will petition the HIC/Pharmacy Guild on your behalf.

Ends
Back to Article Index
Newsletter Reader's Forum

Previous Article

Next Article

Back to Article Index
Article Archive 2000
Article Archive 2001