mail order Rx's, whose responsibility?

[JulieW]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to office nursing. I've been at my new job for almost a month and am loving it so much. I am really starting to get the hang of much of the paperwork, like indigent programs, referrals, scheduling outpatient procedures, and of course dealing with our local pharmacies. I remain greatly confused about the issue of mail order prescription companies and really need your help.

We have many, many patients who utilize the mail order pharmacy programs, like merck-med, etc. Many of these patients call me and they are quite upset that I have not ordered their meds through these companies. Shouldn't they take charge of their own health and know when it's time to reorder? We have a patient base of thousands. There is no way I can know who uses mail order and when they need refills. Or, patients will just hand me old prescription bottles and ask me to refill using a mail order company. To add to my confusion, I have many other patients who use the same companies, yet they come pick up the prescription slips and they do the paperwork themselves. Therefore, I'm not sure what the nurses role should be. To top things off, it seems like I get a lot of things back on the fax machine because a wet signature was required to fill certain things.

My questions are:

Are there any basic rules of thumb on what sort of Rx's can be faxed and what can't? What companies require wet signatures?

Why would some companies require an original Rx slip and others will let you fax them?

As an office nurse, what paperwork do you fill out for your patients using mail order?

I know all of this stuff will become second nature at some point, but it is very confusing now. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Julie