Centralized Prescription Buffering for Patient Pharmacy Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Patients have limited visibility into the routing of electronic prescriptions, often making uninformed decisions about pharmacy choices due to lack of time and information on options such as pharmacy locations, inventory, and costs.
Innovation Solution
An interactive routing server system buffers electronic prescriptions and provides patients with a list of pharmacies, including payment amounts and other relevant information, allowing them to select a pharmacy for fulfillment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If patients are given immediate pharmacy selection after prescription creation, then processing speed is improved, but patient awareness and informed decision-making deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by buffering the electronic prescription and proactively gathering pharmacy options, payment amounts, and fulfillment information before presenting them to the patient. This allows the prescription routing to be delayed intentionally so patients can make informed decisions without compromising the overall processing efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The interactive routing server acts as an intermediary between the prescription system and the patient/pharmacies. It buffers prescriptions, collects pharmacy options, and presents them to patients through a user interface, mediating the information flow so patients receive comprehensive pharmacy information without delaying the ultimate prescription fulfillment.
2Loss of information
If patients are provided with comprehensive pharmacy information, then patient awareness and informed decision-making are improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The interactive routing server performs multiple functions within a single system: it buffers prescriptions, queries multiple pharmacies for availability and pricing, calculates payment amounts, and presents options to patients. This multi-functionality consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate systems into one unified platform.
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically performs tasks that would otherwise require manual intervention, such as querying pharmacies for inventory and pricing information, calculating patient payment amounts based on insurance and discounts, and managing the prescription routing process. This automation reduces the need for manual system complexity while providing comprehensive information to patients.
3Loss of information
If patients are given time to review pharmacy options, then informed decision-making is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
While the prescription is buffered and waiting for patient selection, the system continuously performs useful actions by querying pharmacies for availability, pricing, and fulfillment information. This parallel processing ensures that when the patient is ready to make a selection, all necessary information is already prepared, minimizing the actual decision-making time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system prepares pharmacy options, payment amounts, and fulfillment information in advance before the patient needs to make a decision. By performing these information-gathering actions preliminarily while the prescription is buffered, the system reduces the time required for the actual patient selection and prescription routing.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic prescription is obtained over a network. A synthetic prescription is generated from the electronic prescription and provided to an insurance switching system. Insurance information of a patient is received from the insurance switching system based on the synthetic prescription. An auto-reversal of the synthetic prescription with the insurance switching system is triggered. A patient payment amount associated with the particular pharmaceutical is determined based on the insurance information. One or more pharmacies to fulfill the electronic prescription are identified based on patient information. An interactive routing request data message is provided to the patient, the data message including the patient payment amount and a request for selection of a particular pharmacy of the one or more pharmacies. The selection of the particular pharmacy is received from a computing device associated with the patient. In response to receiving the selection, the electronic prescription is routed to the particular pharmacy.