Archived PDX help

[mr teaspoon]

Hi there, hoping some experienced pharma techs can help me out. I recently got hired as a tech. It's been a few weeks now and I'm obviously still only just getting acquainted with PDX. I feel like I learn a little more every day, but there's some stuff I feel like I'm stuck at.

Basically the situation I keep running into is when somebody comes to pick up their script, it's not out front, and they say they dropped it off or their doctor sent it in earlier in the day. I'm not sure what to do. I'm pretty sure I know how to navigate PDX to get to the information necessary, I just am not able to interpret what I'm seeing.

Here's what happens, I'll try to be as clear as possible:

- guest says they called in their script this morning (for example). I look on the rack, don't see it.

- I type their name into PDX, get the DOB to make sure I'm pulling up the correct profile.

- I press F5 to pull up the options menu and go down to what I think is called prescription profile? Not sure, but I know it's prescription something. Anyways, that brings up what seems to be a history of the guests fill dates. Is that what it is? And, if so, does that mean that a script listed with the current date on it would be the one I'm looking for? And that that would confirm that the script had been received and that we just haven't filled it yet?

- Another thing I've seen people do in that situation is use the phone doctor screen. I pull up the guests profile as above and hit F8 for phone doctor, then go down to (I think) transaction history. A few F4's and tabs later and I'm searching by patient name. That pulls up an alphabetical list of many guests, not just the particular guest I search for. It's my understanding that if my search pulls up the guests name with today's date next to it, it means that the store has received the script. Is this just another way of displaying the same information as mentioned above? Or is it showing me something else?

I hope I've been clear enough, I know that probably is a little confusing. But I'd appreciate any help!

Thanks!

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Welcome! I only do back up pharmacy.
On the pix screen with the guest filled dates, tells you the last fill dates on their drugs & if it time for a refill or entered in the system. Sometimes the pharmacist has the script laying on the deck, waiting to get check or review before ready for pickup.
Check in with your trainer or retread the training for more info.
Pharmacy team, we need some more help here.

 

[StaticSun]

Man, PDX confused me and I was the backup tech with the most training.

If your ETL-Rx is as friendly as mine, ask questions!

 

[mr teaspoon]

Yeah my ETL and the entire staff are super friendly and easy to approach. I don't at all mind asking questions, but I just hate being stuck on this particular issue and having to come to them with the same problem over and over.

On the pix screen with the guest filled dates, tells you the last fill dates on their drugs & if it time for a refill or entered in the system.

How can you tell? I'm pretty sure I have the screen you're referring to in mind. Once I'm there I can see where it lists the last fill date, and I'm able to see whether or not they have any refills left. But how can I tell if it's time for a refill? And how can I tell if the system has processed it?

Sometimes the pharmacist has the script laying on the deck, waiting to get check or review before ready for pickup.

Yeah that's another thing that I'm fuzzy on - in a situation where a guest has called the script in earlier but it's not filled yet, can I get all the information I need on PDX? Or is there a point where I should just go back and physically look through the bins?

 

[mrknownothing]

tgtcpht and pharmtechno, can we get some help here please?

 

[mr teaspoon]

So I was able to get a little more info today. From what I understand, if I pull up a guest and F5 -->prescriptions, then I'm looking at a list of scripts we've received and processed. As in, they're potentially on the line being filled.

When I pull up phone doctor, I'm looking at scripts that have been transmitted from the doctor, but not actually processed into the system. I think.

If anybody has more light to shed, would be much appreciated.

 

[pharmtechno]

Sorry, I've been mia!

So, a couple scenarios. The most common ones.
A guest comes to the counter and says they're picking up under Bueler. Of course you first look in the "B" bin. If there's nothing for Bueler (or if there's something but not what they're looking for), follow these steps. This is as simplified as this daily tango can get.

1.) Ask first, "is it something new, or a refill?" Hopefully their answer will be helpful and say something like "it's a refill, I left a voicemail for it 15 minutes ago" or "it's new, I was just at my doctor's office". Usually whatever their answer is will help lead you in the correct direction.
2.) If it's something new from the doctor, the very first place I look (after the bin, of course), is the doctor queue. Your store might call it the doctor queue, the phone doctor, the ERX, or the escribe. You press F8, down, enter. If there's something new in there, it will have either just the left hand side of the page populated, or if it's in response to our request for a refill SOMETIMES (rarely) it will have both sides populated. If you see just the RIGHT side populated, you're seeing requests WE have sent, and not things received. You've basically accidentally keyed into the abyss and should promptly \ out of there before it gets confusing. You can keep page-down'ing through new e-scripts until you get to the end of them to see if your guest's is in there. If not, go into their profile, and hit F5. You want to see something that says today's date. Be careful, because if it's been received but not filled for some reason (needs a PA, drug needs to be ordered, etc.) it CAN sometimes get scooted a couple scripts down and OUT of chronological order. It will usually stay on the first page, though. If I see nothing for them in the doctor queue or already filled in their profile, I'll check on the fax machine and then in the pre-prioritizer (you probably have a red bin where you put faxes before you type them-- that's it). If all of those are negative, you have not received the script yet. Apologize, let them know sometimes it's not instantaneous when the doctor sends it, and let them know we'll fill it as soon as it comes in (don't say you'll call unless you make a note to call!)

-If the patient is looking for something that should have been, say, an "auto-refill", I look immediatly in their profile. Look them up, and do F5. Look for the medication. Look at the last fill date. Then, go into the medication (I want to say you hit enter-- but not being at the keyboard my muscle memory isn't helping me right now!) look at the days supply (left hand side, halfway up the screen), and compare that to the last time it was filled. From that, you'll know if it should be filled now or not. An even easier way is to just plain ol' select the drug to fill it, and sometimes PDX is smart enough to tell you right away "last filled 21 days ago" before you even process it, to save you the time. Not always though.

You can also see all of a patient's transactions by going into their profile and hitting... I think F6? Then down once, and hit transactions. If both price AND quantity show ZERO, that means the prescription was processed and then credit returned, for whatever reason. That's also a screen you can see someone's actual price on. Whatever price shows up on the F5 screen isn't accurate.

Hmm, PDX is one giant endless black hole fun sucking mystery... but you will get used to it. Any other specific questions with it??

 

[mr teaspoon]

Thank you so much for the detailed help! At this stage, even just knowing that there's different terminology for the same thing is helpful. For example, I keep hearing 'escribes' thrown around, and had no idea it was also phone doctor.

Nothing else is coming to mind at the moment, but I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions as training progresses. Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

 

[pharmtechno]

No problem! One day you'll wake up and you will have become a PDX master. Don't feel bad if it doesn't happen overnight though-- that system SUCKS. Seriously, who runs a DOS program these days??!

You'll eventually learn really cool tricks on it like reprinting escribes that may have accidentally been thrown away, printing tomorrow's autofills, and checking to see if someone has a deductible.