Creating prescription renewal protocols can be difficult, but maintaining them is an even bigger challenge. As medicine evolves, guidelines change. Unless you have staffing devoted to monitoring the latest recommendations, it’s likely any renewal protocols you have in place will quickly become outdated, which can result in poor quality patient care. Additionally, communication about safety alerts is inconsistent, which makes it even harder to ensure protocols are maintained properly. A ...

At healthfinch, we’ve seen health systems process prescription renewal requests in all kinds of ways. Some have providers reviewing all their patients’ renewals, others have a clinical team that triages them for providers, and some have written protocols and workflows for staff to follow. Evidence shows the most efficient way to process prescription renewals is to have a centralized renewal team dedicated to completing these tasks on behalf of providers. Doing so, however, require...

Many organizations are turning towards a delegation model in which some of their providers’ more routine tasks are processed by a centralized team rather than in the clinic. Doing so offers the best opportunity for ensuring quality, efficiency, and improved revenues - not to mention a reduction in provider burnout caused by excess administrative work. One of the most common tasks that gets delegated to a centralized team is prescription renewal requests because they can be protocolized and...

Healthcare organizations have started adopting a team-based approach to patient care, in which two or more healthcare professionals work collaboratively to accomplish shared goals and high-quality care. With this approach, many organizations see improved patient outcomes and happier staff. A report from the National Academy of Medicine states that to succeed in a team-based care work environment, staff must have shared goals, clear roles, mutual trust, effective communication, and meas...