Included with version 5.8.0904 and forward, we're pleased to introduce a new feature called Auto Processing with Night Tech! Prescriptions can be automatically refilled, processed, billed to insurance, have their labels printed, and even apply copays to A/R balances, all with little to no user intervention required. The auto processing can be triggered from the patient's profile or while working from a specific queue. When you utilize the Night Tech feature, the prescription processing will automatically trigger overnight so that when your staff arrives in the morning, the majority of your day's refills will already be processed. This will save your pharmacy hours of labor each and every day. For pharmacies that work with Nursing Homes and LTC facilities, this feature can help you automate your cycle filling and further save you hours of work each month. This feature of BestRx is included in the Standard/Premium tiers.

Setup

Auto Processing as a feature requires some settings to be changed, and these settings are at the pharmacy's discretion in respect to individual workflows. These settings can be accessed from File > Pharmacy Setup > Auto Refill.

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• Night Tech Enabled : This toggle allows the pharmacy to enable/disable NightTech functionality. As mentioned above, this will run the AutoProcess function at night time. The pharmacy still has the ability to only process specific queues at night time with a careful tweak of their configuration, and this toggle does not disable AutoProcess; it only affects the NightTech portion. More on that below.

• Auto Process Rxs in Refill Queue : Indicate if you'd like the AutoProcess function to grab every prescription in the built in Refill Queue. - Why this is good: The software will grab everything, meaning less work for the pharmacy. In addition, the built in Refill Queue pulls prescriptions from a number of places already, and if this setting is left alone, will most likely populate and process prescriptions without much intervention from the pharmacy as it is.- Why this is bad: The software will grab everything! While this could in fact save time, it does mean more room for error and issues during the process, if difficult to deal with prescriptions find their way into the queue. Ideally the software should be set up so that workflow processes flow exactly how the pharmacy desires using a combination of already available functions in BestRx such as Triggers, Queues, Verifications, and more. This would help prevent any issues with prescriptions being stuck in these queues or processes for odd reasons and will enhance its ability.

• Auto Refill Cash Rxs : This setting will automatically refill cash prescriptions. If for some reason you'd rather not automatically process cash prescriptions, toggle this setting off.

• Print Label if Adjudicated : If a label was adjudicated (paid by cash if set that way, or approved by insurance), the software can print labels during AutoProcess/NightTech. - Why this is good: The software will cut down on the labels required to be printed when the pharmacy comes in each day.- Why this is bad: While having a stack of labels ready to go is great, there's possibility of paper jams, multiple pages printing, prints coming out incorrectly, or anything else that can happen during a regular printer lifespan. For this reason some users may prefer not to print labels with the process. If a workflow is created and a separate label queue is used, this can help offset some of the work if this option is selected by having a place to gather all labels and print with a click of a button.

• Charge Copay to A/R (if applicable) : This setting works very much like the setting that's already used when charging copay to the Accounts Receivable/ Charge Account feature. However in this instance as the process is automatic, the software will most certainly bill copay to A/R accounts during the auto processes if this option is selected.

• User IDs for Night Tech Rxs : This option enables the pharmacy to assign a specific user for the process. This is particularly helpful if a pharmacy has a pharmacist coming in the next day that will work with these prescriptions; we can assign them to a particular day, and auto process will automatically run all prescriptions under that user's ID.

Nursing Home Settings

• Settings for Nursing Home Patients : This setting will allow Nursing Home patients to either inherit settings from the above, or have individually specified settings as shown below.

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• Pharmacy IDs to use for Billing : This section allows the pharmacy to utilize either the same credentials as for regular prescriptions, or change these values to other desired credentials. The NPI, NCPDP, DEA, and State License can all be adjusted.

• Auto Processing Settings : This section will allow the pharmacy to modify how auto process works for Nursing Home prescriptions. If "Same Settings as Regular Patients" is selected, the options below it remain hidden; these options directly mirror the above options in functionality.

• Time Ranges (used for Dispill) : This section will allow the pharmacy to change time ranges for Dispill straight from this screen. This overview will help pharmacy see what ranges are set, and modify them as needed to better fit their auto process settings.

• Time Translations (used for all other Dose Package Types) : This section will do the same as above but for all other dose package products.

When all the settings are modified to the pharmacy's liking, users may begin to use the function.

Processing the NightTech / AutoProcess Queue

While the point of the NightTech feature of AutoProcess is to process prescriptions automatically without user intervention, pharmacies may wish to auto process prescriptions on the fly without having to wait for the nightly process.

This screen also allows any previous night's process to re-run (if missed or otherwise) by clicking the "Trigger Night Tech Processing" button. This is particularly helpful if there was a power outage, or if the process was unable to run for any other reason.

The rest of the queue should already be familiar to our current users and it allows for a multitude of filters to be applied to the queue to narrow it down to specific criteria. The screen itself will be familiar as well as it borrows from a few other screens in layout and functionality.

We can filter by Nursing Home, Sort by Floor of said home/facility, Display the report using a Fill Date range, Single Fill Date, or All Records; we can also filter by particular prescription status from Pending Refill, Cannot Auto-Fill, Ready to Bill, Claim Rejected / Not Sent, Ready to Print, Label Not Printed, and Label Printed. Lastly we can change the look of the report by selecting whichever Display Using function we want, either Patient View (above) or Full List View (below).

When all criteria have been met and the user has selected all prescriptions to process working in whichever view they prefer, they may Process Selected / Process All (in patient view), Process Rxs (in full list view) or Remove them from queue (both views).

Auto Processing from the Rx Profile Screen

Auto processing from the RX Profile is even simpler and requires a lot less clicks. Simply select all prescriptions you wish to process, and choose Auto Process as process type; click Process Rxs when ready. The software will display a prompt as such.

This screen allows the user to change processing initials if the person processing the prescriptions is different. When the initials have been verified, press Continue to process the prescriptions. The software will go through its processes, and display the following.

With that the process is finished, and the user can simply click Finish and move onto other work. In case there are errors in processing, the software will display them accordingly. The user can then act on the prescriptions that may not have been processed.