Time is of the Essence – SP Automation

“Time is of the essence”, “Time is money”, “Time isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing”. There are literally millions of quotes regarding the importance of time. Time isn’t just the driver of how we might measure our quality of life. However, what may be more important is how we manage our time at work and what parts of work can be made to be efficient.

Two-thirds of the respondents stated that it take more than 15 minutes on the phone to fill a prescription and 79% said they are forced to make multiple calls and faxes

In a recent survey, according to 400 pharmacist respondents, seventy-one percent of specialty pharmacists suffer from stress or burnout at the workplace, mostly due to a lack of automated prior authorization. Referred to complex documentation requirements and manual prior authorizations process two-thirds of the respondents stated that it take more than 15 minutes on the phone to fill a prescription and seventy-nine percent said they are forced to make multiple calls and faxes to clinicians for additional information at least three time a day. Further of the specialty pharmacists’ respondents, most said an automated system would significantly decrease burden. In addition, the survey showed 40 percent of respondents are so overwhelmed by excessive administrative work, they now feel more like an administrator than a pharmacist. While some of these issues are driven by the current Covid-19 crisis it drives home a constant theme regarding the challenges in facilitating drug therapy for patients on specialty medications.

As noted in the article these challenges demonstrate the need for technology to enable better information sharing between prescribers and specialty pharmacists. I would suggest we extend that to include patients as well to ensure patients understand how to best take their medication, compliance, Patient Reported Outcomes, and the like. However, what may be the biggest issue is that the paperwork burden significantly impacts the TIME pharmacists must have in order to take care of patients. Technology of course is the answer, D2 works with multiple technologies that drive efficiencies to stakeholders including prescribers, specialty pharmacies, patients, manufacturers, payers and others. These technologies drive efficiency, from HER integration to population health to enable the exchange of significant amounts of data and provide a higher level of patient interaction. Technology that drives results is not the future, it is here today.