Anybody else have a doctor's office that doesn't seem to get the concept of a mail order pharmacy?

[Brigid]

I saw my doctor in Feb. This week, I called (Wed.) the office to get prescrptions renewed. On their prescription line, I left my name, DOB, phone, the prescriptions I needed renewed, the pharmacy name, phone, and address. The recording said it would take 48 hours to get the prescriptions called to the pharmacy. That is normal, though I have no idea why that would take so long. I called the pharmacy today to see if they had the prescriptions in their system yet so that I could get them paid for and get them shipped. They still didn't have them. I called the doctor's office. I could not seem to get the operators there to understand what I needed -- they kept transferring me to the prescrption.line. I had to call back three times before I finally got to talk to a nurse and she said she would take care of it. About an hour later, I got an e-mail from the pharmacy -- actually I got three. Three different e mails ordering the same two prescriptions multiple times, and nothing about the other two. I called the pharmacy to see what they had. They had nothing. It was by then too late to call the doctor's office back. So now I get to wait until Monday to go another round. Is a mail-order pharmacy using e-script really so hard to understand??

[CurtEastPoint]

1. OK, here's a description of the state of technology. CIGNA... big enough, right?

Doctors CANNOT electronically transmit Rx info to them. Phone call or FAX.
A FAX! It's 2014, FFS.

[progree]

2. "Phone call or FAX" - not too bad, at least they've moved beyond telegrams ;-) nt

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. I'll bet they have that policy because of security.

If you ask them, I think they would probably say that an email is not secure but a fax is.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. My mother is 94 and deals with several doctor offices, all of which are dysfunctional

Her primary care doctor has not once reviewed any of the results of blood draws or urinalyses faxed to them by the lab. Each time in the past several years it is I who have had to get the results and bring them to her doctor's attention, and that includes life threatening conditions like hyponatremia (low salt) and a super virus (klepsiella) in her bladder. Her primary care doctor is in the office only two days a week as the rest of his time he does rounds with several hospitals and nursing homes and is gradually getting appointed to the boards of directors of these places. I think it has to do with profits on his part. Seeing patients hour after hour in the office is less profitable than walking in and immediately walking right out of a patient's room in the hospital or nursing home. The same dysfunction occurs with her cardiologist and urologist. They over book their offices. The other day, my mother and I were in the office of her cardiologist for a stress test and it took place from 9:00 am until 3:30 in the afternoon. The office had scheduled too many people. To add to the problem, the technician muffed the results and had to start all over again. And these doctors are actually better and more responsive than the doctors my mother had before. At least they answer questions in a normal non-hostile way. Her previous cardiologist was always in a bad mood and would bite your head off for no apparent reason.

I think the state of the medical profession leaves a lot to be desired.