How BestRx is Meeting the New Standard for Patient Safety

• Q: Was your SCRIPT migration a major priority for your organization? If so, why?

  A:

  Desai: Yes, it was a big priority. E-Prescribing has greatly increased efficiency and accuracy in the pharmacy industry over the past 15 years, and we are proud to have been part of that change from the beginning. We also wanted to make sure we were doing everything possible to implement new changes as quickly as possible so that our clients can benefit from the features of the new SCRIPT standard sooner rather than later. It takes several years between each new iteration of the SCRIPT standard, which means that many of the new features in the newer standard have been needed for quite some time. We didn’t want to make our clients wait any longer to benefit from the newer standard.

  Q: How will your users benefit from the latest SCRIPT standard?

  A:

  Desai: The improvements in the directory will make it easier to identify and communicate with the correct prescribers. The addition of the compound features will make e-prescribing easier for pharmacies to fulfill compound prescriptions. The addition of new use cases for RxChange as well as new message types such as NewRx Request and RxTransfer will add new functionality to our system, as will new fields such as urgent indicator, prohibited refill request, allergy-adverse event, et cetera.

“We also wanted to make sure we were doing everything possible to implement new changes as quickly as possible so that our clients can benefit from the features of the new SCRIPT standard sooner rather than later.”

Hemal Desai

President, BestRx

• Q: Tell us about your migration process. How long did it take? How many people were involved? What steps were required?

  A:

  Patil-Borse: It took us around three months to complete certification. Our team of five included two developers, two project leads and one e-prescribing advisor. Here are the steps we followed:

  1. Analyze the changes in the directory structure.
  2. Implement the 6.1 directory changes.
  3. Analyze the changes in the message structure.
  4. Ensure the changes were accommodated while reading the message and make sure all the data is interpreted and displayed per Surescripts’ guidance (Ex: changes in the Sig length, communication numbers and benefits of coordination).
  5. Implement the XML structure changes for outgoing messages.
  6. Add the new features available in the 6.1, like urgent indicator, prohibited refill request and allergy-adverse event.

  Q: What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome to complete your SCRIPT migration?

  A:

  Patil-Borse: There were a few challenges in the migration process. The file structure changed on how we get service levels so figuring out how to handle this was a challenge, as was learning about the structural changes to the messages. There was less information available in the documentation for some of the parts of data and since we were using mailboxing, deciding on a rollout procedure was difficult. We determined that a bulk rollout was too risky, so we came up with a phased rollout plan in which a group of pharmacies shifted to the new 6.0 portal as they upgraded to the BestRx version which could handle the 6.1 messages.

  Q: How did Surescripts support you leading up to and during your migration?

  A:

  Patil-Borse: As one of the early adopters, we needed Surescripts' help in understanding the new concepts and how to handle them, especially from the pharmacy's point of view. Our integration manager helped us a lot with prompt and thorough responses.