3) What are the policies at our pharmacies?

Bellevue Hospital

• Outpatient prescriptions are written electronically and given to the patient. Non-emergent prescriptions are dropped off in the outpatient pharmacy and picked up in 72 hours. Upon pick up, the pharmacist will instruct the patient on how to take the medications.



• Refills can be ordered via the telephone and picked up in 72 hours.



• Emergent prescriptions are filled at the window.



• All patients with drug coverage are asked to fill their prescriptions in an outside pharmacy.
  



• All other patients (patients with no drug coverage) may fill their prescriptions at our pharmacy. There is a $10.00 processing fee per prescription. The maximum is $40/per patient/per visit.
  Inpatient orders are written electronically where Patient 1 is available.
  All orders need to be discontinued and rewritten when a patient is transferred from one service to another.



• Discharge prescriptions for patients with no drug coverage will be filled in BHC. Prescriptions must be received 24hours in advance.
  

Tisch Hospital

• All therapeutic agents fall into 1 of 3 groups: 1) Formulary, 2) Investigational, and 3) Restricted. Restricted are a class of drugs that have been subject to formal review by the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and have been limited to use by specified groups such as Infectious Diseases. Clinical Pharmacists and designated physicians are authorized to approve restricted drugs.



• Patients admitted on medications not on the formulary will first be considered for a switch to formulary equivalents. If, from a therapeutic perspective, the therapy is unable to be changed, the pharmacist will enter the order for the prescriber. If the pharmacy has the medication in stock or can procure it in a timely manner, the drug will be dispensed with appropriate labeling from the hospital supply. If not, the patient's own supply must be sent to the pharmacy, where it will be authorized, relabeled and dispensed by the pharmacy.



• Herbal supplements (nutritionals) are non-FDA approved and prescribing is discouraged.



• The Pharmacy will not honor TPN order after 1PM.



• Satellite Locations:

  16E 3-6278
  15 East ICU 3-8543
  14 East 3-8436
  9 East Peds 3-2094
  14 CoOp 3-7057
  Rusk 3-6566
  

VA Medical Center

• Prescriptions are entered electronically & the patient meets with the pharmacist to review how and when to take their medications.



• Prescriptions can be picked up the same day. Mail order pharmacy orders usually take 3-7 for delivery.



• Patients can mail in renewal requests& there is a walk-in pharmacist for the PC clinic where patients can get refills without seeing their doctor.



• Pharmacy staff can help with the refilling of prescriptions, but providers need to renew when the patient is out of refills.



• In most cases, the cost of the medication is presented to the provider during the outpatient order entry process.



• There is a $7 co-pay for all meds that are not for a service-related problem.



• There is a bar-coded medication delivery system in place for inpatient medications.
  
  

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