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. 2021 Oct;56(5):543-549.
doi: 10.1177/0018578720928266. Epub 2020 Jun 11.

Impacts of a Mail-Order Service for Refilling Prescriptions on Patient Satisfaction and Operational Load at a Comprehensive Cancer Center in Jordan

Rasha S AbuBlan  1 , Wedad Awad  1 , Randa Agha  1 , Neveen Hejawi  1 , Hala Srouji  1 , Suzan Hammoudeh  1 , Lama H Nazer  1
Affiliations

Impacts of a Mail-Order Service for Refilling Prescriptions on Patient Satisfaction and Operational Load at a Comprehensive Cancer Center in Jordan

Rasha S AbuBlan et al. Hosp Pharm. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Mail-order services for refilling prescriptions for medications have been established in many countries and have increased patient satisfaction. We developed a mail-order service for the outpatient pharmacy of a comprehensive cancer center in Jordan.

Objective: To describe the implementation of a mail-order service and to report the impact of the service on patient satisfaction and the pharmacy workload.

Methods: A multidisciplinary team was formed to plan a mail-order service for refilling prescriptions for medications, and a survey was designed to evaluate patient satisfaction with the service. Patients were instructed to call the refill call center and order their medications at least 48 hours before their refill is due. The pharmacy workflow for refilling prescriptions was evaluated, and the time required with and without the mail-order service was documented, with a calculation of the time saved.

Results: At 1 year after the mail-order service had been established, 14 200 prescriptions had been refilled through the service, with the majority (97.5%) dispensed within 48 hours of the order time. As per the survey conducted with 219 patients, on the overall satisfaction, 69.4% reported being highly satisfied with the service and 27.9% reported being satisfied. The problems reported with the service were delay in arrival (n = 23, 10.5%), medication-related errors (n = 9, 4.1%), cash-related error (n = 1, 0.45%), improper storage condition (n = 1, 0.45%), and delivery to the wrong address (n = 4, 1.8%). The service was also associated with reduced overall time for processing in the outpatient pharmacy service; for patients receiving their medications from the pharmacy, resulting in reduced patients' overall waiting time (from 11.4 to 8.2 minutes). The service resulted in saving of 0.4 full-time employee at 1 year of implementation.

Conclusions: A mail-order service for refilling prescriptions within a hospital setting had positive outcomes on both patient satisfaction and the pharmacy workflow. The major issues were related to transportation and logistics.

Keywords: management; medication process; oncology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Number of patients requesting mail-order service for refilled prescriptions during the first year of the service (April 2018 to March 2019).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Reported problem.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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