Possible Patient Wellbeing Matter: Imprecise Medicine Information in RxRenewalRequest Communications

[Gavin Walker]

Walker Tek Solutions, LLC has been notified by eMDs of a possible patient well being matter that is impacting a particular drugstore, PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy. It has been concluded that certain Rx Refill Request (RxRenewalRequest) communications directed by the PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy, as soon as June 2017, may have comprised imprecise medications.

There are three recognized manifestations of this imprecise information:
• The Potency Unit Code (PUC) was unsuitably defaulting to 'Capsule' in all RxRenewalRequest communications. PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy applied a fix to solve this matter on February 13, 2020. eMDs is continuing to screen transactions to confirm the fix.
• The Drug Description field in certain RxRenewalRequest communications are lacking the potency and/or form. PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy applied a fix to solve this matter on February 15, 2020. eMDs will continue to screen transactions to confirm the fix.
• The Drug Description field in certain RxRenewalRequest communications comprise a producer designation or pack size info that could produce confusion for the prescriber and disturb automatic matching by EHRs. PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy applied a fix to solve this matter on February 15, 2020. eMDs will continue to screen transactions to confirm the fix.

Effect: eMDs is not conscious of any injury to any patient, but is considering this situation extremely serious and is regarding it as a possible patient well being matter. This possibly imprecise information does not influence any NewRx communications directed.

Answer: Upon hearing of these issues, PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy instantly took action, and per the above has solved the first issue effective February 13, 2020, and applied a fix for the additional issues on February 15, 2020. eMD’s prescribing partner is toiling with PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy to establish why these issues happened, so they can apply operational procedures to remove any possibility for this kind of matter to happen in the time ahead.

Suggested Acts: If any prescriber detects this issue happening and means to grant the RxRenewalRequest, they should revise the medicine. This will direct a refusal and new script to the drugstore to safeguard the medicine is properly supplied. As always, clinicians should use complete expert and scientific wisdom in all clinical determinations.

Thank you,