Tinker Pharmacy Services now accepts faxed prescriptions Published April 25, 2013 By Brandice J. O'Brien Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Tinker's Pharmacy Services now accepts faxed prescriptions. While the unit doesn't yet accept electronic prescriptions, officials said a faxed prescription will comply with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services latest electronic prescribing requirements. The pharmacy set up procedures to accept faxed prescriptions in November 2012. "For our patients, it means saving them from making two trips to the doctor. It allows them to call their doctor and their doctor can fax us a new prescription and they don't have to go to the doctor's office to pick it up," said Lt. Col. Tonya Everleth, 72nd Medical Group Biomedical Science Corp Diagnostics and Therapeutics Flight commander. "It also saves them time in that we will process them on the same day and they don't have sit here and wait for their script to be ready." Additionally, when the pharmacy receives the script, personnel will verify the patient's information, to ensure it matches the information in the system. They'll ensure the pharmacy has the requested medicine in stock and resolve any issues before filling the order. If there are issues with the prescription, they'll contact the provider or patient for clarification. Traditionally, the pharmacy requests two to three hours to fill the order to ensure that they are able to resolve any issues with the prescription. "Providers were encouraging their patients to send their prescriptions to other places that accepted electronic prescriptions so they wouldn't get fined," Colonel Everleth said. "But since we have added this service our patients can continue to use our pharmacy, which provides a more cost effective solution for the patient and the tax-payers. It will not cost the patient's anything." It's a win-win situation for the patients and providers. In March, Colonel Everleth said the pharmacy processed approximately 14,000 new prescriptions. Of that, 16 percent were submitted by fax. Roughly 6,500 prescriptions in March came from outside providers. Of that, 35 percent of those scripts were faxed. The implementation of a faxed prescription services also means shorter waiting times for other pharmacy utilizers. "Since we are able to shift the faxed prescription workload to accommodate our waiting patient, we have been able to reduce our wait times by nearly 20 percent across all points of service," Colonel Everleth said. "There are fewer patients waiting in our lobby, which enables us to provide a better service to those patients." There are several benefits to filling prescriptions at Tinker and include a $0 co-pay for beneficiaries and receiving up to a 90-day supply of a particular medicine. The pharmacy's hours of operation are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The drive-thru is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Tinker Pharmacy fax number is 736-2890. For more information, call 582-6315.