'Has my medication been sent?'
The prescription has been written and sent to the homecare pharmacy. A few days later the patient phones. Their delivery has not arrived, or it arrived with something missing, or the courier left a card and they are at work. The admin team logs into the pharmacy's portal, or phones the pharmacy, waits on hold, and eventually gets an answer. Then they ring the patient back.
With a steady flow of patients starting treatment each week, this becomes a daily routine for somebody, and it is almost entirely administrative.
Why order status is so hard to see
The clinic sends the prescription, but the order then lives in someone else's system. Each pharmacy has its own portal, confirmation emails, or none. Delivery dates are agreed between the pharmacy and the patient, so the clinic often hears last.
- Prescriptions are sent by email or portal, with no single record of what was sent and when.
- Delivery confirmations arrive as emails to whoever sent the order, if at all.
- The clinic cannot see at a glance which patients starting next week have not yet had a delivery confirmed.
- Patients call reception, who have to find the right person to answer.
- Different homecare providers mean different portals and different ways of checking.
The daily cost of chasing deliveries
Staff time goes on hold music and portal logins. Patients worry, and a late delivery close to a start date causes stress for them and replanning for the clinic. When something does go wrong, it is hard to see where: was the prescription sent late, or was the delivery delayed?
| Question | How it is answered now | With a delivery tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Was the prescription sent? | Search email or the portal | Logged with date and sender |
| When is delivery booked? | Phone the pharmacy | Recorded from the confirmation, or updated by admin |
| Has it arrived? | Ask the patient | Patient confirms by text, or admin marks it |
| Who is at risk of a late delivery? | Nobody knows until they call | Listed against planned start dates |
What we build
- Each time a prescription is sent, a record is created in the tracker, either automatically from the sent email or by a quick entry from the person sending it.
- Confirmation emails from homecare providers are read by an inbox parser that picks out the patient reference and the delivery date, and updates the record. Anything the parser cannot match is queued for a person.
- Where a pharmacy offers an API or a status export, we use it rather than the inbox.
- Patients can receive a text asking them to confirm delivery, with an option to report a problem, which goes to the admin team.
- The tracker lists patients by planned start date and shows any whose delivery is unconfirmed as the date approaches.
- Reception can look up a patient and see the order status instantly, rather than passing the call on.
The tracker only handles administrative status: sent, booked, delivered, problem reported. It does not show or change prescriptions or doses, and it does not give medication advice. Any medication question from a patient is routed to your nursing team.
What changes day to day
When a patient rings about their delivery, reception can usually answer on the spot. The admin team starts each day with a short list of orders to chase, rather than finding out about problems from worried patients. Nurses planning starts can see which patients are still waiting on deliveries.
Is your team chasing deliveries?
- Patients regularly phone to ask where their medication is.
- Staff log into several pharmacy portals to check order status.
- There is no single list of prescriptions sent this week.
- Late deliveries are discovered close to the start date.
- Delivery confirmations sit in individual staff inboxes.