Pharmacist-managed Multistep Order Transmittal for Electronic Specialty Prescriptions Reduces Represcribing Burden in Ambulatory Clinics: A Retrospective Cohort Pilot Study

Specialty medications pose unique prescribing challenges, including complexities with drug dosing and safety monitoring, need for prior authorization and patient financial assistance, use of payer-mandated specialty pharmacies, and special requirements for storage and handling. These challenges can lead to higher rates of represcribing for specialty clinic providers, who may be operating with inadequate information or limited resources. Multistep order transmittal (MSOT) is an electronic medical record (EMR) prescription work queue functionality used by a specialty pharmacy service to support select ambulatory clinics. To explore the relationship between an MSOT specialty pharmacy support service and represcribing burden of specialty medications for providers in an ambulatory care setting. A retrospective cohort pilot study was performed before and after MSOT implementation. Prescription data were queried from Sanford Health's EMR for patients who were electronically issued at least 1 prescription for an injectable biologic medication at a dermatology and rheumatology clinic. The pre-intervention group included index prescriptions prescribed between October 1, 2017, and June 20, 2018. The post-intervention group included index prescriptions prescribed between October 1, 2018, and June 20, 2019. Retrospective EMR review was completed to identify any prescriptions that were represcribed and the reason for represcribing. The primary outcome was the rate of represcribing. Secondary endpoints explored reason for represcribing, when it occurred. Nominal data were compared using Pearson's chi-square tests. Regressions were performed to account for potential confounders. The pre-intervention group included 880 index biologic prescriptions, and the post-intervention group included 941 index biologic prescriptions. The aggregate represcribing rate decreased from 12.73% in the pre-intervention group to 9.56% in the postintervention group ( = 0.03). Represcribing directly by providers as a result of needing to modify the destination pharmacy decreased significantly from 6.25% of the pre-intervention group to 0.64% of the post-intervention group ( < 0.01). However, represcribing due to patient preferences and prescribing errors increased significantly between the pre- and post-intervention groups, with patient preferences increasing from 0.91% to 2.55% ( = 0.01) and prescribing errors from 0.68% to 1.70% ( = 0.05), respectively. Represcribing due to provider preferences and payer restrictions remained similar between groups. Within 2 ambulatory care clinics in an integrated health care system, the use of pharmacist-managed MSOT reduced overall represcribing burden. The need to represcribe owing to wrong destination pharmacy was nearly eliminated, while appropriate represcribing to accommodate patient preferences and correct prescribing errors increased. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.