Physicians might be hesitant to write annual prescriptions, but Marie Brown, MD, director of practice redesign at the American Medical Association, says providers can save two hours a day with these scripts.
Synchronized refills for chronic medications, not including controlled substances, are 90-day prescriptions written with four refills. They are renewed each year, and the ideal scenario aligns with a patient's annual wellness visit, Dr. Brown recently said in an AMA podcast.
The scripts can reduce "half the refill requests in a year — so, immediately cutting down by 50% phone calls, faxes, inbox messages," Dr. Brown said.
Physicians not only save time, but so do nurses and patients who now have fewer pharmacy trips. Annual prescriptions might not be for everybody, she said, but care teams can use pre-visit planning and other failsafes to ensure adherence.
"This 90 times four doesn't have to be for everybody," said Jill Jin, MD, an AMA senior physician adviser. "As a doctor, you can still choose which patients you want to mark as an exception and not do that for. But again, we're looking at what is the way to save most physicians and most patients the most amount of time."