Introducing HealthEngine Scripts
We’re excited to announce the launch of HealthEngine Scripts, our new online repeat prescription solution for general practice.
Whether your phone is constantly ringing with patients asking for routine scripts, or you’d simply like to extend your patient care beyond the consult room, Scripts can help save both your staff and patients’ time.
Patients can enjoy the convenience of requesting a repeat script online 24/7 directly from your HealthEngine profile or practice website in just a few simple steps, helping improve your patient experience.
Most importantly, your practice is always in control. GPs decide whether it is safe to approve a script request, and you set your own price, response times, delivery options and participating doctors.
We take care of payments to save you the hassle and keep patients up to date about the status of their script request via SMS.
Unsure if your practice is ready to take the leap to online scripts?
Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions that practices ask us.
1) Will patients use and pay for an online scripts service?
Yes – we ran an extensive beta program last year with selected practices and processed over 1,000 online script requests. Patients are willing to pay for the convenience and consistently provided us with great feedback, saying it saved them time, was easy to use and very convenient. Here’s what one anonymous happy patient had to say.
“Script was ready for collection in half an hour from request being processed. Impressive service!”
2) Can doctors safely prescribe routine medication online?
Scripts is designed to be used by existing patients that already have a relationship with your practice. Determining whether it is safe to approve an online script request is always at the GP’s discretion. We encourage patients to provide doctors with as much information as possible about their medication and condition, and use a triage process that directs patients to make a booking if they don’t meet certain criteria (for example, if their symptoms have changed or they haven’t seen a doctor recently).
During the beta program, we saw an 80% approval rate of scripts requests by GPs on average – demonstrating that many doctors believe there are circumstances in which it is safe to prescribe routine medication online.
3) Can bulk billing practices charge for online scripts?
Yes – several bulk billing practices used Scripts as part of our beta program. Repeat scripts without an in-person consult is not an item covered by Medicare, so bulk billing practices are able to charge patients out-of-pocket costs for online prescription requests. A patient can still choose to book an appointment to get their script at no out-of-pocket cost.
Want to find out more about Scripts?
Head to this page and look out for our next article to find out how Ellen Health in WA has been using our online Scripts service.
