The External Rx History function in PowerChart is designed to let providers see what medications a patient has filled at retail pharmacies. This can help with the patient’s home medication list by providing a way to verify the dosages or frequencies of a prescription if the patient cannot remember. It can also help identify if a patient is attempting to get another narcotic prescription or fill one too early by showing the prescription and the fill dates.
There are a couple of caveats to this system. If a patient pays cash or chooses not to run the claim through insurance, the fill information may not be transmitted from the external pharmacy back through SureScripts into Cerner. Also, if the pharmacy does not adjudicate claim information or does not participate with SureScripts, there may be no data.
