Reynolds Army Health Clinic Pharmacy updates prescription bottles with QR code

FORT SILL, OK- The pharmacy at Reynolds Army Health Clinic is one of the busiest areas of a clinic that supports over 20,000 Soldiers, family members and retirees. The nine windows of the pharmacy are the first clinical area most RAHC beneficiaries see when they enter the east entrance, otherwise known as the unofficial main entrance. Serving over 400 patients and dispensing around 1,500 prescriptions every day the pharmacy interacts with nearly everyone who passes through Reynolds. With a staff of twelve pharmacists, twenty technicians, and eight active duty soldiers, Lt. Col. Derek Stranton the Chief of Pharmacy Services and Dr. Matt Desmarais the Pharmacy Supervisor keep the prescriptions flowing.

Filling over 400,000 prescriptions a year accurately and safely is no small feat, but recently Lt. Col. Stranton noticed an issue within the pharmacy that needed some attention. “Often times it’s the little things you don’t notice until they become a problem,” said Stranton, “In the year or so I have been here I noticed that my staff was struggling more and more with wrist pain. After looking into the issue, I discovered that the prescription bottles that we were using were the culprit.”

“Our prescription bottles were no different than any other one you might find,” said Dr. Desmarais, “but our pharmacists and techs were twisting off up to 500 child-proof caps a day and that repetitive motion was starting to take its toll.” Replacing the prescription bottles with a child-proof cap that is not so difficult to open would be the easiest fix, but sometimes the easiest solution is not as easy as it seems. “The prescription bottles we were using were specific to our automated prescription filling robots and if we changed the lids, we would have to upgrade the robots as well,” said Desmarais. Which is exactly what Lt. Col. Stranton did.

“I saw the problem as a way to not only upgrade our prescription bottles and the automated filling robots, but as a way to help advertise one of our new pharmacy programs as well,” said Stranton. While Lt. Col. Stranton and Dr. Desmarais were researching lid options they noticed that the ones they decided to order to replace the old lids were very flat and smooth on top. “I asked the manufacturer if it was possible to print a QR code or other information on the top of the lid,” Stranton said. After some back and forth with the vendor the pharmacy now has the QR code for their Q-Anywhere service printed on top of each prescription bottle that comes out of the pharmacy.

Q-Anywhere is a feature that pharmacy patients can use from their phone to activate their prescription, and the pharmacy will text when the prescription is ready. Unlike most civilian pharmacies that automatically fill your prescription as soon as it is received from the doctor’s office, pharmacies at Military Treatment Facilities will not fill any prescriptions unless they are “activated” by the patient.

“The activation process helps us prevent medication waste and saves money by greatly reducing the number of prescriptions that are filled and then not picked up by patients,” said Desmarais. “Patients usually activate their prescription when they pull a ticket from the kiosk in the pharmacy lobby, but you can also activate your prescription by phone or now with Q-Anywhere.”

Using the text feature for activation by texting "Get in Line" to 1-855-812-6070 or by scanning the QR code, gives patients the convenience of activating their prescription anywhere without having to wait on hold or at the ticket kiosk, and with the QR code now on the lid of every prescription bottle it is easier than ever to use the Q-Anywhere service.

For more information please visit the pharmacy section of the Reynolds Army Health Clinic webpage at https://reynolds.tricare.mil/Health-Services/Pharmacy or call the Main Pharmacy information line at 833-286-3732 option 3.