What Are Medication Black Holes?

Have you ever had a broken heart? Of course, you have. Everyone at some point during life feels broken-hearted. Turn on the radio any given moment, and chances are you'll hear a song or two or ten about what it feels like to be broken-hearted.

The truth is there's nothing more heartbreaking than watching someone you love suffering, especially when there's nothing you can do to alleviate their suffering. No one understands this more than people who work in hospice care. The whole point of hospice care is to help remove as much suffering as possible for those near the end of life. And the primary tool for hospice caregivers are the medications that provide the vital relief patients and their families desperately need and deserve.

Unfortunately, this is not always the way things go. Even on the best day, all hospice workers and patients experience needless suffering caused by medication delays. Just ask any hospice nurse or CNA the most significant challenge with being a caregiver, and nine times out of ten, they'll say getting medications to patients fast enough.

So what is causing the medication delays that lead to broken hearts around the globe? Medication black holes.

What Are Medication Black Holes?

Maybe you've heard of them, or perhaps you haven't. Hospice workers know them well. They go by other names in hospice care, namely:

• Phone calls to the pharmacy
• Waiting on hold
• Off formulary hold
• Order not approved
• Unsigned prescription
• Unreadable Information in fax or voicemail
• Missed delivery runs

Medication Black holes are pitfalls or traps in the medication ordering and delivery process, leading to medications being delayed from hours and even days. Even with the endless amount of tireless work on behalf of hospice workers, pharmacists, and prescribers, these black holes still exist and cause delays more than we'd like to admin. Ask 100 people on the street who have experienced having an aging parent or loved one in long-term or hospice care if they've experienced medication delays, and most will reply yes. As an industry, we owe it to patients to identify the causes of these black holes and eliminate them.

What causes medication black holes?

As a company, BetterRX exists because of these very medication black holes. Our founder, Jared Stong, a pharmacist himself, experienced watching a loved one on hospice pass away in pain due to medication delays. He immediately started researching and analyzing the problems in hospice care medication workflows. He found that the most significant cause of medication delays is that the care team is too fragmented and lacks the connection and technology they need to order, track, and deliver medications faster and effectively. He felt heartbroken and decided to do something. So he built the first ePrescribe app specifically for hospice that does a better job giving nurses the support they needed to order medications faster and keep their administrators, prescribers, and the pharmacy connected and up to speed on medication processing.

The other problem that Jared found was in the pharmacy benefits management side of things. He discovered that PBMs complicate the medication ordering process and, as a result, often cause delays themselves. Jared set off to create a solution that could change the way medications are managed, and BetterRX was born. But things didn't stop there. BetterRX continues to build technology and innovate by providing new industry practices that speed up medication ordering and delivery.

BetterRX essentially created a better way to manage medications for hospice providers. We call this suite of tools and solutions a Connected RX Platform. Our Connected RX Platform (CRX) simplifies and automates much of the medication ordering and delivery process and offers the most crucial factor, real-time visibility into the medication fulfillment process. This real-time visibility creates accountability and empowers all parts of the care team to track medication processing. As a result, medications aren't delayed by black holes, and patients spend more time without pain. It also means that nurses save time and minimize the stress of chasing down medications, allowing them to spend more time comforting patients. It even helps prescribers and pharmacies run more efficiently and have less unpleasant situations with care providers and patients.

Problem solved.

Eliminating Medication Delays

We wish. There are still some issues with medication processing in hospice care, and black holes can still exist for care providers and patients. BetterRX continues to innovate and create solutions to solve these issues and eliminate medication delays for good.

Join the conversation. How about you?

• Does your hospice experience medication delays?
• Does your team spend countless hours on the phone and exercising workarounds to get meds to the bedside on time?
• What would it look like if medication processing was streamlined so that your clinical team could spend less time chasing down medications and more time comforting patients and their loved ones?

Free Medication Workflow Audit

Let BetterRX do a free audit of your current medication workflow. We can identify any black holes that might be leading to delays and help you eliminate them without a mountain of extra work on your team. Even better, we can help get rid of needless suffering together. 

Schedule a free discovery call or get in touch with one of our specialists today!

About BetterRX

BetterRX's mission is to radically change patient care by ending medication delays that cause needless suffering. BetterRX offers efficient ordering technology, medication tracking, real-time PPD & cost alerts, and committed local pharmacies. Learn more about BetterRX, our CRX Platform, Better ePrescribe, and Pharmacy tools.