Pharmacy Integrations Reference Guide

This guide provides an overview of what to expect from each of our available pharmacy integrations' expected capabilities are. 

About Rx Integration Setup

The experience for your team will be largely the same for your connection type. Long-term care pharmacies differ in their operations, and our integrations are tailored to provide you with the best possible information in ALIS. 

Generally, your Onboarding Manager will help set up your pharmacy integration when you begin onboarding to ALIS. We typically recommend that a community selects their primary pharmacy to create one pharmacy inbox in ALIS as this will help to simplify your medication processing and management. However, you are not limited to just one inbox, and we can work with you to determine the right solution for your team. 

Should you want to add an inbox to your environment or need assistance initiating a pharmacy transition once you have already onboarded to ALIS, contact your Account Manager or our ALIS Customer Success Team.

Before we can set up a pharmacy integration for your community, we must first gather the details from your pharmacy regarding which software they utilize. We support integrations with the below interface software:

• FrameworkLTC
• Omnicare
• PharMerica
• PioneerRx
• PrescribersConnection*
• QS/1

*See the below PrescribersConnection section for details on this unique connection type.

Connection Types & Refill Requests

Connection type refers to how the integration is enabled in ALIS from a technical standpoint. 

There are two possible options for order refill requests in ALIS: Direct or eFax. For more information about these options, refer to these eFax Refills and Request Refills directly through your Pharmacy Integration guides.

Order Messages Capabilities 

With all types of pharmacy integrations, there are certain expected capabilities as well as limitations to what data pulls through to specific fields in the Order Processing page. This is due to how the pharmacy keys in orders with their interface software and the way the data is translated in ALIS. It is possible that some fields may not populate accurately, but ALIS contains various methods for resolving this when processing and managing orders. For more general information on processing orders, refer to this How to Process Incoming Order Messages guide. 

The below table indicates which fields you can expect data to automatically populate in: 

• *Drug Unit of Measurement The Drug Unit of Measurement field will often populate accurately for orders that are tablets (TABS) and capsules (CAPS), in which case you would not need to edit this field. For other orders' drug units of measurements, such as powders (POWD) or injectables (INJ), the field may not populate anything, or it may populate inaccurately. It is always good to review this field when processing orders, and in the case that the unit needs updating, you will have to manually select the abbreviation unit from the provided dropdown menu. You can also click on the link to this Drug Units of Measurement Abbreviations guide below the menu to see descriptions for the 156 abbreviations found on this menu.
• *Start/End Dates - For QS/1 integrations, we have a recommended default pharmacy setting to 'Verify Significant Gaps' which ensures that any updates to start and end dates on orders will be put up for verification and processing in your pharmacy inbox.
• *Time - For PrescribersConnection integrations, the time fields will prefill based off of the instructions sent in the HL7 message. For these type of connections, we have the ability to update the specific administration time to display based on the order frequency (i.e., 1x a day = 8:00AM). These AI Scheduling Hints can be managed in your Medications Settings. Consult your Account Manager or our ALIS Customer Success Team when making changes to these settings.  

Updates to Orders

When an order has been updated, ALIS decides which messages to display for verification based on the following:

• Rx NDC

• Dosage/sig patterns

• Instructions 

• Date change (dependent on setting)

• Combination of the Rx Order ID and the Prescription Number

Medication Changes Report

To facilitate streamlined communication between your clinical team and the pharmacy, we have the ability to email any adjustments made on a resident's eMAR to your pharmacy technicians.

There is a pharmacy setting the ALIS team can turn on that sends daily emails to your pharmacy with access to the Medication Changes Report. This enables your pharmacy to stay abreast of any manual changes your team makes to orders in ALIS. 

For more information, refer to this Medication Changes Report guide. You can also reach out to your Account Manager or our ALIS Customer Success Team for assistance with setup. 

Barcode Scanning

All available pharmacy integrations support barcode scanning functionality in ALIS, however each pharmacy location's barcodes and packaging will vary. Therefore, ALIS and the pharmacy must coordinate to test barcodes prior to turning this feature on for your community. Depending on the testing required for your connection, it may take up to a few weeks to finalize configuration. 

It is also strongly recommended to ensure your team has been 'live' on the ALIS eMAR and has had at least 2-3 cycle fills go through the system before enabling barcode scanning. 

For more information, refer to these Barcode Scanning Reference Guide, How To Check in Orders with Barcode Scanning, and How to Use Barcode Scanning in Pass Meds guides. You can also reach out to your Account Manager or our ALIS Customer Success Team for assistance with setup. 

PrescribersConnection

PrescribersConnection provides ePrescription software that automates prescription fulfillment for Long Term and Post-Acute Care (LTPAC) communities. Their network connects communities with prescribers and pharmacies to exchange all prescription and resident information electronically. 

We do not directly integrate with PrescribersConnection. If your pharmacy uses one of the below softwares, your integration must be with PrescribersConnection: 

• QuickRx

• Winpharm

• DigitalRx

• WinRx

• Rx30 

• DispenseRx

• BestRx

• PrimeCare 

• Helix

• SuiteRx 

• TWRx

Integration Setup Process

The process for setting up this integration is more involved than other connection types. It requires multiple parties to participate: ALIS, PrescribersConnection, the pharmacy, and the pharmacy software vendor.

Typically, the pharmacy’s software vendor and the specific pharmacy go through a certification process with Prescryptive. Once this has occurred, all parties hold a couple of calls to plan for and conduct the integration enablement: 

1. Kickoff Call - First, PrescribersConnection leads an introductory call to align all parties on the integration details and timeline. Following this call, ALIS emails the community's floor plan export and resident list.

2. Activation Call = On this call, the interface in PrescribersConnection will be enabled and tested with all teams present. Once ALIS confirms we have received the test data, the pharmacy sends the remaining orders. 

Related articles:

• How to Process Incoming Resident Messages
• Process Orders with PioneerRx
• eFax Refills
• Request Refills directly through your Pharmacy Integration

For more assistance with Pharmacy Integrations, 

Contact our ALIS Customer Success Team:

888.404.ALIS (2547) or support@go-alis.com