How NormanMD of Austin Regional Clinic removed urgent care prescribing pains with Photon

“Photon has been a huge relief for a major pain point for our clinicians. And, it gives control to patients, so they can find pharmacies at any hour of the day to fill their prescriptions.” —Dr. Jacob Childers, Medical Director at NormanMD

NormanMD offers on-demand, acute-care telehealth services as part of Austin Regional Clinic (ARC), one of the largest multi-specialty medical groups in Central Texas. With a smartphone, tablet, or computer, patients can access a NormanMD doctor or advanced practice clinician (APC) in adult medicine or pediatric care within minutes. Available 24/7/365, NormanMD has served over 100K patients seeking virtual urgent care.

Photon has been honored to simplify prescribing for its clinicians and empower its patients with agency and transparency. With Photon, NormanMD:

• Saved its prescribers from an unscalable and frustrating prescribing workflow: the task of ePrescribing now takes around 10 seconds per patient, instead of the 90-120 seconds required of their previous workflow. 
• Cut follow-up visits booked to resolve pharmacy issues: providers could now reallocate several visits weekly from solely Rx troubleshooting to new patient visits.
• Enabled more supportive after-hours Rx fulfillment: post-visit patients, anxious to get medication, could use Photon to find open, in-stock pharmacies that could fill Rxs urgently.

Opportunity: As patient volume expanded, NormanMD wanted to remove cumbersome Rx processes for time-sensitive providers and patients.

Initially, ePrescribing for NormanMD had been completed through ARC’s EMR (Electronic Medical Record) system. While ARC cared for patients mostly located in Central Texas, NormanMD's services were provided statewide. Thus, as NormanMD grew across Texas, its team encountered many new patients who did not have existing records within ARC’s EMR. 

To ePrescribe for such patients, clinicians had to navigate outside their proprietary telehealth platform and open the EMR to create new patient charts, a task that took 90-120 seconds per patient.

Initially a small inconvenience, this lengthy prescribing task became painful as new patient volume grew quickly. Prescribers vocalized the need for more efficient prescribing within the telehealth platform.

Clinicians also noticed a growing number of patients booking follow-up visits just for help on pharmacy issues. Since NormanMD clinicians often prescribed for patients at late hours, given its 24/7 services, patients would frequently encounter pharmacy closure. Nervous about getting medications, patients would book additional visits to ask for pharmacy transfers.

Other issues involving medication stock, dosage clarification, and insurance coverage also led patients to request extra telehealth visits for Rx resends.

As the start of new health plan contracts and the season of upper respiratory illness crept near, NormanMD felt determined to find a new ePrescribe solution before patient demand spiked. 

Could they find a solution that unburdened providers from tedious prescribing and pharmacy roadblocks and allayed the concerns of patients who wanted medication ASAP?

Solution: NormanMD adopted Photon’s simple ePrescribe workflow for its providers, which unlocked transparent Rx support for its patients.

“If we hadn’t adopted Photon, our providers would’ve been disappointed—the pain of prescribing was unsustainable.” - Dr. Jacob Childers, Medical Director at NormanMD

Photon’s API and Deep-Link integration made the transition easy for NormanMD’s team. Training its providers to use Photon—just in time for the surge in patient demand they had expected—went smoothly, too.

To access Photon’s ePrescribe tool, referenced as Photon’s “Clinical App,” providers just click 1 button within NormanMD’s telehealth platform.

“Because Photon is so intuitive, onboarding new clinicians was easy.” - Christine Le, Product Team Leader at NormanMD

Providers no longer had to open a separate platform, search for the patient, and reenter patient data to ePrescribe. For existing patients, Photon automatically pulled the right patient information for the provider; for new patients, it automatically generated new profiles, saving providers time.

Now with Photon, providers only needed to focus on entering medication, dosage, and instructions for the prescription.

After the integration, the NormanMD team noticed that new providers took less time to get started seeing new patients, as Photon’s prescribing flow was easier to learn.

“Transparency is important for our patients. It’s so helpful that—for any pharmacy they choose—Photon can tell them when a prescription is sent, being processed, and ready for pick-up.” —Sherron Gratten, Telemedicine Manager at NormanMD

Empowering patients with agency and transparency, NormanMD adopted Photon’s off-the-shelf, white-label patient experience.

After a prescription is written, NormanMD’s patients receive a text with the prescription and a secure link to a web-based patient application. There, they can compare and select pharmacy locations based on hours and location, indicate preferred pick-up time (including “ASAP”), and get status updates.

Photon confirms stock-status and a ready-by time with the pharmacy before notifying patients with a pick-up estimate. These alerts help urgent care patients feel informed and reassured that they can get the treatments they need.

For any issues, like a closed pharmacy or out-of-stock medication, patients can use the web application to transfer their prescription to a new pharmacy—right from their mobile device, without having to call their provider.

Results: NormanMD freed clinicians from dedicating unnecessary time to Rx challenges while delighting patients with better Rx support.

NormanMD clinicians spent >80% less time on ePrescribing, which reduced admin fatigue.

“Photon’s workflow makes our doctors’ lives much easier, especially as they are constantly seeing new patients.” —Dr. Jacob Childers, Medical Director at NormanMD

The task of ePrescribing for one patient, which once took 90 to 120 seconds, now occupies closer to 10 seconds of a provider’s time.

Depending on the weekly patient volume that clinicians managed, this meant saving anywhere from 1 to 4 hours weekly per provider.

Due to the nature of urgent care and patient growth beyond the Austin Regional Clinic system, NormanMD providers see a high percentage of new patients; thus, replacing the cumbersome EMR workaround previously required to prescribe for new patients has been a major relief.

Thanks to Photon, NormanMD has alleviated prescribing-related admin fatigue and protected important bandwidth for deep clinical care.

Provider frustrations with ePrescribing quieted, and NormanMD’s team felt relieved that they found a scalable, long-term solution for their providers.

NormanMD clinicians got time back for more critical care, as Photon reduced follow-up visits on Rx support.

“Thanks to Photon, we no longer see follow-up visits getting booked with doctors just for resolving prescription problems.” —Dr. Jacob Childers, Medical Director at NormanMD

Prior to Photon, a growing number of patients booked telehealth visits to request prescription support from NormanMD providers working around the clock.

Now, instead of additional doctors’ visits, patients have relied on Photon for such support: if they need a pharmacy transfer after Photon informs them of a pharmacy closure, they can initiate prescription reroutes on their own, right from Photon’s patient webpage.

As a result, the number of Rx support visits dropped dramatically. Time providers spent to pharmacy searches and Rx resends can now be redirected to new patient care.

Photon helped patients find open, in-stock pharmacies to fill Rxs smoothly, overcoming barriers of after-hours visits.

“Without having to search on their own, patients know which pharmacies are available and when their prescription will be ready, which is valuable if they really need their prescription.” —Sherron Gratten, Telemedicine Manager at NormanMD

NormanMD patients—often faced with unexpected health issues at odd hours of the day—have valued the increased visibility and support Photon offers.

With Photon, patients can view all open pharmacies located near them, choose the pharmacy to fill their prescription, and switch pharmacies easily if Photon discovers any reason for delay (e.g. out-of-stock medication). They can also view the progress of their medication being filled.

Searching for in-stock pharmacies late at night after an urgent care visit can feel daunting. Thankfully, Photon can offer patients increased reassurance in getting their prescriptions at any time with as few hiccups as possible.

NormanMD trusts Photon to deliver improvements to prescriber and patient experiences that meet its unique needs.

“It’s great that Photon evolves their offering based on our feedback. In urgent care, we need to act on updates quickly, so we appreciate that Photon has been responsive with such updates when we need them.” — Christine Le, Product Team Leader at NormanMD

Aside from maintaining a 99.9999% uptime, our team at Photon has responded to requests from NormanMD swiftly, usually within 1-2 days. From updates to the medication catalog to processes customized to NormanMD’s model and 24/7 services, we have catered to NormanMD’s needs so that its team can best succeed using Photon.

NormanMD’s team members have also appreciated contributing to future product improvements, as we incorporate their input regularly. When working with customers, we like establishing a long-term partnership in which we grow alongside each other. We are grateful to have this relationship with NormanMD’s team.

We look forward to delivering innovative and trustworthy prescription experiences as a proactive partner of NormanMD for years to come.