Does your pharmacy phone system take refills and tell callers if their prescription is ready?

A pharmacy IVR or AI phone agent linked to your pharmacy system handles refill requests and status checks, and passes clinical questions to staff.

How to automate it

How to automate “answer pharmacy calls about refills, prescription status and transfers”

Here are 2 ways to spend less time on this, best first. Each comes with steps you can follow today.

120 min

typically, every day

60%

of the time can be automated

Some setup

to set up

Fix 1 of 2

Software featureBest fix

Let the phone system and an AI agent take refills and status questions

A pharmacy IVR or AI voice agent connected to your pharmacy system takes refill requests by prescription number, tells callers whether their prescription is ready, and passes clinical questions and transfers to staff. Techs stop being pulled off the counter for every call.

Typically saves about 45% of the time3 h to set up

1Pull a week of call reasons (most pharmacies find refills and "is it ready?" are the majority).
2Ask your pharmacy system vendor which IVR or AI phone partners integrate with it (for example VOXO for PioneerRx, Lumistry, or your chain's system).
3Turn on refill-by-phone, status lookup and text-back of the pickup time.
4Route anything clinical, controlled or upset straight to staff.
5Only use tools your organization has approved and covered by a HIPAA business associate agreement (BAA) for anything with patient information.

Tools: VOXO · Lumistry · Your pharmacy system's IVR · RevSpring

Fix 2 of 2

Automation

Send ready-for-pickup and not-picked-up texts automatically

Automatic texts when a prescription is ready, plus reminders before return-to-stock, replace most pickup calls and cut return-to-stock work.

Typically saves about 70% of the time1 h to set up

1Turn on pickup notifications in your pharmacy system or patient messaging add-on.
2Ask patients for text consent at drop-off and in the refill line.
3Set reminders at day 3 and day 7, before return-to-stock.
4Call only patients with no text consent or high-risk medicines.
5Only use tools your organization has approved and covered by a HIPAA business associate agreement (BAA) for anything with patient information.

Tools: Your pharmacy system notifications · Lumistry

Quick wins

Have you tried…

Does your pharmacy phone system take refills and tell callers if their prescription is ready?: A pharmacy IVR or AI phone agent linked to your pharmacy system handles refill requests and status checks, and passes clinical questions to staff.

Who does this task

Roles in our library that list this as one of their common tasks. Each guide covers the rest of that role’s week.

Pharmacy technician

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