the dreaded refill

the refill process in the USA seems to baffle the majority of community clinic patients (at least in this Latin American community provider's experience). Although I have educated patients in the refill process, helped them call the pharmacy, handed out copious refill instruction sheets, and scheduled visits with social workers and nurses to educate on the refill process, clarifying literacy and other obstacles to refilling much needed medication... the issue still persists. Most recently, I started a campaign with the intake staff, to ask patients if they needed a refill, and instruct them how to 1) call their pharmacy and 2) check if they have a refill available prior to requesting a clinic walk in visit for a refill request.... this seemed to help, for a while, but now the requests are back again.

Some days in health care, I feel like a parrot, repeating the same phrases over and over and over again.... maybe I need to invest in a video production studio and instead of prescribing medication, prescribe an instructional video at the end of each visit... hmmm, that's a thought.