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A Comprehensive
Prescription Renewal
Solution: Meet Charlie for
Refill Management

© Health Catalyst. Confidential and Proprietary.
Tarah Neujahr Bryan
Chief Brand and Communications Officer

Article
Summary
Healthcare financial transformation—improving care delivery
while lowering costs—has been an ongoing challenge for health
systems in the era of value-based care and an even more
prominent concern amid COVID-19.
While better care and reduced expense to organizations and
consumers might seem like opposing goals, by understanding the
true cost of services and other drivers of expense, organizations
can successfully manage costs while maintaining, and even
improving, care delivery.
To that end, health systems can use data- and analytics-driven
tools and strategies to addresses financial challenges, including
uncompensated care, prolonged accounts receivable days,
discharged not final billed cases, inefficient resource use, and
more.

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A Comprehensive Prescription Renewal Solution
With nearly 70 percent of the American
population using at least one prescription
drug and more than 50 percent using two, it is
critical for health systems to have efficient
prescription renewal processes. Although
medication usage is high and continues to rise,
with a seamless renewal workflow system,
healthcare professionals can quickly approve
prescription requests and avoid delays in
patients receiving their prescriptions.
Meet Charlie for Refill Management

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Inefficient Refill Management
Wastes 30 Minutes of
Provider Time Per Day

© Health Catalyst. Confidential and Proprietary.
Inefficient Refill Management
Wastes 30 Minutes of Provider Time Per Day
In spite of the widespread (and increasing)
use of prescription drugs, many health
systems still rely on time-consuming
renewal processes that take up to three
days to complete one renewal. Facing an
average of 10 renewal requests per day,
providers spend up to 30 minutes per day
on prescription renewals, taking time away
from patient care. These refill management
demands contribute to provider burnout
and leave patients waiting days for their
medication while the renewal request sits
in a provider’s inbox.
Time-Consuming Renewal

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Inefficient Refill Management
Wastes 30 Minutes of Provider Time Per Day
Standardized protocols allow physicians to
transition renewal tasks to clinic staff, but
many prescription renewal protocols are
vague, lack specificity, and are hard to
locate in a busy clinic setting. Additionally,
most existing workflows require a provider
or staff member to temporarily abandon
the EHR to reference a protocol, leaving
room for distraction that could lead to
errors, and increasing the time it takes to
complete the renewal. Relying on this
manual process can also result in improper
chart review or mistakes that can
compromise safety and quality.
Standardized Protocols

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Introducing Healthfinch’s
Charlie for Refill Management

© Health Catalyst. Confidential and Proprietary.
Introducing Healthfinch’s Charlie for Refill Management
Healthfinch® by Health Catalyst: Charlie™ for
Refill Management optimizes a health system’s
prescription renewal workflow by using its
platform to embed medication renewal
protocols directly into the EHR. Standardized,
evidence-based protocols allow physicians to
offload renewal delegation tasks to clinic staff,
freeing up 30 minutes of provider time per day
to focus on top-of-license work and spend more
time with patients.
Healthfinch®

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Introducing Healthfinch’s Charlie for Refill Management
With every renewal request, Charlie for Refill
Management presents all relevant patient data
(e.g., the patient’s last renewal, dosage, visit,
and labs) and compares it against more than
1,000 protocols—based on leading health
experts like the Food and Drug Administration,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and
American Diabetes Association—to determine
whether the request is safe to renew.
Safe Renewal

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Introducing Healthfinch’s Charlie for Refill Management
At the time of a renewal review, the staff
member in charge of completing the request
can simultaneously review multiple areas of a
patient’s history (e.g., if the dosage has
changed or if the medication is still on the
patient’s active medication list) to ensure the
medication is safe to approve. Rather than
collect this information manually, Charlie for
Refill Management automatically scours a
patient’s chart to gather the necessary
information and present it directly in the EHR,
attached to the renewal request. It even goes a
step further by recommending the next steps
and clearly marking each request as “In
Protocol” (meets all protocol criteria and can be
approved) or “Out of Protocol” (may need
patient follow-up or provider review) (Figure 1).
Safe Renewal
Figure 1: A flagged, out-of-protocol prescription renewal request in the EHR.

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Introducing Healthfinch’s Charlie for Refill Management
Health systems realize significant time and cost
savings when using Charlie for Refill
Management, both from enhanced renewal
workflows, as well as delivering higher quality
care by closing care gaps. For example, Martin’s
Point Health Care estimated that each renewal
request was taking approximately five minutes
to complete. After implementing Charlie for
Refill Management, renewal request time
dropped to just a minute and a half, saving
3,300 hours of staff time in six months while
also reducing duplicate renewal requests.
Safe Renewal

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Charlie for Refill Management
Alleviates Provider Burdens
and Closes Care Gaps

© Health Catalyst. Confidential and Proprietary.
Charlie for Refill Management
Alleviates Provider Burdens and Closes Care Gaps
Fueled by a robust, evidence-based protocol library
with dedicated workflow optimization support,
health systems of any size can reach peak efficiency
in routine prescription renewal tasks. Healthfinch by
Health Catalyst’s renewal solution, Charlie for Refill
Management, streamlines prescription renewal
workflows by embedding decision support for
providers and their staff directly into the EHR. With a
comprehensive view of patient information attached
to each renewal request, providers can safely offload
renewal tasks to staff, reduce turnaround time for
patients, and uncover missed or additional revenue
with proactive care gap identification.
Reach Peak Efficiency

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1 Removing Barriers to Clinician Engagement:
Partnerships in Improvement Work
3 Introducing the Care Management Suite:
A Data-Driven, Transparent Solution
2 Survey Points to Major Burnout Concerns Among Clinicians
4 The Able Health Quality Measures Solution:
Why a Comprehensive Approach Matters
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5 Improving Patient Safety:
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