Prescription fax service now available at Vance pharmacy

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Royce M. Terry
  • 71st Diagnostics & Therapeutics Flight commander
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  The Vance Air Force Base pharmacy now accepts faxed prescriptions from civilian medical providers or treatment facilities.

Instead of writing out a prescription on a piece of paper, your doctor or other healthcare provider can enter it directly into his or her computer and fax directly to the Vance pharmacy.

To ensure the validity of prescriptions, Oklahoma law requires all faxed prescriptions to originate from the provider's office.

This prescription fax service offers several benefits to Department of Defense beneficiaries who use the Vance pharmacy.

Faster service -- Typically your prescription will arrive at the pharmacy before you leave the doctor's office. Though the pharmacy can't guarantee that your prescription will be ready when you arrive at the pharmacy, it will have a head start.

The time needed to prepare your prescription can be affected by things like the number of prescriptions in the pharmacy's computer, how quickly you arrive at the pharmacy after your doctor's visit and how many people are already waiting at the pharmacy.

Convenience -- Beneficiaries don't have to make an extra trip to drop off their prescription at the pharmacy before it can be filled and they can pick their prescriptions up from the pharmacy when it's convenient for their schedule.

Legibility -- When prescriptions are computer generated, the pharmacy does not have to interpret the provider's handwriting, greatly decreasing the chances of a prescription error, making the prescription filling process safer for the beneficiary.

The privacy of your personal health information contained in prescriptions, whether written or electronic, is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA requires that your personal health information be shared only for the purpose of providing you with clinical care. This new fax service meets these requirements.

The next time you visit an off-base healthcare provider, ask them if they can fax your prescriptions to the Vance pharmacy at 580-213-5169. This would also be a good time to let your provider know that they can view the Vance pharmacy's formulary online, under "Featured Links" on the Vance webpage, www.vance.af.mil.