Help Center Membership Management: Ordering and the pharmacy The life of an order
The life of an order
Here is the whole path of one reorder, in plain words. Each step lists what moves it forward.
| Step | What you see | What moves it to the next step |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Reorder date is set | Next reorder date on the patient page | Worked out by the clinic's rule (see "How the reorder date is worked out") |
| 2. Cycle opens | Order status Upcoming Reorder; the patient shows under Due for reorder on the Pharmacy page; an alert "reorder due" is raised | The portal's check opens it automatically when the reorder date is inside the notice window (for example 7 days before) |
| 3. Prescription prepared | Order status Pending Provider Approval; patient moves to Awaiting approval | Someone clicks Stage on the order form or Prepare selected on the Pharmacy page, or Auto-prepare does it |
| 4. Approved and sent | Order status Ready to Order, pharmacy chip Sent to pharmacy; patient moves to Sent | An owner/admin clicks Process order or Send selected (this is the provider authorization) |
| 5. Pharmacy answers | Chip Pharmacy accepted (or Pharmacy rejected / Pharmacy error) | The pharmacy's system replies, usually within a minute |
| 6. Ordered | Order status Ordered; the reorder alerts close; the next reorder date is set | Happens by itself the moment the pharmacy accepts |
| 7. Shipped | Order status Shipped with a tracking number | A forwarded shipping e-mail, the pharmacy's own system, or staff typing the tracking number |
| 8. Delivered | Order status Delivered / Received; the order is closed | Staff click Delivered or Mark delivered (the portal does not check the carrier for delivery) |
A pharmacy with no electronic connection ("by hand") skips steps 4-5: staff place the order with the pharmacy themselves, then click Mark as ordered. A fax order goes from step 3 straight to "Ordered" once the fax service accepts the fax.
The six order statuses
| Status shown | What it means | Where it can go next |
|---|---|---|
| Upcoming Reorder | The cycle is open. Nothing has been prepared yet. | Pending Provider Approval, Ready to Order, Ordered |
| Pending Provider Approval | A prescription is prepared and saved. Nothing has been sent. A provider needs to approve it. | Ready to Order, Ordered |
| Ready to Order | Approved. It is being sent, or was sent and the pharmacy has not accepted it yet (or rejected it). | Ordered, back to Pending Provider Approval |
| Ordered | The pharmacy has the order. The reorder is "taken care of." | Shipped, Delivered |
| Shipped | A tracking number is on the order. | Delivered |
| Delivered / Received | The patient has it. The order is closed. | nothing, this is the end |
An order can also be Overdue (a red pill). That means the reorder date has passed and the order is not yet Ordered, Shipped or Delivered. The overdue check runs every hour. A one-off order is never overdue.
When does the portal check things?
- The morning run: every day at about 8:50 AM Eastern. It syncs with the EMR, records orders placed at the pharmacy directly, refreshes pharmacy history, opens due cycles, auto-prepares, flags overdue orders and sends the daily summary.
- The hourly check: at 5 minutes past each hour from 6 AM to 11 PM Eastern. It opens due cycles, auto-prepares, flags overdue orders, asks the pharmacy for the status of sent orders, checks faxes and keeps refreshing pharmacy history.
- Sync now (in Settings, for people with Run the EMR sync / sweep) runs the same checks right away.
Ending an order early: Cancel, Delete, Remove
There are three different ways to take an order away. They are not the same.
| Button | Where | Who (starting) | Use it when | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cancel order | Patient page and reorder pane, under the open order (link in red) | Cancel an order (owner, admin) | The order was never placed and you do not want it | A box asks for a reason (required). The order closes as cancelled, its alerts close and the patient has no open order. Note: if the reorder date is still inside the notice window, the next hourly check opens a fresh cycle. To stop that, also change the reorder date. |
| Delete | Dashboard reorder lists, on a row that is not yet Ordered | Cancel an order | Same as Cancel, from a list | Confirm box: "Delete this reorder for … ? The prescription waiting for approval (if any) goes with it; nothing is sent." Same result as Cancel, with the reason "Deleted from the dashboard." |
| ✕ | Pharmacy → Awaiting approval, on a row | Stage a prescription… | You want to throw away the prepared prescription but keep the reorder | Confirm: "Delete the prescription for … ? The reorder stays open; nothing is sent." The prescription is removed. If the order only reached Pending through staging, it goes back to Upcoming Reorder and the patient goes back to Due for reorder. |
| Remove | Dashboard lists of placed orders (Ordered / Shipped) | Update order status | The order was placed but you no longer want it on the "not delivered" lists | Confirm: "Remove this order for … from the list? The order stays on the patient's history as placed; nothing is sent to the pharmacy." The order closes exactly as it was (status, pharmacy number, tracking and history all kept). The next cycle can open when the reorder date comes round. |
None of these change anything at the pharmacy. If an order has already reached the pharmacy, call the pharmacy to stop it.
Cycles the portal closes on its own
- Cycle opened too early. If a cycle is open, nobody has touched it (or only Auto-prepare touched it), and its due date is now further away than the notice window, the next check closes it with the note "Not due yet, cycle closed; it reopens automatically when the reorder is due." This happens, for example, when someone staged early and then deleted the prescription, or when the reorder date moved later. A prescription a person prepared or edited is never closed this way.
- Reorder date moved out. If someone uses Adjust next reorder date and the new date is outside the notice window, the open (not yet Ordered) cycle closes and its alerts close. It reopens by itself when the new date comes into the window. If the new date is still inside the window, the open order's due date simply moves.
- Reorders turned off for a membership type. If the clinic turns reorders off for a type, any open, not-yet-ordered cycle for that type is cancelled with the reason "Reorders disabled for this membership type."
- Next cycle opens while the last order was never marked delivered. The old Ordered/Shipped order is closed with the note "Closed: next reorder cycle opened." It keeps its tracking and history.
One-off orders (patients not on reorder tracking)
A patient is "on reorder tracking" only when all of these are true: they have a membership, their membership type has reorders turned on, and the membership is Active. Everyone else can still be ordered for, as a one-off order.
- Where: open the patient → the Medication order card. For these patients the text says, for example, "This patient has no membership, so nothing reorders on its own. An order placed here is a one-off: it goes to the pharmacy and shows in the order history and tracking, but starts no reorder date." The other reasons shown are "Type is tracked for billing and status only" and "This membership is paused/canceled."
- Button: Order (one-off) (instead of Order). Needs Stage a prescription… or Send a staged prescription….
- What is the same: the same order form, the same provider approval, the same pharmacy, tracking, Shipping list and order history.
- What is different: the order is dated today, shows a blue One-off pill, never becomes overdue, raises no reorder alerts, and placing it does not move any reorder date or per-line clock.