A method of automating pharmacy processing of electronic prescriptions, the method executed by one or more computer processors programmed to perform the method, the method comprising:
- receiving, at one or more processors, an electronic prescription using electronic records, wherein the electronic prescription is generated using an electronic prescribing system;
- receiving, at the one or more processors, a pharmacy location at which to fill the prescription order;
- converting, by the one or more processors, the electronic prescription into a pharmacy prescription record by:
- parsing, by the one or more processors, the electronic prescription to identify one or more meta tags indicating patient identification information, physician identification information, prescription medication information, or physician instructions and determining a corresponding value for the identified one or more meta tags;
- comparing, by the one or more processors, the patient identification information extracted from the electronic prescription to a stored list of registered patients in a database;
- populating, by the one or more processors, one or more first pharmacy prescription data fields utilizing at least one of information corresponding to a registered patient in the database or information from the electronic prescription;
- comparing, by the one or more processors, the physician identification information extracted from the electronic prescription to a stored list of registered physicians in a database, and when there is a match, populating one or more second pharmacy prescription data fields utilizing information corresponding to a registered physician in the database;
- comparing, by the one or more processors, the prescription medication identification information extracted from the electronic prescription to a stored list of medications in a database, and when there is a match, populating one or more third pharmacy prescription data fields utilizing information corresponding to a medication in the database;
- and
- transforming, by the one or more processors, the physician instructions extracted from the electronic prescription into one or more fourth pharmacy prescription data fields including:
- parsing the physician instructions to identify individual components of the physician instructions selected from:
- an action corresponding to a physical act performed by the registered patient, a dosage, a frequency, or a route of administration for the prescription order;
- in response to identifying the individual components of the physician instructions, transforming each identified individual component of the physician instructions into a corresponding prescriber instruction component, wherein at least one of the identified individual components of the physician instructions is different from the transformed prescriber instruction component;
- and
- combining the transformed prescriber instruction components to generate transformed physician instructions that are compatible with the pharmacy prescription record;
- and
- adding, by the one or more processors, the pharmacy prescription record corresponding to the one or more first, second, third and fourth pharmacy prescription data fields to a list for pharmacy processing at the selected pharmacy location so that the medication corresponding to the electronic prescription can be prepared at the selected pharmacy location and delivered to the registered patient.