Angela:

As far as I know, ALL major wholesalers have Internet sites where you can order outside the pharmacy. I have personally used Cardinal and AmeriSource, and I'm sure the others have outside web access also.

You should talk to your rep to see what you need to do to get in (login, password, etc.). I'm sure they can set you up.

I've even placed orders at the Conference. I've gotten the dailies via eFax then placed the order over the Web on my laptop. With the free Internet Cafe available at the Conference this year, you may not even need to take a laptop, although I carry one with me whenever I travel (I know - I'm a geek!).

City, State: www.pharmacypurchasing.com

I also have acess to online ordering at home, but you will have to expect phone calls at home. Which I don't mind becuse it saves time and effort later by not having to return products. I also ask our staff to include their initials in the p.o.(rxam070406) so I know whom to flogg later.

Thanks for the info guys. I am up and running with the online ordering. Now I just need to finish stickering the shelves and my life will be infinitely easier.

Angela,

I am the pharmacy buyer at UPH@Kino in Tucson,Arizona.
In our pharmacy there are only two people who are given access to ordering and that is myself and a designated technician who is my back-up when I go on vacation. No other person in the pharmacy is given access to ordering. The designated technician is not allowed to order at all unless I give the O.K. This arrangement prevents unnecesary items from being ordered and also helps with inventory management.

Hope this helps your situation!

Sincerely,

Lupe Escobar

Name of Facility: ,3

Angela,
What you are saying is every buyer's nightmare. I use Cardinal as my wholesaler. They have a message icon where administrators (superusers) to the dot com can post messages. I use that a lot. The pop-up messages show when they are ordering items. Some include--"This item is off-contract" please purchase CIN-XXX-XXXX". This really helps. Its a lot of work during the bid-change but I think its worth it.
I hate it when I get calls at home. Do you get OT for that?

No ot here. But I would rather have a call at home then a mess at work.

I am looking into switching to iecho (Amerisource) but it doesn't look as if I can password protect the ability to send an order in iecho. Does anyone else use this? I sent an email to the customer support but have not received a reply.

Angela At my hospital we have a staff of around 45. Of that three have acess to Cardinal. Myself and my two purchasing techs. We cover 7-4:30 sometimes I'm there to 5 or 6. It's the way to go. You then have accountablity. If there is an extreme emergency then they call me at home.