OneVA Pharmacy Simplifies Veteran Prescriptions

Imagine as a Veteran you are on a vacation with your family with the sound of waves crashing and warm sun rays peeking through the palm trees around you. Then, an alarm goes off on your phone to remind you to take your medication and when you open the bottle, you realize your prescription is running low.

Much to your chagrin, you end up sacrificing money and hours of precious vacation time to find, schedule, and visit an emergency room, urgent care center, or pharmacy clinic to obtain a new prescription.

Thanks to OneVA, the Department is making prescription refills simpler for traveling Veterans. As of June 7, 2018, OneVA Pharmacy is available and implemented at all VA medical centers (VAMC). By simply registering at a local VAMC that uses OneVA, Veterans can forego the time-consuming and convoluted process formerly required to request a new prescription.

Since going national in June 2018, pharmacists have filled 7,934 prescriptions using OneVA Pharmacy.

“Right now, throughout the entire country, you can have someone [a Veteran] living in California and travel to Florida and want to have their prescription, they can do that. [They] go to the pharmacy and use this product to get the prescription filled,” said Ms. Angela Chow, an implementation manager at OIT.

OneVA’s enterprise-wide solution is making it a lot easier for Veterans to take care of their health and is in step with VA’s goal to modernize its electronic health record. A unified and uniform “One VA” is integral to providing Veterans and those who care for them a high-quality experience through timeliness and efficiency. The backbone to providing this enhanced experience is technology.

In fact, OneVA’s production in all VA medical centers was named as one of the 18 priority initiatives by VHA and OIT leadership in their Joint Business Plan for fiscal year 2018. The Plan provides OIT account managers visibility over top technology initiatives. By working with VHA, OIT can ensure technological challenges are being addressed and goals are being met.