When a medication is Out of Stock (OOS), what is a recommended action?

When a medication is Out of Stock (OOS), what is a recommended action?

• A. Cancel the prescription
• B. Notify the patient that the medication is back-ordered
• C. Return to the supplier
• D. Order the medication for tomorrow and offer to call other stores

Answer: (D)

When a medication is out of stock, the goal is to keep the prescription moving and help the patient get the medicine as soon as possible. The best approach is to place an order for the medication to be available tomorrow and offer to call other Walgreens stores to check stock there. This is proactive and patient-centered: it minimizes wait time for the patient and uses the store network to locate inventory quickly. Canceling the prescription would halt care unnecessarily, and simply informing the patient it’s back-ordered doesn’t provide a concrete path to obtain it. Returning the item to the supplier is part of restocking, but it doesn’t actively locate available stock for the patient across stores.

When a medication is out of stock, the goal is to keep the prescription moving and help the patient get the medicine as soon as possible. The best approach is to place an order for the medication to be available tomorrow and offer to call other Walgreens stores to check stock there. This is proactive and patient-centered: it minimizes wait time for the patient and uses the store network to locate inventory quickly. Canceling the prescription would halt care unnecessarily, and simply informing the patient it’s back-ordered doesn’t provide a concrete path to obtain it. Returning the item to the supplier is part of restocking, but it doesn’t actively locate available stock for the patient across stores.