Message Continuity

surescripts provides several services to help ensure the continuity of electronic messages during intermittent and prolonged disruption in connectivity the initial configuration and set up for most of these services is completed by the surescripts support team for the operational services described available services http retry definition this service is a fully electronic means of message delivery retry attempts when an intermittent or short interruption in the successful delivery of a message occurs triggers the electronic retry is attempted a total of three times per message this service buffers these interruptions when a receiver or any connection within the path is briefly unavailable for any reason if there is not a successful receipt at the end of the third attempt, messages proceed to an alternative route fax service definition this is an optional service for limited e prescribing message types to deliver via electronic fax when the electronic channel has failed triggers this service must be enabled by both sender and receiver to process messages via fax please contact your support team or account manager for assistance if you are unsure of your system configuration or need an update this service is used for specific e prescribing messages only and can be used complementary to the message queue service (mqs) process overview this service delivers non controlled substance messages via fax when they cannot be delivered electronically due to prolonged temporary or transient transmission failures, unless prohibited by state law current message types that are supported through faxing newrx, rxrenewalrequest, rxrenewalresponse, and cancelrxrequest note this does not apply to cancelrxresponse pharmacies may send an rxrenewalrequest message for a controlled substance that can fail over to a fax message when a connectivity issue occurs if a prescription for a controlled substance is sent and a connectivity issue is encountered, an error will be returned to the sender instead of failing over to a fax message for the fillable type message (newrx and rxrenewalresponse) surescripts makes efforts to conform to the applicable state regulatory needs related to e prescribing; however, it is ultimately the responsibility of the sender and receiver to fulfill compliance requirements for more information, see state specific validation for controlled substances docid\ ksemmwldjd0i9jict7jtp information only faxes some states permit information only faxes for non controlled substances these fax templates meet the state requirements for transmitting message details by fax but provide further instruction for the pharmacy to validate the prescription cancelrx has an “opt out” feature to disallow the receiving of this message type via fax rxrenewalrequests have an “opt in” feature related to receiving of rxrenewalrequests that are controlled substances message queue service definition this optional service creates a queue to hold messages electronically during times of electronic disruption once electronic connectivity is fully restored, messages can then be released from the queue and delivered to the customer additionally, a message queue can be configured to slow the traffic to a receiver in the event that intermittent or more localized issues occur to help prevent faxing backup or unnecessary errors status of the message queue disable queue deliver messages this status will return messages to normal delivery routes and release all messages held in the queue hold messages this status enables the message queue to electronically hold messages (hold / release) async message delivery this status sends messages to the queue and processes them for immediate release, providing a consistent throttled volume of traffic delivered to customer systems this is helpful for issues with intermittent system performance, throttling messages, or as a means to test customer ability to receive messages prior to returning to normal route processing process overview this service is used to hold incoming electronic e prescribing messages when a customer system is experiencing disruptions in connectivity messages will be posted to a queue and released based upon a configuration set in the portal this is a complementary service to http retry and will retrieve messages from the http retry queue once configured to a hold status once messages are released from the queue, the delivery rate can be throttled to prevent potentially overloading the receiver messages are set to hold in the message queue or to deliver asynchronously if the status is set to hold messages, then messages will have a maximum timeout that is set based on a customer determined configuration of up to 24 hours if the timeout is reached and the message queue is still set to hold messages, then the message will release to fax or error depending on type if the async message delivery status is set, then messages are queued and delivered as described above and can fail to fax or error if connectivity is not restored this setting can still help prevent fax overload utilization of services setups prior to use there are two configurations that will be set prior to utilization of mqs these configurations can only be set by surescripts internal users to suit the needs of the customer a the first configuration is how long a message can be held before timing out this setting ensures that a message is not held indefinitely and can be set at a maximum of 24 hours this configuration set up can be completed with integration or support teams the timeout feature only applies to the hold messages status of the message queuing service and not the async message delivery status b the second configuration is set based on the volume rate of delivery a customer can consume when messages are released surescripts will create this setting for each portal but it can be adjusted as needed if delivery is found to be inadequately slow or too overwhelming engaging the queue to hold e prescribing messages note this queue service is currently engaged manually through portal configurations if surescripts becomes aware of message failure thresholds being exceeded a the manual engagement of this queue will occur if impact to the network is significant or fax volume bottlenecks occur b messages will begin to be pulled into the message queue as soon as this service has been engaged e prescribing messages will be retrieved from the http retry queue but not from the fax queue depending on the customer type and volume of messages, a message queue may be set to hold messages or to async message delivery c then a call will be made to the customer to align a course of action including the option to participate in this service d if the impact to the network is less significant, a call will be made to the customer to align on a plan that may include the configuration of an e prescribing hold queue the process to configure a queue can be customer initiated through a service ticket or a call to support, including after hours a it is important to engage support as soon as possible if you are opting to utilize this service b messages will begin to be pulled into the message queue as soon as this service has been engaged e prescribing messages will be retrieved from the http retry queue but not from the fax queue c there are two options for utilization of this service option 1 immediate hold of messages to queue with end time tbd option 2 hold and asynchronously deliver messages, essentially slowing the traffic and potentially preventing errors or faxing during an outage when impact to the network is significant or there is impact to efficient patient prescription processing, then network notifications may be sent to alert the other side of the network that a queue has been configured to hold messages during an outage it is important for customers to remain engaged with surescripts support teams real time data can be captured to understand the flow of messages to the mqs including but not limited to the number of e prescribing messages being held at a given time and whether or not messages are hitting the preset timeout limit surescripts will capture data during an outage that will be documented in the case customers can view messages in workbench to see the current status of a given message to assist with troubleshooting dispensing the queue to release e prescribing messages when customer connectivity is restored, it is important to follow up with surescripts if a timeout maximum has been reached the message is released and an error is returned to the sender or sent to fax depending on the type of message and customer allowable configurations on faxing if connectivity issues are still not restored after 24 hours, there is an option to engage the service again note most network partners would prefer a secondary method is used to communicate after 60 90 minutes of a message not reaching its intended end point when notifications have been sent related to a customer outage then notifications are also sent when connectivity is restored follow up after an outage once an outage has been resolved, you as a customer may receive a survey with some follow up questions that will help us understand your experience with the queuing service this information serves to inform surescripts of your feedback and work to continuously evolve the trust fabric of the network tools and access workbench prerequisites access to workbench access to appropriate account and portal this is important for larger corporations with multiple portals and staging environments note some users may have view only access while others are able to make edits or manage available options navigation (steps to utilization and management) log into the workbench production environment navigate to the product configuration microsite select search within the update portal section a you may enter the account name, the portal name, or both to search b to search via account, you can enter the account name into the search, find the account using search terms, or selecting it from a drop down c to search via portal, you can enter the portal name into the search or find the portal using search terms select search to generate a list of portal names based on the terms you’ve entered from the search results, select the name of your portal to go to that portal’s information page on the portal’s information page, select the e prescribing tab select the hyperlink of the configuration name (portal name) in the left navigation, select message queue service to go to the edit message queue service screen a select the queuing option that meets your needs disable queue deliver messages this status will return messages to normal delivery routes and release all messages held in the queue hold messages this status enables the message queue to electronically hold messages (hold / release) async message delivery this status sends messages to the queue and processes them for immediate release, providing a consistent throttled volume of traffic delivered to customer systems this is helpful for issues with intermittent system performance, throttling messages, or as a means to test customer ability to receive messages prior to returning to normal route processing b select the save button to submit your choice c select the reset button to discard unsaved changes utilization of services process to utilize message queue services the mqs can be configured to either immediately hold all messages or slow the message delivery rate once an outage has been resolved, the mqs is disengaged so message delivery can resume