⚠️ Important: This is currently a beta feature, available to a few CHR beta users in order to test and provide feedback. It will be available to more users once the beta period is complete.
Receiving a renewal request from the pharmacy
In addition to sending prescriptions electronically, you can also receive electronic prescription renewal requests from pharmacies enabled for PrescribeIT®. You can receive a request to renew medications that you previously e-prescribed and sent to that pharmacy, as well as requests to renew medications that were originally printed or faxed.
These renewal requests are sent to you as messages in your inbox with a subject of PrescribeIT Renewal Request. The CHR checks for new messages from pharmacies every five minutes.
💡Tip: To quickly see all your renewal requests, you can filter the inbox by Type. Select Renewal Requests under PrescribeIT messages in the list of types.
When you open the PrescribeIT Renewal Request from the inbox, you can see the pharmacy the request was received from and the date and time it was received. The patient information is included as well as the details of the request such as the medication name, instructions, and when it was last prescribed and dispensed.
💡Tip: Click the patient’s name to open their chart.
You may encounter the following scenarios when receiving an electronic renewal request:
Scenario | Description |
Pharmacy is not in your Contacts or is missing the Provider Registry ID | This can occur if you originally printed a prescription for a patient.
You cannot process the renewal until the pharmacy is linked to one in your Contacts.
Click Add to Contacts next to the pharmacy name.
📌Note: If the pharmacy’s name and fax number match one that is already in your Contacts list, a duplicate warning appears when you try to add the pharmacy from the renewal request. You must clean up any duplicates before you can add the new pharmacy. |
Patient is not matched to one in the CHR, but is your patient | If the patient cannot be uniquely matched to a patient in the CHR, the message shows Unknown Patient. Click Match patient and select the correct patient from the list.  |
Patient is not matched to one in the CHR, and is not your patient | If the message is for a patient that is not at your clinic, for example because the patient has moved, click Deny - Not my patient. Optionally type a note for the pharmacy and then click Deny. 
The message is marked as done and the pharmacy is notified of your response.
📌Note: Any user can deny the renewal request, even if they are not enabled for PrescribeIT®. |
💡Tip: If you will not process the request yourself, for example, if you are leaving for vacation, you can Reassign it to another provider. This moves the message to that provider’s inbox to deal with on your behalf.
Responding to a renewal request
You respond to an electronic renewal request from the message in the inbox or from the patient’s list of renewal requests. You can approve or deny a renewal, or mark it as under review. Your response to the renewal request is sent electronically, as well as the prescription if you approved the request or denied it but replaced it with another medication.
Any user who is not enabled for PrescribeIT® can respond to a renewal request if all the responses are Under review or Deny request (i.e. do not require a prescription). If you are not enabled for PrescribeIT® but can create prescriptions, you can approve the request and print or fax the prescription. For more information, refer to Responding to a renewal request on behalf of another user.
Steps
1. From the inbox, open the PrescribeIT Renewal Request message and click Start renewal. Alternatively, from the patient’s chart, open the request from Start/Open > Renewal Requests.
The PrescribeIT Renewal Request window opens and indicates how many medications are in the request. You can also see more information in the header such as the pharmacy making the request and any notes from the pharmacist.
💡Tip: Hover your cursor over the information in the header to see more details.
2. Review the requested medications. Each medication renewal requested by the pharmacy is listed in the Requested medications column. If there is a matching medication in the patient’s chart, it is listed in the Medication from Chart column.
Medications are matched on Rx ID (if it was originally e-prescribed) or DIN. A medication from the chart will not be matched when the pharmacy requests a different strength of a medication or a generic version, for example. If there is a corresponding medication on the chart, such as when the prescription was originally printed without an Rx ID, click Select from medication and choose the appropriate medication from the patient’s list of medications.
3. For each medication in the renewal, choose one of the following actions:
Action | Description |
Approve medication from my chart | Approves the medication as displayed in the Medication from Chart column.
To make any changes to the medication dosage or instructions before sending the e-prescription, click the Edit icon in the Medication from Chart column.
💡Tip: When you edit or select a medication from your chart, this action is automatically selected. |
Deny request | Denies the renewal of the medication, for example, if the patient needs to make an appointment or the renewal is too early.
Select a Reason from the list. |
Under review | Notifies the pharmacy that you are not yet ready to either approve or deny the request.
Select a Reason from the list, such as Will respond once lab work is reviewed. |
Approve medication requested by pharmacy | Approves the medication as displayed in the Requested medications column.
To make any changes to the medication dosage or instructions before sending the e-prescription, click the Edit icon in the Requested medications column.
📌Note: The prescription from the pharmacy contains the dosage instructions only in the Additional Instructions field. When you approve the medication, by default, the prescription window opens. For consistency and accuracy, we recommend you enter the dosage details in the individual Dose, Frequency, and Duration fields. To bypass the prescription window, in Settings > Personal information > Preferences, disable the PrescribeIT Renewal Requests setting. |
Deny and replace | Denies the renewal of the medication and replaces it with a different medication.
Replace it with a New medication and complete the prescription as normal, or select from My favourites or the Patient’s medications. The replacement medication is added to the Medication from Chart column. |
💡Tip: To apply the same response to all the medications in the request, select the response in Mass Actions and then click Apply to all.
4. To include additional medications in the response, click New medication and complete the prescription as normal. You can also select from My favourites or the Patient’s medications.
5. Click Sign and send to send the responses to the pharmacy. An e-prescription is sent for renewals that were approved and for any medications you added, and the prescription is recorded in the patient’s chart. If you denied a request without replacing the medication or marked a request as under review, the response is sent to the pharmacy without a prescription.
💡Tip: If you are not ready to send the response, or you are a staff member starting the renewal for the provider, click Save draft. Your selected actions are saved and the response is not sent to the pharmacy yet. The request is marked with a status of Draft in the patient’s list of renewal requests. You can continue the renewal from there or open the request from the inbox and select Continue renewal.
Once the response is sent, a status bar at the top of the renewal request shows how many medications were approved, with a link to View prescription.
6. If any medications were marked as under review, once you are ready to approve or deny the request, continue the renewal from the inbox or the list of Renewal Requests in the patient’s chart. Update the Under review action as appropriate, and then Sign and send the response.
Once you respond to all medication renewal requests with an approved or denied response, the request is complete. The status in the patient’s list of Renewal Requests is updated to Done, and the inbox message is also automatically marked as done.
📌Note: If there is an error when sending the response, you can print or fax the prescription instead. For any requests marked as under review or denied, click Create Pharmacy Communication from the request and notify the pharmacy of your response that way.
Responding to a renewal request on behalf of another user
When a provider goes on vacation, another provider in the office should monitor and respond to any electronic renewal requests that come in for the provider who is away. The covering provider does not need to be a PrescribeIT® user, although we recommend he/she is so the responses can be sent electronically to the pharmacy.
Any user can respond to a renewal request if all the responses are Under review or Deny request (i.e. do not require a prescription).
💡Tip: You can Reassign the renewal request to yourself to move it to your own inbox when you are covering for another provider.
If you are a PrescribeIT®-enabled provider
If you are covering for a provider who is enabled for PrescribeIT®, and you are also a PrescribeIT® user, you can process the renewal requests and send the responses back to the pharmacy on behalf of the provider who is away. The steps to do this are the same as responding to a renewal request that is directed to you.
If you are not a PrescribeIT®-enabled provider
If all the medications in the renewal are denied or marked as under review, click Sign and send to send the response to the pharmacy.
If you approve the request or deny the request and replace it with a different medication, click Sign and print or Sign and fax to print or fax the prescription as normal.
If you respond to the request with a mix of approvals and denials or under reviews, once you print or fax the prescription, you can then Sign and send the remaining denied or under review responses.
If you cannot create prescriptions
If you do not have the permission to create prescriptions, you can respond to a renewal request with only Under review or Deny request. You can also create a pharmacy communication from the renewal request to send a message to the pharmacy.
If you mark a request as approved, or denied and replace it with another medication, you can only choose to Save draft to save the selected response for a provider to complete the prescription.
Viewing a patient’s renewal requests
You can reference all renewal requests received for a patient from their chart. You can see information about the request such as the medications requested, the pharmacy the request is from and the status of the request.
From the patient’s list of of renewal requests, you can:
Start or continue a renewal request
Reassign a renewal request
View prescriptions created from the request
Create a pharmacy communication about the request
View the history of the request
Steps
1. Open the patient’s chart and click Start/Open > Renewal Requests to see the list of all renewal requests.
2. To view the medications included in the request and the individual response for each medication, click the arrow in the Medications column.
3. To open the renewal request, click anywhere in the row.
4. Click the menu icon (kebab) on the right to perform actions for the request such as continuing the renewal request or creating a pharmacy communication.
📌Note: The actions available depend on the status of the request.
Updated January 9, 2026