Pointers/Tips on Understanding Walgreens' Intercom Plus Computer System

by Sunbreak
(Tallahassee)

Can anyone with a working knowledge of Intercom Plus give me some pointers? I am only being given one day a week work because the pharmacist says the store is high volume and Walgreens doesnt have the hours to train.

I could use help with learning the sequence of steps to take with the main function keys used: F2, F6, F7, F9 I believe. Want to know how to do the main things that seem to snag me when I am answering phones and at the drive-thru.

Thanks so much

Sunbreak

ANSWER:

I'm hoping visitors to this site who have had experience with Intercom Plus may be able to answer your questions more effectively.

What is Intercom Plus?

Originally named Intercom, the proprietary software which is now called Intercom Plus was created in 1981. It was the very first of its kind, a large scale computer system for a retail pharmacy. Intercom Plus software depends to a large extent on VSAT or satellite broadband internet.

The broadband satellite connects more than eight thousand pharmacies together. This links together the pharmacies, systems and specialty stores and pharmacies. This allows them to share medical information about patients and drugs to provide a safer environment in which to operate for client and pharmacy worker.

The VSAT link which connects all of the pharmacies set Walgreens as the number two store chain to be reliant upon satellite data transmission in the world. (The number one user is the United States government.)

The IntercomPlus software is a highly advanced, learning style software which allows the staff of the store to focus on the care of the patient rather than on "the logistics" of the pharmacy. There is a very seamless interaction, nearly instantaneous communication from store to store which permits one Walgreens store to fill a prescription which was given at another store hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. The prescription is instantly taken care of and the allergies and other issues that may affect the client for whom the medication is meant for will be taken into account.

History of Intercom Plus

One of the ways in which Intercom Plus revolutionized the pharmacy industry is that it allowed pharmacists to care for the welfare of their patients in nearly an eyeblink, with the records on file allowing them to know that they were not harming a patient by giving them medication to which they might be allergic or have had a previous reaction.

Getting a prescription filled at any Walgreens around the country is literally no different from having it filled at the original site of entry for the prescription. It is written in Team Developer, which is an invention of the former General Manager of the Oracle Corporation, Umang Gupta, who is also responsible for SQLWindows (it is a programming language that is used nearly specifically for building applications for business.) In the later portion of the 90's the company became Centura Software prior to filing for bankruptcy in 2001.

What Intercom Plus Does

Walgreens Intercom Plus system is not only a means of communication between pharmacies, but is also a Team RX or pharmacy software. Further it includes the settings for the laser or thermal printers, allocates savings for the pharmacy and the patients, helps to manage the inventory of the pharmacy and is an email server for the Walgreens corporation as well as serving in an advisory capacity as regards to prescription compliance and cost savings.

Who Uses Intercom Plus?

The use of Intercom Plus is one of the requisite skills for working at a Walgreens. There are several modules available in the store which will help you to learn the skills needed and the key sequences necessary to use the software effectively.

Being proprietary software used only by Walgreens, the necessary information for a teaching unit on this software is not available online and should it be so, we would be unable legally to publish it.