Pistill - E-Rezept Redemption, Pharmacist Release and Home Delivery Console
Mail-Order Pharmacy Console for a German Pharmacy Group
Designed and built a clickable pharmacy operations console for a pharmacist-owned group in northern Hesse with a mail-order permit: one queue for E-Rezepte from every channel, a validation workbench with substitution and co-payment rules, a pharmacist release step, and a cold-chain board for fridge medicines.
Most of our work is under NDA. Per agreement, we can share the work but not the company details - all names and identifying information shown here have been changed.
Impact
Dashboard, incoming queue, validation workbench, pharmacist release and cold-chain board. Each of the 27 demo prescriptions opens its own workbench.
Signature, patient match, 28-day insurer validity, prescriber data, quantity and a narcotic or T-prescription block, each shown as pass, warn or fail before it can go for release.
10% of the fixed price, at least EUR 5 and at most EUR 10, never above the price, and zero for exempt patients, children under 18 and co-payment-free articles.
20 patient profiles, 27 drug database articles, 5 redemption channels, 6 orders waiting for release, 12 cooled orders, 6 logger results and 3 temperature excursions.
The Problem
Lindmoor ran its mail-order business on the counter software, a webshop plugin and email. E-Rezept tokens arrived as photos in emails, paper prescriptions came by freepost, and pharmacists checked substitution and rebate contracts by hand. Nobody could see which orders were waiting on a pharmacist, which parcels needed cooling, or why an insurer had cut a payment months later. Rx orders took 2 to 4 working days to leave, and retaxations cost the group around EUR 38,000 in a year (the client's own figure).
Our Solution
Pistill brings every prescription into one queue, whether scanned from a printed token, read from a health card through CardLink, sent from the gematik app or posted on paper. PTAs prepare each one in a workbench that runs the formal checks, suggests the article and the rule behind it and calculates the co-payment, a pharmacist releases it under their own name, and the dashboard and cold-chain board track it against the two working day dispatch promise.
The Challenge: Dispensing by Mail Under German Pharmacy Law
A German mail-order pharmacy is a normal public pharmacy with an extra permit. Every prescription still needs a pharmacist's check and release, the price is fixed, the article is often chosen by the insurer's contract, and the parcel has to leave quickly and arrive in the right condition.
Prescriptions From Five Channels
Since 2024 GKV prescriptions for prescription-only medicines are generally E-Rezepte held on the gematik service in the Telematikinfrastruktur. Customers redeem them by token, health card or the gematik app, while private, narcotic and T-prescriptions mostly stay on paper, and narcotics and T-prescription medicines may not be sent by mail order at all.
Substitution That Insurers Audit
The framework contract under § 129 SGB V requires an equivalent cheaper product, with priority for the insurer's rebate contract under § 130a, unless the doctor excluded substitution or the pharmacist has a pharmaceutical concern. A wrong choice can be cut later in a retaxation, so the reason has to be kept.
A Two Working Day Dispatch Promise
§ 11a ApoG and § 17 ApBetrO generally expect the medicine to leave within two working days of the order and its quality, including temperature, to be kept in transit. Fridge medicines need cool packs, a cut-off and ship days that keep them out of depots at the weekend.
Health Data and Pharmacist Duties
Prescriptions and advice are health data under GDPR Article 9 and covered by pharmacist confidentiality under § 203 StGB. Only a pharmacist may release, packs must be verified through securPharm, and every view of a prescription has to be logged.
Our Approach: From Dispensing Rules to a Clickable Console
Spec and Rules Research
Mapped 9 roles from customer, PTA and pharmacist to warehouse, cold-chain lead and billing clerk, 46 screens across the customer app and the pharmacy console, and the data model for prescriptions, dispensings, orders, shipments, articles, batches, recalls, billing and retaxations. Wrote down the rules the design follows: the E-Rezept and CardLink, validity windows, § 11a ApoG and ApBetrO, AMPreisV fixed prices, co-payments, §§ 129 and 130a SGB V substitution, securPharm, § 300 billing, pharmacovigilance and GDPR.
Clickable Demo on a Production UI Kit
Built the console's 5 key screens on a production dashboard kit: the dashboard with the dispatch promise, flow by stage and carrier cut-offs, the incoming queue with channel, type and expiry filters, the validation workbench with article selection and co-payment, pharmacist release with prescribed versus dispensed lines, and the cold-chain board with packaging, logger traces and excursions. Decisions run on local state.
What a Production Build Adds
The TI connector or gateway with the pharmacy's SMC-B card, a gematik-approved CardLink provider, the ABDATA drug database for prices and rebate contracts, securPharm verification, wholesaler ordering, data centre billing, DHL and trans-o-flex ThermoMed shipping, payments and EU-hosted video advice. Staff two-factor sign-in with release rights checked against a licence record, an append-only audit log, and the customer app with redemption, shop, tracking, advice and medication plan.
Why It Works: The Pharmacist Decides, the Rules Are Shown
Every Article Choice Names Its Rule
The workbench lists the prescribed article, rebate contract articles and the cheapest equivalent with price and stock, highlights the suggestion and states why, such as a rebate contract with the patient's insurer under § 130a SGB V. Aut idem locks the prescribed product, and a pharmaceutical concern keeps it with a reason code for billing.
Blocked Items Cannot Move On
Narcotic and T-prescription medicines are flagged on receipt and cannot be sent for release, with a note to offer collection at a branch. Expiring prescriptions turn amber within 5 days of the 28-day window, and a patient mismatch is flagged before anyone dispenses.
One Decision per Order, Under a Name
Pharmacist release shows each line prescribed versus dispensed with price and co-payment, check results, health answers for pharmacy-only OTC items and an advice-needed flag. Release records the pharmacist's name and time, and payment is only captured on release.
The Dispatch Promise on Screen
The dashboard shows the share of orders that left within 2 working days, each stage with the age of its oldest item in amber when over target, and time left to each carrier's pickup. The cold-chain board plans cool packs per parcel and flags any logger reading outside 2 to 8 °C for more than 30 minutes.
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Enterprise Software Engineering - Human + AI
Contact Us
Locations
Global Headquarters
21 Merchant Road, 3rd Floor, Singapore 058267
Main corporate office and leadership operations
North America Office
548 Market Street, PMB 12345, San Francisco, CA 94104
Client operations and business development
India Office
402 Shivalik Shilp II, SG Highway, Ahmedabad 380015
Engineering and delivery center
© 2026 - Copyright. All Rights reserved Oceanlab