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Synopsis
ACRRM has been working closely with the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) and the Department of Health to support the implementation of electronic prescriptions. This case study will describe one rural doctor’s experience of implementing and using the ePrescribing in her practice. The intention for this work is to help rural doctors understand and plan for the new ePrescribing system. Commonwealth PBS regulations have been changed to recognise an electronic prescription as a legal alternative to a paper prescription. Most states and territories have also made changes to their poisons and therapeutic goods (or equivalent) legislation to recognise the form of an electronic prescription. This new system represents a transition from paper-based medication prescribing to an electronic transfer of information with the intention to reduce medication errors which represent up to 250,000 avoidable hospital presentation per year (ADHA 2020)
Dr Rachel Gaggin is a rural GP in Penguin, Tasmania and works closely with her local pharmacy to deliver GP services to her community of approximately 4000 people just west of Devonport. She has recently implemented the new ePrescribing system in her practice working closely with her local pharmacy to allow patients to present their prescriptions using their mobile phones, in preference to the old paper script.
Findings
Overall, ePrescribing is easy to use and implement, with other pharmacies joining the Community of Interest following the initial success of the new system.
An Individual Health Identifier (IHI) is required for ePrescribing token generation. A current Medicare card is required to ensure IHI exists. International travellers and Department of Veterans Affairs clients will need practice staff to manually check IHI prior to prescribing.
Short relevant training information was very useful. (See https://bpsoftware.net/podcast-eprescribing-qa) and may be the only thing required. Rachel was vigilant prior to implementation and accessed several training resources which she found to be confusing. Her recommendation was to review the link above and don’t worry too much about the administrative detail as the software takes care of much of this work.
S8 and authority scripts cause some issues as Best Practice requires that the doctor enter their password to approve scripts.
Discussion
Although Rachel was at first reluctant to try the new system, the local pharmacy convinced her to “give it a go”. Once software updates were complete and following several education sessions, Rachel’s experience with the new system was “pleasantly surprising”. There were few differences from the old paper-based prescription process in her practice software (Best Practice).
Conclusion
ePrescribing has been found to be easy to implement from the prescribing side. Local pharmacies have more work to do through changes in prescription management and internal workflow changes. With no paper script, the internal process for dispensing medications using ePrescribing requires new ways of following the physical medications and labels within the pharmacy prior to supply to patients. The system also requires an Individual Health Identifier (IHI) which is connected to the Medicare number. For patients who don’t have a current Medicare card (eg those registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs), there may be some administrative activity for the practice staff to look up the IHI.
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Synopsis
ACRRM has been working closely with the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) and the Department of Health to support the implementation of electronic prescriptions. This case study will describe one rural doctor’s experience of implementing and using the ePrescribing in her practice. The intention for this work is to help rural doctors understand and plan for the new ePrescribing system. Commonwealth PBS regulations have been changed to recognise an electronic prescription as a legal alternative to a paper prescription. Most states and territories have also made changes to their poisons and therapeutic goods (or equivalent) legislation to recognise the form of an electronic prescription. This new system represents a transition from paper-based medication prescribing to an electronic transfer of information with the intention to reduce medication errors which represent up to 250,000 avoidable hospital presentation per year (ADHA 2020)
Dr Rachel Gaggin is a rural GP in Penguin, Tasmania and works closely with her local pharmacy to deliver GP services to her community of approximately 4000 people just west of Devonport. She has recently implemented the new ePrescribing system in her practice working closely with her local pharmacy to allow patients to present their prescriptions using their mobile phones, in preference to the old paper script.
Findings
Overall, ePrescribing is easy to use and implement, with other pharmacies joining the Community of Interest following the initial success of the new system.
An Individual Health Identifier (IHI) is required for ePrescribing token generation. A current Medicare card is required to ensure IHI exists. International travellers and Department of Veterans Affairs clients will need practice staff to manually check IHI prior to prescribing.
Short relevant training information was very useful. (See https://bpsoftware.net/podcast-eprescribing-qa) and may be the only thing required. Rachel was vigilant prior to implementation and accessed several training resources which she found to be confusing. Her recommendation was to review the link above and don’t worry too much about the administrative detail as the software takes care of much of this work.
S8 and authority scripts cause some issues as Best Practice requires that the doctor enter their password to approve scripts.
Discussion
Although Rachel was at first reluctant to try the new system, the local pharmacy convinced her to “give it a go”. Once software updates were complete and following several education sessions, Rachel’s experience with the new system was “pleasantly surprising”. There were few differences from the old paper-based prescription process in her practice software (Best Practice).
Conclusion
ePrescribing has been found to be easy to implement from the prescribing side. Local pharmacies have more work to do through changes in prescription management and internal workflow changes. With no paper script, the internal process for dispensing medications using ePrescribing requires new ways of following the physical medications and labels within the pharmacy prior to supply to patients. The system also requires an Individual Health Identifier (IHI) which is connected to the Medicare number. For patients who don’t have a current Medicare card (eg those registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs), there may be some administrative activity for the practice staff to look up the IHI.