Write Prescriptions

Use the Add Medication window, Write a Prescription tab when you want to write a prescription, print it and give it to a patient to fill outside your health service.

To prescribe medications for a patient in Communicare, you must have a Prescriber number and the user group to which you belong must have Prescription access rights. Restricted providers can prescribe medication that is included in their user group's Scope of Practice.

If Medication > Add Medication is not available, ask your Communicare Administrator to enable Prescribing - Full or Prescribing - Once Off/Short Course for your user group.

If there are no details in the Drug Browser, ask your Communicare Administrator to arrange the import of MIMS Pharmaceutical Database.

You cannot record a medication with a date after a patient's date of death.

When you add a prescription, it always defaults to the date of the service; you cannot change the date of an individual medication. If you need to add an historical medication or backdate a medication, add it using Medication_History.

To add a prescription for a patient:
  1. In a patient's Clinical Record, click Medication > Add Medication or press F9.
    • If a warning is displayed that there is no adverse reaction information recorded, click Yes and review with the patient.
    • To record any problems, on the Main Summary, click New Adverse Reaction. See Adverse Reaction Maintenance for more information.
  2. From the Drug Browser, select the medication you want to prescribe.
    Tip: When using generic prescribing, formulation and pack are displayed in a single field. If you are searching for a specific formulation and pack for a specific brand, to display all options for equivalent active ingredient medications that have slightly different packaging or formulation, deselect Show generics not brands.
  3. If there are any pregnancy interactions, condition or procedure interactions, or drug interactions or warnings, they are listed in the Medications Warnings window. If you want to proceed, click Noted, otherwise click Cancel and repeat steps 1-2.
    In the Medications Warnings window:
    • If the patient is pregnant, the pregnancy banner is displayed.
    • If the patient is pregnant or possibly pregnant and there is a pregnancy interaction with the selected drug, ADEC Pregnancy Category warnings are displayed.
    • If condition interaction support is available at your health service, and the patient has a condition with which the medication interacts, a condition interaction is displayed.
    • If there is an interaction between this medication and the patient's other active medications, a drug interaction is displayed.
    • If a medication contains a generic component for which a patient has a recorded allergic adverse reaction, a reaction is displayed. If you choose to proceed with the prescription, you may need to enter your password and the action is logged.
    • For more information, see Medication Warnings.
  4. Details from MIMS for the selected medication are added to the Add Medication window, including:
    • Interactions and warnings - for example, if the patient is pregnant or possibly pregnant, ADEC Pregnancy Category warnings
    • PBS information - Strength, Max PBS packs and Max PBS repeats
    • Payment Scheme, for example, PBS
    • LEMI and LMBC information
  5. In the Add Medication window, go to the Write a Prescription tab.
    • To add adverse reactions, click Add allergies and adverse reactionsAdd. For more information, see Adverse Reaction Maintenance .
    • To check any existing medications, click Medication Overview iconMedication Overview.
  6. For Medication Type, select either Once Off / Short Course or Regular Medication depending on whether this medication is to treat an acute or chronic condition.
  7. Where available, for Prescribed Using, select either Generic name or Brand name.
    • For brand name medications, the formulation, strength, pack size and number of packs are displayed, except for items on the LEMI, which display only the brand name.
    • These details are not displayed for generic drugs, except:
      • If there are multiple items in the pack, full details are included
      • If the words modified or release appear in the formulation, the generic formulation is shown. For example, Metformin hydrochloride modified release tablet, 500 mg.
    Tip: Ensure you read any information banners relating to brand prescribing.
  8. If required, to allow pharmacists to substitute brands, where applicable set Allow brand substitution.
  9. If you want to change medication, in the Medication field, click Choose.
    Tip: To add this medication to your list of preferred medications and list it automatically every time you enter the drug browser, click Favourite iconFavourite.
  10. If you want to edit the pack size, in the Pack Size field, enter the required value.
  11. In the No. of Packs field, enter the number of packs you want to prescribe.
  12. In the Repeats field, enter the number of repeats required.
  13. The default value displayed in the Duration field is the total number of packs together with repeats, assuming that each pack lasts 1 month and determines how long once off prescriptions are displayed in the Medication Summary, to a maximum of 12 months. The dosage that you specify does not affect the default calculation. The date in the Until field is calculated from the duration. The duration is used by the drug interactions function to determine if a warning should be displayed. Adjust either the duration or date until if required.
    • Once off or short course medications are removed from the Medication Summary after the duration has elapsed.
    • Regular medications are listed on the Medication Summary until they are stopped.
  14. For DAA Required, if the patient uses a Dosage Administration Aid, click Yes.
    1. From the DAA type list, select the type of DAA used.
    2. In the DAA fields, either:
      • In the DAA Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Bedtime fields, enter the dosage required at each.
      • If you'd prefer to provide dosage instructions instead of a dosage for each time period:
        1. Set As per Dosage.
        2. In the Dosage Instructions field, enter dosage instructions for the medication using full text or short codes. To use short codes, for example, BD for twice a day, or CF for with food, start typing the short code:
          • Matching short codes are listed as you type. Press Enter or Tab to select a phrase. Use the up and down arrows to move up and down the list.
          • If you have completed the short code, press the space bar to select the text that that code represents.
          • Click Add short code iconAdd shortcode or press F2 to see a list of all short codes available for your health organisation. Use the up and down arrows to move up and down the list.
  15. If the medication requires authority:
    • For Streamlined Authority:
      1. In the Approval Number field, click Choose and select the appropriate approval number. This number is printed on the script and checked by pharmacists when they dispense the medication.
      2. From the Approved Indication list, select the indication text.
    • For Authority medication:
      1. If you have a previous authority number for this medication, set Previous Authority.
      2. Otherwise, ring the PBS or DVA number provided and provide the patient's details, the Authority Number listed and the clinical indication.
      3. In the Approval Number field, enter the number provided to you. This number is printed on the script and checked by the pharmacist when they dispense the medication.
      4. Click Authority Indication Information iconAuthority Indication Information to check the approved clinical indication that must be met when prescribing this medication.
    • If the prescription has repeats and you want the pharmacist to return it to the patient when it is filled, set Return to Patient to print the words Return to Patient on the prescription.
  16. In the Comments field, enter any additional information to include in the prescription.
  17. From the Reason list, select from the existing clinical items associated with the patient. If you haven't yet added a clinical item for the condition that the medication treats, click Add Reason and select a new clinical item.
  18. If the patient is registered for CTG PBS co-payment relief, to print the PBS or RPBS script with a CTG code, set CTG PBS co-payment relief.
  19. If the patient gives their consent to share this prescription information with MHR, set Consent to send to My Health Record. If the patient has a My Health Record, this option is automatically set.
    Setting this option sets a flag for eRX which tells them whether or not to send the medication information for the patient to MHR. Communicare does not send this information to MHR separately. See Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (ETP) for more information.
  20. If required, click Ellipsis iconEllipsis and set one or both of the following options:
    • Save medication as favourite - add the medication to your list of favourites displayed when you first open the Drug Browser.
    • Save medication as default - to save the quantity, repeats, dosage instructions and duration for this medication. This information is automatically included whenever you prescribe this medication for any patient. Set this option for medications that typically require the same dosage instructions for any patient, for example, Yasmin.
      Note: If you have Generic Prescribing set in System Parameters and you save a medication that you have prescribed by brand as default, the medication is still prescribed by generic when you next prescribe it.
  21. If you want to add another medication for the patient, click Add another itemAdd another item to save the first medication and clear all fields. Repeat steps 2-19 to add another medication.
  22. Click Save.

The medication and associated condition are recorded in the patient's clinical record.

Medications are listed on the Summary > Medication Summary and the Detail > Rx - Prescription tabs.

On the Medication Summary:
  • Once off medications are listed on the Medication Summary only until the specified duration elapses.
  • Regular medications are listed on the Medication Summary until they are stopped or represcribed.
  • If the new prescription for a regular medication has the same product, form and pack codes as an existing regular medication, the original medication is stopped, even if it is already expired.
  • If you save a second prescription for a regular medication with the same product, form and pack codes as a medication that you have already prescribed during the same service, the first medication is deleted. If you have already printed the prescription for the first medication, ensure that you destroy it.

You can edit prescriptions only if the service is still open and the prescription hasn't been finalised.

If your health service is set up for Real-Time Prescription Monitoring (RTPM), and the medication is a Victorian monitored drug, Communicare sends information to the Safescript service on the internet. Safescript results are then displayed.

Note: If ETP is enabled for your encounter place and no locality is set for your encounter place or organisation, you can't save new prescriptions. For more information, see Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (ETP).

To generate a script number, finalise the prescription. You can print when finalising if required. Finalise and print the medication from the Medication Summary, or when you close the clinical record.

If you have written a prescription that is part of a Medication Request, and you need to supply some of the medication to the patient now to cover the period until the the Medication Request is fulfilled by the pharmacy and arrives for the patient, you can create a medication order from the prescription.