Medication Requests

In Communicare V20.2 and later, you can create medication requests. Medication requests combine multiple medications on one prescription.

Medication requests can be sent to a pharmacy for dispensing. Instead of printing individual PBS scripts, you can print a medication request which is the equivalent of a single batch prescription. If you stock your patient's prescription medications at your health service, or are the health provider for a remote site that stocks prescription medications for your patients, you can use medication requests to help manage the patient's medications.

Tip: Medication requests replace the separate Health Centre Prescription feature.

Tip: Medication requests are not enabled by default. Communicare Administrators can enable medication requests in System Parameters. For more information, see System Parameters - Prescription Forms.

To display the current medication request, in the patient's clinical record, on the Summary > Medication Summary tab, click Medication Request icon Medication Requests.

The Medication Requests window shows the current medication request, including any DAA medication groups, and also lists all superseded medication requests.
Example Medication Requests summary window

Example Medication Requests summary window

The following details are displayed for the medication request:

Encounter Place - the encounter place for the current service or the selected pickup location for patient-specific inventory
Created - the date on which the medication request was created
Until - the until date of each medication
Created by - name of the provider who created the medication request
Status - one of the following:
- Active - the current medication request
- Stopped - any superseded medication requests
- Cancelled - any medication request that has been cancelled

If you need to check the medications included in a previous medication request, or check the contents of a previous DAA medication group, expand the required medication request.

Medications in the medication request display the usual medication icons.

Table 1. Medication request - medication icons
Icon	Description
	Identifies once off or short course medications
	Identifies regular medications
	Identifies a medication group included in a DAA. A separate medication group is created for each DAA type: Blister Pack Sachet Dosette Box Bag (OP) Packet The medication group number is incremented each time you adjust the medications included in that DAA type, that is, each time you add, delete, update, repeat, represcribe or stop a medication included in that DAA. To see previous medication groups, open the superseded medication requests.

Add and print medication requests

Each patient has only one current medication request. Add a new medication request whenever you change a patient's medications or alter a DAA medication group.

Note:

To view medication requests, you must belong to a user group with the Prescribing - Full or Prescribing Once Off/Short Course system rights. To create medication requests, you must also be a prescriber or have a prescriber number.

You cannot create medication requests for back-dated services.

To add a patient's medication request, and print it if required:

In the patient's clinical record, when you have finished reviewing the patient's medications and prescribing any new or changed medications, on the Medication Summary, finalise the prescriptions.
Tip: If you'd prefer, you can create a medication request as you finalise the medications.
On the Medication Summary, click Medication Requests.
In the Medication Requests window, click Add Medication Request.
In the Add Medication Request window, all active, finalised prescriptions, including medications grouped by DAA type are displayed.
All active regular medications, DAA medications and medications that are included in the current, active request are selected by default.
In the Create a medication request step:
1. If the location from which the medication will be supplied to the patient after it has been fulfilled is separate to the current encounter place, from the Pickup Location list, select this location. If the pickup location is already set in the clinical record Medication Summary, that location is included in the medication request automatically. If the current encounter place is a nominated medication pickup location, it is selected as the pickup location by default. For more information, see Encounter Place.
2. Select the medications and medication groups that you want to include in the medication request. For each medication, add notes if required.
In the Do you need to print today? step, if you want to print the medication request, set Yes.
Tip: If consolidated orders are enabled for your health service, you can't print medications included in a medication request to a PBS script.
Click Save.

The new medication request is listed in the Medication Requests window with a status of Active, and the number of the medication request is incremented.

The new medication request is also listed on the Progress Notes tab using the following format:

Date <Active> Medication request #x 
Items: y; Pickup Location: z;

For example:
Example new medication request progress note entry

When a medication request is superseded, on the Progress Notes tab, its prefix is updated to <Stopped>. Cancelled medication requests are also listed and prefixed with <Cancelled>.

If you chose not to print in step 5, and you now want to print the current medication request, click Print medication request icon Print.

If you decide the medication request is incorrect and you want to cancel it, click Cancel icon Cancel. Alternatively, create a new medication request to supersede the current one.