Formularies

Use the Formulary Maintenance window to manage medication lists or formularies.

Formularies are used to limit medications available to particular provider specialties, such as Midwives and Nurse Practitioners or to allow other providers to create medication orders for particular medications. Formularies are used:
  • To constrain medications listed in the Drug Browser to those listed in the formulary. Typically these are once off medications used to treat acute conditions.
  • To define a Scope of Practice, medication orders outside of which require a Verbal Order. You can set one or more formularies to use as Scope of Practice.
  • To support management functions such as reporting and stock control.
To create a new formulary:
  1. Select File > Reference Tables > Formulary.
  2. In the the Formulary Maintenance window, click New.
  3. On the Details pane, in the Formulary Name field, enter a name for the new formulary.
  4. If you want to allow providers to be able to create medication orders for medications listed in the formulary without the requirement for a verbal order, set Use as Scope of Practice.
  5. In the Organisation field, enter your organisation name.
  6. In the Encounter Place list, set your encounter place, for example Millenium Health Service.
  7. In the left panel, select Drugs to switch from the formulary details to drug selection pane.
  8. In the medications list, select the medications you want to include in this formulary. Set Only show formulary drugs to restrict the list to those drugs you have added to the formulary.
  9. Click Save iconSave.

By default, new formularies are created in draft mode. While a formulary is in draft mode, it cannot be enabled for use or be exported. To use the formulary, it must first be published.

Publishing a formulary

A draft formulary can be edited or published. Once published, the current version of that formulary cannot be further modified.

To publish a draft formulary:
  1. Select File > Reference Tables > Formulary.
  2. In the the Formulary Maintenance window, select the draft formulary.
  3. Click Publish iconPublish.
  4. Click Close.

The formulary is enabled and the current MIMS issue date of the Communicare system is recorded against the formulary. The formulary is now available for use in Scope of Practice.

Editing a formulary

You can edit a draft formulary or a published formulary.

If you edit a published formulary, a new, draft version of that formulary is created, which allows the existing version to remain in use until the new version is published.

To edit a published formulary:
  1. Select File > Reference Tables > Formulary.
  2. In the the Formulary Maintenance window, select the published formulary and click Edit iconEdit.
  3. On the Details pane, you cannot edit the formulary name, but can edit any other details as required.
  4. On the Drugs pane, edit the medications included in the formulary if required.
  5. Click Save iconSave.

The new, draft version of the formulary is saved. You can now publish the version when required. When the new version is published, all previous versions of that formulary are disabled.

Disabling a formulary

When published, a formulary is enabled by default.

To disable a formulary to restrict its use:
  1. Select File > Reference Tables > Formulary.
  2. In the the Formulary Maintenance window, in the list of formularies, for the formulary you want to disable, deselect Enabled.
  3. Click Close.

Importing and exporting formularies

Any published formulary can be exported as a file that can be distributed to other health organisations using Communicare. Receiving organisations can import the file and review the formulary before choosing to save it.

Formularies created by another organisation cannot be edited, but the list of medications that they contain can be copied into a new formulary.