Before you prescribe or administer medication

Prescribe Form contains relevant information for the administration, prescribing and checking of medications. It might contain different information depending on your organisation. It might include information about allergies, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), venous thromboembolism (VTE) assessments, enteral route, height, and weight.

1. To open the form, from Patient list > select a patient. Then select any option under Medications.

   At the top of the screen is any prescribing information that has been entered. Any mandatory fields that have not been completed are marked  .

   

   You can't override mandatory fields on a mobile.

2. Select the prescribing information to view information in more detail.

   

Mandatory fields are marked  . You can't prescribe unless all mandatory fields are completed.

1. From Patient list > (select a patient), select any option under Medications and then select Prescribe Form.

2. Select ALLERGIES >  > Add.

   

3. Enter the allergy name, select search, and select the allergy.

   

4. Select COMMENTS, enter a comment, and select Add. You might be asked questions on type of allergy and certainty, depending on your organisation.

   

Selecting Cancel removes the comment, not the allergy

5. Select Add to save the allergy or Cancel to remove the allergy.

   

6. Select Add to add more allergies, or Prescribe Form to return to the previous screen.

   

Allergies added before the current admission are stored in Nervecentre. They need to be confirmed as correct at each new admission.

1. From Patient list > (select a patient), select any option under Medications and then select Prescribe Form.

2. By ALLERGIES, select Verify to confirm the allergy information is correct.

   

1. From Patient list > (select a patient), select any option under Medications and then select Prescribe Form.

2. Swipe left on the allergy you wish to delete, then select Delete.

   

1. From Patient list > (select a patient), select any option under Medications and then select Prescribe Form.

2. Select None and confirm.

   

You cannot select None if allergies have already been set. You must manually delete any existing allergies before setting no known allergy.

1. From Patient list > (select a patient), select any option under Medications and then select Prescribe Form.

2. Select VTE > Perform Assessment.

3. Select appropriate assessment options, and then select Next. Repeat until the assessment is complete.

   

   This is an example of a VTE assessment. The actual VTE assessment might vary between organisations.

4. When you see a summary, select Next to confirm.

   

5. Select Back to return to the Prescribe Form.

You cannot delete a VTE assessment from the EPMA mobile module. Delete a VTE assessment via the mobile Assessments module, or on a desktop

You can complete the VTE assessment from the Clinical page on a mobile and the results display in the top banner on your desktop. If you complete the VTE assessment on a desktop, you can view the assessment from the Clinical page on your mobile.

1. From Patient list > (select a patient), select any option under Medications and then select Prescribe Form.

2. Select OBS.

3. Enter height in metres or centimetres. Nervecentre will select the appropriate unit.

4. Select Next to move to the next field or Done to return to the previous screen.

5. Enter weight in kilograms.

6. Nervecentre calculates the BMI. Select Submit Obs.

   

7. Select Background / History and add a note.

   

8. Select Submit Observation.

   

Converting imperial height/weight measurements to metric

1. From Patient list > (select a patient), select any option under Medications and then select Prescribe Form.

2. Select OBS > Help.

   

3. Enter imperial measurements to convert to metric and select Enter Obs to return to the previous screen.

   

Except for oral, you can only prescribe an enteral route if it is selected in this list.

1. From Patient list > (select a patient), select any option under Medications and then select Prescribe Form.

2. Select ENTERAL ROUTE.

3. Select one or more route as required. These are indicated by .

4. Select Back to save selections and return to the previous screen.

   

The top banner contains information about the patient. Your organisation decides what to show, but it can include allergy details, VTE risk assessment outcome, and various blood results, for example, eGFR.

A patient’s relevant clinical data can be displayed in the top banner, depending on your organisation. This might be dependent on additional interfaces. In the example below, if a patient has an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) calculated, the top banner will be populated.

For safe prescribing and administration, you must complete several information fields before you can prescribe.

Information fields are configurable. What you see depends on your organisation.

1. Select any field from the top banner.

2. Mandatory fields are marked  .

   

In the exceptional circumstance that you cannot complete mandatory fields before prescribing, for example, in a cardiac arrest, you can temporarily override this requirement. This temporary override allows you to prescribe multiple medications.

1. Select Override and enter a reason.

   

2. When you leave the prescribe page, the banner reinstates the mandatory fields. All information is auditable.

1. From Meds, select Allergies.

2. Enter the allergy in the search box. You can enter up to 40 characters.

3. The allergy field is SNOMED CT Systematised Nomenclature of Medicine (Clinical Terms). Provides the clinical language that facilitates electronic communication between healthcare professionals in clear and unambiguous terms, and can be used to code, retrieve and analyse clinical data. coded and supports first three letter searches, returning all SNOMED CT allergies that match.

If you can’t find an allergy, speak to your pharmacist.

4. You can add supporting comments under the allergy name in the box on the right.

5. Save to continue. Your organisation might add additional fields here, such as type and severity of the allergy.

6. The allergy and supporting comments are shown in the top banner.

Entering an allergy that doesn’t appear in SNOMED CT

If you can’t find an allergy, speak to your pharmacist.

If a medication allergy cannot be found in the SNOMED CT, enter ‘Drug allergy’, ‘Drug intolerance’, or ‘food allergy’ in the search box.

Select Append Comment to enter further details about the allergy or intolerance.

When you sign a prescription, allergies entered this way appear as a level two ‘Possible allergy’ alert.

Entering ‘no known allergies’

If a patient has no allergies, you can enter ‘No known allergy’.

Entering ‘no known allergy’ removes any allergies previously entered. Entering allergies removes ‘no known allergy’.

Changes made to Allergies are shown underneath the section for current recorded allergies.

Verifying allergies

Allergies that were recorded on a previous visit, or on this visit by another user, are shown in the top banner. They are marked with  and need verification.

You must verify allergies before you can start prescribing.

To verify previously recorded allergies and populate Allergies, select Verify.

1. From Meds, select VTE Assessment Form.

2. Previously completed VTE risk assessments are displayed.

   

3. Select Perform Assessment to launch the assessment page.

4. On the assessment form, select risk factors, or select None of the above. Selected options are indicated by a tick.

   

5. Select Next.

6. The final page shows risk assessment results and provides clinical decision support.

   

7. The assessment outcome shows in the top banner.

   

You can complete the VTE assessment from the Clinical page on a mobile and the results display in the top banner on your desktop. If you complete the VTE assessment on a desktop, you can view the assessment from the Clinical page on your mobile.

1. From Meds, select Height and Weight.

2. If the height and weight are recorded in Observations on the mobile app, they will populate, or update, the top banner.

   

3. Enter the height and weight. BMI Body Mass Index: weight in kg divided by (height in metres squared). automatically calculates.

4. Select Next.

5. Add comments, as necessary. Select Submit.

6. Height, weight, and BMI show in the top banner.

1. From Meds, select Enteral Route.

2. Select one or more enteral routes from the list.

   Only the selected enteral routes will be available when prescribing, and all future prescriptions require you to select a route from the list.