Before you prescribe or administer medications

About the Prescribe Form

The 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, MUST assessments, enteral route, height, and weight.

Viewing the Prescribe Form

From your patient list, select a patient.
Select any option under Medications.

At the top of the screen is any prescribing information that has been entered.

Mandatory fields are marked .

You can't override mandatory fields on a mobile.
Select the prescribing information to view information in more detail.

Overview of Prescribe Form

ALLERGIES	View and edit the patient’s allergies.
LABS	Nervecentre might pull through latest eGFR result.
VTE	View or complete a VTE assessment.
ENTERAL ROUTE	Add or edit the patient’s enteral route(s). Different enteral routes cannot be prescribed until entered onto the patient’s record (via mobile or desktop).
OBS	View and edit the patient’s height, weight, and BMI Body Mass Index. Weight in kg divided by height in metres squared..

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

Entering allergies

From your patient list, select a patient.
Select any option under Medications.
Select the prescribe form.

Read more about viewing the prescribe form
Select ALLERGIES >  > Add.
Enter the allergy name, select search, and select the allergy.
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.

Select Add to save the allergy or Cancel to remove the allergy.
Select Add to add more allergies, or  Prescribe Form to return to the previous screen.

Verifying allergies from a previous episode

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

From your patient list, select a patient.
Select any option under Medications.
Select the prescribe form.

Read more about viewing the prescribe form
By ALLERGIES, select Verify to confirm the allergy information is correct.

Deleting an allergy

From your patient list, select a patient.
Select any option under Medications.
Select the prescribe form.

Read more about viewing the prescribe form
To remove an allergy:
- On iOS, swipe left on the allergy, then select Delete.
- On Android, select and hold on the allergy, then select OK.

Entering 'no known allergy'

From your patient list, select a patient.
Select any option under Medications.
Select the prescribe form.

Read more about viewing the prescribe form
Select None and confirm.

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

Viewing and completing a VTE assessment

From your patient list, select a patient.
Select any option under Medications.
Select the prescribe form.

Read more about viewing the prescribe form
Select VTE  > Perform Assessment.
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.
When you see a summary, select Next to confirm.
Select  Back to return to the prescribe form.

You can't delete a VTE assessment from EPMA on a mobile. You can delete a VTE assessment from Assessments on a mobile or on a desktop.

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

Entering height and weight

From your patient list, select a patient.
Select any option under Medications.
Select the prescribe form.

Read more about viewing the prescribe form
Select OBS .
Enter height in metres or centimetres.

Nervecentre selects the appropriate unit.
Select Next to move to the next field or Done to return to the previous screen.
Enter weight in kilograms.

Nervecentre calculates the BMI.

Nervecentre might calculate the body surface area. Body surface area calculations are only for adults.

You might be able to select if the height and weight measurements are reported, estimated, or actual.
Select Submit Obs.
Select Background / History to add a note.
Select Submit Observation.

Converting imperial height or weight measurements to metric

From your patient list, select a patient.
Select any option under Medications.
Select the prescribe form.

Read more about viewing the prescribe form
Select OBS  > Help.
Enter imperial measurements to convert to metric and select  Enter Obs to return to the previous screen.

Managing a patient's enteral routes

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

From your patient list, select a patient.
Select any option under Medications.
Select the prescribe form.

Read more about viewing the prescribe form
Select ENTERAL ROUTE .
Select one or more route as needed.

These are indicated by .
Select  Back to save selections and return to the previous screen.

About the EPMA banner

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

A patient’s relevant clinical data can be displayed in the EPMA 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 EPMA banner is populated.

Adding information to the EPMA banner

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.

From  Inpatients > Patient List > double-click on a patient's name > Patient Detail, select Meds.
Select any field from the EPMA banner.

Mandatory fields are marked  .

Overriding for clinical exceptions

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.

From  Inpatients > Patient List > double-click on a patient's name > Patient Detail, select Meds.
Select Override and enter a reason.

When you leave the prescribe page, the banner reinstates the mandatory fields.

All information is auditable.

Entering allergies

From  Inpatients > Patient List > double-click on a patient's name > Patient Detail, select Meds.
Select Allergies.
Enter the allergy in the search box.

You can enter up to 40 characters. You can search using the first three letters of your search term.

The allergy field is a 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. clinical note. The search returns all allergies in the SNOMED CT database that match.

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

You can add supporting comments under the allergy name in the box on the right.
Save to continue. Your organisation might add additional fields here, such as type and severity of the allergy.
The allergy and supporting comments are shown in the EPMA 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 EPMA 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.

Completing a VTE assessment

From  Inpatients > Patient List > double-click on a patient's name > Patient Detail, select Meds.
Select VTE Assessment Form.

Previously completed VTE risk assessments are displayed.
Select Perform Assessment to launch the assessment page.
On the assessment form, select risk factors, or select None of the above.

Selected options are indicated by a tick.
Select Next.

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

The assessment outcome shows in the EPMA banner.

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

Adding height and weight

From  Inpatients > Patient List > double-click on a patient's name > Patient Detail, select Meds.
Select Height and Weight.

If the height and weight are recorded in Observations on the mobile app, they populate, or update, the EPMA banner.
Enter the height and weight.

Nervecentre calculates the BMI.

Nervecentre might calculate the body surface area. Body surface area calculations are only for adults.

You might be able to select if the height and weight measurements are reported, estimated, or actual.
Select Next.
Add comments, as necessary.
Select Submit.

Height, weight, and BMI show in the EPMA banner.

Adding enteral routes

From  Inpatients > Patient List > double-click on a patient's name > Patient Detail, select Meds.
Select Enteral Route.
Select one or more enteral routes from the list.

Only the selected enteral routes are available when prescribing, and for all future prescriptions need you to select a route from the list.

Before you prescribe or administer medications

Before you prescribe or administer medications on a mobile

Before you prescribe or administer medications on a desktop