The Challenge
eScripts are already used by GPs and community pharmacies. They are particularly useful for telehealth and virtual care services.
At present, NSW Health doctors don't have access to ePrescribing technology. This means doctors must use paper prescriptions to prescribe medication during telehealth consultations. In addition, prescription records are not contained in the eMR and require clinicians to navigate multiple systems to gain a full picture. Having prescription records in the eMR will allow more clinicians involved in patient care to see the full medication history, which in turn will deliver better clinical decision-making.
Paper prescriptions are less efficient and might not be as safe because they can go missing or be hard to read. There's a greater chance of making mistakes when typing prescription information during the dispensing process, whereas eScripts automatically populate relevant fields.
Many patients in rural areas depend on telehealth and virtual care services. Often there is no local doctor to prescribe medication or there is a delay to see a doctor. eHealth NSW will trial ePrescribing in two rural multipurpose facilities with aged care beds to test the full capabilities of the system and support future proofing. Testing in aged care setting with residents, will allow for the use of the full Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and while also addressing the challenges this patient group face.
The Plan
eHealth NSW is partnering with Murrumbidgee and Western NSW Local Health Districts (LHD)s to pilot ePrescribing in aged care beds in multipurpose facilities.
This means that residents will be able to attend virtual care consultations and have their prescriptions sent digitally, direct to the pharmacy of their choice. At the same time, clinicians will have more complete records of what medications have been prescribed for patients, their active medications and any medications that were prescribed in hospital.
Prescribing for virtual care appointments will be streamlined because:
- prescribers won't need to change systems to prescribe, and
- paper or handwritten prescriptions that require double handling will be eliminated (i.e. faxed then posted to the pharmacy, and dispensed then re-dispensed to reconcile when received in the mail). eHealth NSW is also partnering with the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) as part of their "Electronic Prescribing in Public Hospitals" project, which aims to help States upgrade their eMR systems for ePrescribing. Partnering with ADHA will help eHealth deliver the significant safety benefits and workflow efficiencies that are delivered by ePrescribing for virtual care.
The pilot is scheduled to start in early 2024 and an evaluation will be conducted at the conclusion of the project.
The Outcome
A pilot will begin in 2024 for Murrumbidgee Local Health District and Far West NSW Local Health District.
The Benefits
The pilot is expected to deliver a range of benefits for facilities, healthcare professionals and residents. These include:
- Improved patient safety for aged care residents by allowing clinicians to see full medication history which is expected to support a reduction in medication errors
- More complete medication records in the eMR, making it easier for doctors to make more holistic treatment decisions
- Additional support for accurate dispensing for community pharmacists
- Faster, simpler and easier for NSW Health clinicians to generate prescriptions now and in future
- Streamlined prescribing processes for NSW Health clinicians in Residential Aged Care Facilities.
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