Rx (Pharmacy)

The Rx module is the medication pathway, from prescribing to dispensing. The prescriber writes the order against the formulary, with DDI (Drug-Drug Interaction) and allergy checks that can hard-stop at order time; the pharmacist dispenses from the queue, drawing stock down by FEFO (First Expire, First Out) and printing the label. The two halves are deliberately separate roles.

Caution

The prescriber is not the dispenser. Clinicians and nurses prescribe; pharmacists, pharmacy techs, and pharmacy admins dispense. A prescriber’s permissions never include dispensing, so the dispense screens never appear in their navigation — and vice versa.

Who uses it

• Clinicians and nurses prescribe and may override an interaction hard stop.
• Pharmacists, pharmacy techs, and pharmacy admins dispense, manage the controlled register, and process returns.

Editions

Available in Health Centre, Hospital, and Network editions.

Screens

Screen	Role	What it is for
Pharmacy Dashboard	Pharmacy	The pharmacy overview and queue buckets.
Dispensing Queue	Pharmacy	Prescriptions awaiting dispensing.
Interaction Checks	Pharmacy	Hard-stopped interactions awaiting review.
Controlled Register	Pharmacy	The witnessed controlled-drug register.
Formulary	Pharmacy	The tenant medication formulary.
Returns	Pharmacy	Returns to stock and wastage.

The prescriber’s ordering surface (e-Prescribe) is reached from the patient chart, not from this module’s navigation — prescribers order against the patient, pharmacists work the queue.

Prescriber: write a prescription

1. Open the prescribing surface (titled e-Prescribe — “Write an electronic prescription with interaction and allergy screening”).

2. Search the formulary and add the drug, then set the dose, frequency, and quantity. Only enabled formulary items appear.

3. Interaction and allergy checks run as you add drugs. If a severe interaction or allergy is found, the order is hard-stopped and held — the sign button reads Sign & Send (Override Required).

4. To release a hard-stopped order, open the override modal, enter a reason, and Override & Sign with your 6-digit eSign PIN (your electronic signature, separate from your password). Without a hard stop, press Sign & Send and enter your eSign PIN.

Caution

The DDI and allergy hard stop is at order time and is physician-first: the prescriber must consciously override it with a recorded reason and their eSign PIN. The override is audited.

Pharmacist: dispense

1. Open the Dispensing Queue and select the prescription (or open it from the dashboard).

2. The Dispense screen (“Draw down stock against a prescription — FEFO batch selection”) shows each line with its drug, sig, quantity, and a Batch (FEFO) selector that auto-selects the earliest-expiry lot with stock on hand.

3. Set the Counselling and Substitution fields, then press Confirm Dispense. Dispensing draws the exact quantity down from stock in the same transaction.

4. You are taken to the dispensing-label print, pre-filled with this prescription, to print the patient label as the last step.

Controlled-drug register

Open the Controlled Register (“Witnessed running balance for CD2–CD5 substances”). Each entry — Received, dispensed, and so on — records the drug, quantity, the pharmacist, and a required Witness, and the register keeps a running Balance column. The witness is mandatory.

Returns to stock

Use Returns to bring medication back. A return is witnessed and can be restocked or destroyed (reasons: Discontinued, Wastage, Expired, Patient Refusal, Wrong Item). Restocking returns the units to inventory.

MAR (Medication Administration Record)

For inpatients, a prescribed dose flows onto the MAR (Medication Administration Record) as a due dose. The nurse administers it on the ward’s Medication Administration screen against that same line — chart, Rx, and MAR are one converged record, not parallel lists.

The pharmacy dashboard

The Pharmacy Dashboard is the pharmacy’s landing surface. Four readouts summarise the day — Prescriptions in the queue, Dispensed with the dispense rate, Interactions pending review, and Hard Stops blocking release — above a searchable list of the current queue. Search by prescription, patient, or UHID and press View on a row to open the prescription and dispense it.

Alongside the queue, a Workflow panel links straight to the surfaces that need attention — interaction hard stops, the controlled-drug register, returns and wastage, and the low-stock formulary items — so you can jump to the work without hunting for it.

The dispensing queue

The Dispensing Queue lists every prescription awaiting the pharmacy, grouped into buckets you can filter — To Dispense, Interaction Check, Ready, Dispensed, and On MAR — with each line’s priority (Routine, Urgent, or Stat), how long it has waited, and any outstanding interaction. Search by prescription, patient, or UHID and press View to open a prescription’s detail, then Dispense to work it (the dispensing steps are under Pharmacist: dispense above).

Interaction and allergy alerts

Interaction Checks is the pharmacy’s review of the drug–drug and drug–allergy conflicts raised when a prescription was written. Each row shows the patient, the conflicting pair, the severity, the mechanism, whether it is a blocking hard stop, and its status. Filter by severity to work the most serious first.

Press Review on an open conflict to document it: enter the clinical rationale (required) and, where you hold the permission, tick Override Hard Stop to clear a blocking conflict. Submitting records who reviewed it and the rationale. The prescriber’s own order-time override is a separate, physician-first control — see Hard-Stop a Risky Order and Override With eSign.

The drug formulary

The Drug Formulary is the approved medication catalogue — the single source a prescriber writes from. Each entry carries its generic name, drug class, dosage form and strength, controlled schedule, an optional unit price, and its availability (Open, Restricted, Controlled, or Non-formulary). Search by drug, generic, or ATC code and filter by class; the readouts count what is stocked, what is low, and what is controlled.

• Add Drug registers a new medication. Give it a name, class, and dosage form (all required), and optionally a strength, availability, controlled schedule, and unit price. The unit price is shown to pharmacy and billing only — never to the prescriber.
• Link a dispensable stock item to make the drug dispensable: search the inventory catalogue and pick the matching item. Linking is what lets dispensing draw the drug down from stock, and the on-hand figure then shows on each row.
• Deactivate a drug to remove it from every prescribing and selection list while keeping its history; Reactivate brings it back.