Creating New Prescriptions

Use Clinical to write prescriptions.

Before you begin

Medications are prescribed from within a patient's Clinical Window. Access it in any of the following ways:

  • Select the Current Rx tab > click Add Item icon or press F3 or right-click within the current medications list and select New Item. The Select Drug window appears. Proceed to Step 1 below.
  • To back-date a script, select the Current Rx tab > enter the script date at the bottom of the Current Rx tab > click Add Item icon or press F3 or right-click within the current medications list and select New Item from the menu. The Select Drug window appears. Proceed to Step 1 below.
  • Prescribe from your Drug Favourites list (if you have saved any favourites), by clicking Prescribe Favourites icon in the toolbar. The Select Drug window appears. Proceed to Step 1 below.
  • Select a medication from within MDref > click Prescribe. The Enter Dose window appears. Proceed to Step 2 below.
  • Select from any drug protocols you have created. Proceed to Step 12 below.
  • Re-prescribe from the patient's old scripts. Select the Old Scripts tab > right-click the item you wish to re-prescribe > Prescribe Item . Proceed to Step 2 below.

Procedure

  1. The Select Drug window appears.
    Example Select Drug window
    Select an item by either:
    • Starting to type the name of the medication into the Enter Drug Name text box and double-clicking the drug or selecting it and clicking Prescribe.
    • Accessing the MDref Class Browser by clicking Select drug by class and selecting a drug.
    • Displaying your favourites list by clicking Prescribe Favourites icon on the Select Drug window and selecting the drug.
      • PBS - Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
      • RPBS - Restricted Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
      • BPP - Brand Price Premium
      • TGP - Therapeutic Group Premium
      • SPC - Special Patient Contribution
  2. (Optional) You can further filter the list of medications by:
    • Ticking the Exclude OTC... check box to hide over-the-counter medications
    • Clicking Brands to show generically equivalent brand names with the same strength as the highlighted item
    • If the medication belongs to a therapeutic Group, clicking Groupto display the members of its therapeutic group.
    • Clicking Current Class to display all items from MDref that are in the same therapeutic class as the selected item.
    • Right-clicking a medication and selecting Single and Multi-Ingredient Products to display other medications that contain at least one of the same ingredients of the selected medication. See Single and Multi-Ingredient Products for more information.
  3. Click Prescribe to prescribe your medication of choice.
  4. (Optional) Once you have selected the medication, Clinical displays notifications f any possible drug interactions.

    Some states have a legal requirement that the drugs of dependence in Schedule 11 must be written on the script by hand. A warning prompt appears when a script to which this applies is being printed.

    There is no allergy or interaction checking on User Defined Preparations.

  5. (Optional) If a Limited Prescription already exists for this patient, a prompt is displayed. Select the most suitable option for your patient.
    Example Medication Cessation message
    • Continue- Updates the script date to today's date.
    • Make regular - Changes the prescription to a regular prescription.
    • Completed - Updates the script record to mark this script as completed.
    • Remove - Removes the script from the Current Rx tab.
    • Ignore - Ignores the prompt. This prompt will appear again next time you access this Patient's Clinical Record.
  6. In the Enter Dose window record data about the dosage of the medication you are prescribing. You can also access Product Information about the medication by clicking PI.
    Example Enter Dose window
  7. Set the dosage. Use the Dose Calculator if desired.
  8. Select a dose frequency.
  9. Indicate instructions as required, from either the list provided or by using stored text from the MedicalDirector Clinical Glossary.
  10. Select a Route of Administration.
  11. Select a Purpose of Action option. Options include:
    • Product Advised here. Allows you to recommend a medication that does not require a script to be printed, such as cough syrup.
    • Product Supplied here. Allows you to administer a medication without printing a script. For example, you may wish to administer a medication that you stock at your practice.
  12. Select the Duration of Medication:
    • Long Term. Select this to prescribe an on-going medication that will presumably be renewed when it runs out, for example, insulin injections for diabetes. Long-term medications remain on the Current Rx tab until manually deleted.
    • Limited. Select this to prescribe a once-off or limited duration medication, for example, cough medicine. Limited medications remain on the Current Rx tab until the estimated duration expires. A message notifies you of the cessation when you next open the patient's record.
  13. (Optional) Tick the MyHealthRecord Consent check box to indicate that you have the patient's consent to add details of this prescribed medication to the patient's My Health Record record. An indication of the patient's consent is displayed under the MyHealthRecord Consent column on the Current Rx tab. This check box is only available if the following conditions have been met;
    • You have enabled My Health Record.
    • You have enabled ePrescribing. This check box is ticked by default, unless the patient has set their record privacy to 'non-advertised' via the My Health Record consumer portal (a check for this setting is made upon opening the patient's record in MedicalDirector Clinical). If during the consultation the patient changes their mind, and grants consent to upload a given medication to their My Health Record, you can tick this check box now. Under such circumstances, patient consent must be granted per medication i.e. this check box will be un-ticked for subsequent medications until such a time as the patient logs onto the consumer portal and changes their record privacy. Scripts approved for uploading to the My Health Record System in this manner are transferred when you print the script.
  14. (Optional) Tick the Include Brand Name on Script check box if you wish to print the medication's associate brand name on the script. See Active Ingredient Prescribing for more information.
  15. (Optional) Tick the Brand Substitution Not Allowed check box if required.
  16. (Optional) Tick the Exclude from Active Script check box
  17. (Optional) Tick the Script Owing check box to print a QR code to fax/email the pharmacy directly, instead of handing to the patient.
  18. (Optional) Tick the Add to Favourites check box to add the drug to a favourites list, which is accessible when prescribing via
  19. (Optional) Ticking the Save as Default check box saves the dosage, instructions and duration so they are available next time the drug is selected.
  20. Record the start date of the medication. The default date is the current date.
  21. Click OK when you are ready to continue.
  22. (Optional) If the medication is an Authority Item you will be prompted accordingly. See Authority Items for further information.
  23. You will be prompted to confirm the drug quantity and repeats. Modify if necessary and click OK to continue. This prompt will differ slightly, depending on whether you are prescribing a limited or regular medication. It is possible to disable the prompt for regular medications via Prescribing Options.
    Drug Quantity and Repeats window
  24. (Optional) If you are prescribing a PBS/RPBS Restricted Benefit medication, you will be prompted accordingly. See PBS/RPBS Restricted Benefit Medications for further information.
  25. The Reason for Medication window appears, prompting you to record a reason for the medication. This is optional (unless you are involved with the GPRN program), so if you wish not to record a reason click Close.
    • See also the Diagnosis Coder.


    • If you choose to enter a reason, either;
      • Pick a hard-coded reason by typing the first few letters of the reason into the Pick from List (Coded) text box, and then selecting the reason from those that appear in the corresponding list, or
      • Enter a custom reason by selecting the Free Text (Uncoded) option and then typing the reason into the corresponding text box, or
      • Select an existing reason from the Existing Past Medical History Items list.
    • The following options are also available from this window:
      • Save in Past Medical History check box. Ticking this check box will save the Reason for Medication to the patient's Past History tab. Enabling this check box also makes available the Active, Confidential and Summary check boxes.
      • Save as Reason for Contact check box. Ticking the Save as Reason for Contact check box will add a corresponding note to the patient's Progress Notes.
      • Left and Right check boxes. The Left and Right check boxes allow items to be marked as either on the left side of the body, right side of the body or by ticking both, bilateral.
      • Active check box. Ticking this check box will save the Reason for Prescription to the patient's Past History tab and flag it as an active condition.
      • Confidential check box. Ticking the Confidential check box prevents the item from being printed on letters, Pathology/Radiology requests, or in printed history summaries for the patient's chart. It is provided so that sensitive items (e.g. termination of pregnancy) will not appear on a referral for an eye examination, for example.
      • Summary check box. The Summary check box allows items to be marked as summary items. They will appear on printed summaries and on letters/request forms (provided they have not been marked as Confidential). If not marked as a summary item, the item will appear on-screen, but will not appear on any printed output. This prevents the printed summaries, letters and request forms from becoming too lengthy with relatively trivial entries i.e. only items of significant importance in the patient's Past History should be marked as Summary items.
  26. Click OK when you are ready to continue.
  27. The Select Drug window reappears, awaiting further prescriptions (this functionality can be disabled via Prescribing Options).
    • Proceed with the prescribing of further items if you wish, or click Close to cease.
    • Prescriptions that you have added now appear within the patient's Current Medications List (Current Rx tab), and are flagged as ready for printing.
  28. Print scripts as required.

Results