Adding and Maintaining Drug Defaults

The Formulary Management Tool (FMT) enables you to add both dosage and prescribed quantity defaults to any item in a formulary that you maintain. Dose and quantity defaults can also be added to items via Tags. Doses and quantities set at Tag level must be indication specific, for example, a dose for UTI over 3 days associated with the relevant UTI Tag.

You can set multiple practice defaults to an item, separating them by age and/or sex range. Default information can be added from the Gemscript defaults or recorded manually.

To add a default to an item:

1. From the Formulary Management screen, double click on the formulary required and then the drug you wish to set the defaults for. The dosage screen displays:

   

   Training Tip - The top right corner includes a link to Drug Information, see Viewing Drug Information for details.

2. Select the Age/sex ranges Plus and the Add age/sex range screen displays:

   

3. From Age, select from:

   • All

   • Between, for example, 16Y and 65Y

   • Over

   • Under, for example, under 3Y:

     

     Training Tip - Use 'Y' for years, 'M' for months and 'D' for days.
4. Now specify the Sex, select from:
   • All
   • Male
   • Female
5. Select OK to save the Age/Sex settings. The dosage screen refreshes with the Age/Sex information, the drug class populates and Add Gemscript defaults activates.
6. To populate with the Gemscript defaults, select Add Gemscript defaults and, if defaults exist, they automatically complete:

   

7. To enter the defaults manually, complete as follows:

   • Dosage - Enter the dosage required, for example, 'One Three times a day'.

   • Quantity - If available the pack sizes and costs display to the right.

   • Notes to patient (Optional) - Enter any comments for patients.

   • Dosage duration (Optional) - Enter the treatment duration in days for this item.

8. Select Save to finish.

The item now displays in your formulary with a Drug defaults present indicator.

Dosage Information

As an item can have several dosage protocols, the details that displays change depending on how it is being viewed:

• If a drug is accessed via its Tag, then the Tag default dosage displays.
• If a drug is accessed via a direct search, then the practice default dosage displays.
• If there is no practice default dosage, the drug dictionary default dosage displays if there is one.