Dispensing Wizard  

 

Once an electronic prescription has been received and you have selected/highlighted the transmission on the eMessages tab, the next step is to confirm the identity of the patient and to discover whether the patient already has a patient record in Pharmacy Manager before going on to dispense the items.

 

In many instances, the patient may already have a patient record in your system when they get their first electronic prescription. In some cases the patient will be new to your system and will have their first electronic prescription. Both these different types combine to create a third type of patient - existing with their second or subsequent electronic prescription - once they have had their first electronic prescription.  There are links to all types below.

 

Dispensing under EPS requires no less vigilance from pharmacists, dispensing technicians and other support staff than when dispensing the paper prescriptions used in pre-EPS dispensing.  

It remains possible to select the wrong patient, particularly when you are identifying a patient who has not previously had an electronic prescription and especially when there is a list of similar sounding names.

If adequate care is not taken, you may overwrite patient details incorrectly. Please take appropriate note of any warning prompts that appear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To start this process, on the eMessages tab, click the Dispense button to start the Patient selection wizard.

Alternatively, type & .

Furthermore, you can type & to open the eMessages drop down menu and select the Dispense option from there.

 

For an explanation of any of the variations, choose and click a link below:

 

See also Existing patients - first EPS prescription

 

See also New patients - first EPS prescription

 

See also Existing patients - subsequent EPS prescription

Selecting multiple prescriptions   

Pharmacy Manager permits multiple prescriptions for the same patient to be selected providing they are the same prescription type and from the same prescriber. Furthermore, they should all be valid i.e. not expired.

 

  • Highlight the first selection and then, holding down the key, click subsequent selections with the mouse.

  • Alternatively, once the first selection is highlighted, again holding down the key, use the   or cursor arrows to move to a subsequent selection. Press the bar to highlight the subsequent selection.

  • Furthermore, if the intended selections are next to each other, select the first prescription, and then continue to highlight further selections by holding the and pressing the   or cursor arrow.

  • Once the multiple selections have been made, click the Dispense button with the selected prescription highlighted button to start the Patient selection wizard.

 

Once the Patient selection wizard starts, the prescriptions are merged into one virtual prescription selection. However, the separate prescriptions can be identified by the item numbering. For example, if there were eight items initially spread over three prescriptions, the item numbering would be 1, 2, 3 followed by 1, 2, 3 again, followed finally by 1 and 2.

 

For EPSR2 configured systems in England, whilst it is possible to separately group either two or more EPSR1 prescriptions or two or more EPSR2 prescriptions so long as the other criteria are met, it is not possible to group together a mixture of EPSR1 and EPSR2 prescriptions.

 

See also Multiple selection mismatch alerts

See also EPSR1 endorsement printing against multiple selections  

 

Automatic prescription grouping

When eMessages for the same patient have arrived at different times, you may overlook making a multiple selection.

 

In order to avoid patient inconvenience if they do not receive all their medication, Pharmacy Manager can be configured to alert you when there are two or more outstanding prescriptions for the same patient.

 

  • Click the Yes button to group the prescriptions and dispense them together.

To enable grouping to take place, matching criteria must be met:

  • Patient details are the same - name, NHS number, date of birth, gender, address, postcode and prescriber.

  • Prescriber is the same.

  • All prescriptions must be New status.

  • No prescriptions must have expired.

  • All prescriptions must be the same message type.

Message type will vary depending on region. In England, this would normally be separately distinguished as EPSR1 or EPSR2. In Scotland, the types would be Pharmacy First Scotland - Standard (MAS), AMS & CMS.

 

See also Pharmacy details - Electronic messaging

 

Electronic prescriptions with Repeat Rx registered patients

If a selected prescription is for a Repeat Rx registered patient, an alert appears indicating that electronic prescriptions are not compatible with Repeat Rx.

  • Click the Yes button to continue dispensing the prescription outside the scope of Repeat Rx

  • Alternatively, click the No button which will cause the patient selection wizard to close immediately.

  • You must then deal with the electronic prescription manually. This would mean returning the electronic prescription to the spine and processing the paper  prescription as the repeat.

Updated 1st August 2013