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Version: 3.1

Prescribe a medication

Overview

This flow describes how to prescribe a medication for a patient during an open encounter in Care.

Pre-requisites

  • The patient is registered in Care, and you record the medication for that patient.
  • The encounter is open. You cannot prescribe a medication when the encounter status is Completed, Cancelled, Discontinued, or Entered in Error.
  • You have write access to the encounter.
  • You have the permissions listed below.

Permissions

PermissionAccess
Update Encounter related clinical dataLets you add and change medications for the encounter.

Steps

1. Open the Prescriptions sub-tab

  1. Open the encounter.
  2. Select the Medicines tab.
  3. Select the Prescriptions sub-tab.

Note: Press g then m to go to the Medicines tab.

2. Start a new medication entry

Select the action to add a medicine. Care shows this action only if you have write access to the encounter.

Note: Press k anywhere in the encounter to go straight to adding a medication.

3. Select the medicine

Select the medicine in the picker. The picker lets you search a clinical drug list. The picker also lets you search the facility's inventory.

Note: Which list the picker opens on by default depends on your deployment's configuration.

4. Complete the required fields

Care shows the medicine as a row. Complete the fields in the row.

ComponentsWhat it captures
DosageThe amount of the medicine to give. Required.
FrequencyHow often to give the medicine. Required.
DurationHow long the patient takes the medicine. Optional.

5. Complete the advanced fields

Expand Advanced fields to record more detail.

ComponentsWhat it captures
InstructionsDirections for the patient or the staff. If the patient takes the medicine as needed, record the reason here.
RouteThe route to give the medicine.
SiteThe body site for the medicine.
MethodThe method to give the medicine.
IntentThe intent of the medication request.
Authored OnThe date of the request. You cannot enter a future date.
RequesterThe user recorded as the person who requested the medicine.

Note: If you add more than one medicine, you can copy the same requester to all of the medicines at one time.

6. Add a note

To record more detail for one medicine, enter a free-text note for that medicine.

7. Select the prescription

Add the medicine to a new prescription, or add the medicine to an existing prescription for this encounter.

For a new prescription, enter a name. You can also enter a note for the prescription.

For more about prescription batches, see Manage a prescription.

8. Save the medication

Submit the form to save the medication.

Note: Press Shift+Enter to submit the form.

Expected Outcome

  • Care saves the medication for the encounter.
  • Care shows the medication under the prescription that you selected in the Prescriptions sub-tab.

Concepts:

Flows: