Electronic prescriptions are rolling out in South East Queensland

The national implementation of electronic prescriptions is underway and after a trial period, software vendors are gradually making the ePrescribing functionality available, in partnership with the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA).

After a successful roll out in Victoria and Metropolitan Sydney, the South East Queensland region is due to be rolled out by the end of the year. This means your practice will be able to update your clinical software and start issuing electronic prescriptions if you meet these technical requirements:

• have a Healthcare Provider Identifier–Organisation (HPI-O) number
• have a valid NASH certificate (required for your prescribing software to access the Health Identifier service)
• have entered your HPI-O and all your GPs’ HPI-I numbers in your clinical software
• be registered and connected to a prescription delivery service (such as eRx or MediSecure) to enable the Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (eTP)*
• use the minimum version of a conformant clinical software. ^†

Once the technical requirements are met, practices will need to also ensure the patient Individual Health Identifier number (IHI) is validated and their mobile or email details are up to date to be able to create a script token.

Initially, prescribers will only be able to issue eScript tokens which are then scanned by pharmacies to download the prescription details from the prescription delivery service (PDS). The Active Script List (ASL) model where a pharmacy can access the prescription details from the ASL registry (following proof of identity and consent from the patient) will be rolled out later, with software vendors due to release updates in early 2021.

Though you may be legally and technically capable of issuing electronic prescriptions, you should check with your local pharmacies to ensure they are able to scan the token to unlock and dispense electronic prescriptions before you offer it to your patient.

For more information about electronic prescriptions:

• visit the ADHA website (includes a link to prescribers’ eLearning modules attracting CPD points)
• view one of the electronic prescription recorded webinars on the ADHA YouTube channel
• visit your clinical software provider website.

Need some help?

If you require assistance to get your practice ready, contact your PHN primary care liaison officer on 07 3630 7300.

* at the time of writing this article, Best Practice and Medical Director ePrescribing functionality was only compatible with eRx, though they are working with MediSecure to make it compatible in future updates

† For Medical Director, when released, the ePrescribing functionality will be immediately available for all practices using MedicalDirector Helix. Practices using MedicalDirector Clinical will need to install a patch. Best Practice users will have to download the ePrescribing Utility File