E-Script hurdles still to be jumped

BEING ‘e-script ready’ will require more than activating software updates, a Pharmacy Guild of Australia National Councillor warns.

Following the announcement that the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) had issued the green light for the rollout of electronic prescribing across the Greater Melbourne area (PD 17 Aug), Guild Councillor, Paul Jones, said pharmacy owners needed to be aware of what needs to be in place to dispense e-scripts.

“As a community pharmacist working on a daily basis, e-scripts are one of the most exciting developments to come out of the National Digital Health Strategy and the encouraging signs coming through the Community of Interest testing hubs are showing that the benefits can be realised for prescribers, patients and pharmacies,” he said.

“However, there are still a number of hurdles I see that we all will have to jump over in both the running of a community pharmacy, and in the daily practice as a pharmacist, to be able to deliver and realise the benefits of e-scripts.

“Being ‘e-script ready’, particularly for community pharmacy, means a lot more than simply activating your new software.

“There are a number of elements that need to be in place to not only be ready for e-scripts but to ensure your pharmacy’s ‘digital health’ as well.

“These elements can be divided into two areas of readiness – digital and practice.”

Jones said pharmacy owners need to ensure staff pharmacists have Healthcare Provider Identifier Individual registrations, while their pharmacies must have Healthcare Provider Identifier - Organisation numbers, to access the Healthcare Identifier Service.

He also suggested pharmacies should consider having a dedicated pharmacy mobile number that can be linked to dispensing software to enable patients to send e-script tokens to the pharmacy, and to ensure scanners can read QR codes.

Jones added pharmacies needed to consider how e-scripts will impact their workflow, and how they will manage processing paper and electronic scripts.

He urged pharmacy owners to review their IT hardware, provide staff training to ensure pharmacy assistants are aware of workflow changes, and have contingency plans for emergency situations where they many experience internet outages.

“Ultimately, if you fall at the first couple of hurdles, you are going to have to pick yourself up, and continue the race to e-scripts,” he said.