Electronic Prescriptions
You may have seen the advertisements online about the arrival of electronic prescriptions and how it will streamline the supply of medications following a visit to your doctor or from a telehealth consultation.
Before we all get excited or scared about this jump forward in technology, in Tasmania electronic prescriptions are not yet available.
The release of this service is being conducted in stages across Australia to allow the departments of health, the medical practitioners and the pharmacies time to adapt and report any problems that may arise from this new way of doing things.
Presently, when a doctor wants to provide a prescription to a patient, the doctor prints out the prescription, signs it and then supplies it to the patient or faxes directly to the pharmacy of the patient’s choice.
Then the medical practice has to ensure that the prescription is delivered directly to the pharmacy within a strict timeframe or they risk breaching legislative requirements.
With electronic prescribing, the prescribing doctor will generate a ‘token’ which is either texted or e-mailed to the patient or even printed out.
The patient then can then either front up to the pharmacy with the token or conveniently send it to a friend or family member who can then pop into the pharmacy to pick up the medication without having to have a physical prescription.
Though this new technology will become available over the coming months, doctors will still be able to supply paper based prescriptions if the patient prefers.
At Geeveston Pharmacy, we are introducing a system over the next few weeks that allows patients to monitor their prescriptions that are on file.
As a patient you will be able to order a medication when due, see all prescriptions that are on file and whether you need to make an appointment to see a doctor concerning your prescriptions.
This will all be available on a very easy-to-use mobile app and will allow for all types of prescriptions to be shown in one place.
Feel free to give us a call or pop into the pharmacy in Geeveston to discuss what will help you manage your prescriptions and your medications.
If you would like to find out more about electronic prescribing you can visit the Australian Digital Health Agency’s FAQ on the subject.