Electronic Medication Chart dispensing

Eligible pharmacies servicing residential aged care facilities (RACF) can dispense medicines from a patient’s eRx electronic medication chart. eRx Electronic Medication Charts (eMedCharts) are an extension of electronic prescriptions and shares many of the same features and benefits

See Electronic National Residential Medication Charts (eNRMC) – Pharmacist fact sheet for more information.

Before dispensing electronic medication chart for a patient, please ensure that they are assigned to a Nursing Home and the RACF ID is present. See the following link on how to Set Up a Facility.

Dispense an eMedChart

  1. To dispense an electronic medication chart, scan or copy to the eRx token as you would with other electronic prescriptions.

    eMedChart tokens begin with '3'.

    When an electronic medication chart token is retrieved, the eMedChart Prescription item selection prompt will display.

  2. Select the medication that you would like to dispense. For example, dispense the first item, atenolol 50mg tablets.

    At the completion of dispensing, the item selection screen will appear again, ready for the next item to be selected for dispensing.

  3. If no other items need to be supplied from the electronic medication chart, press ESC key and follow the prompts to stop dispensing from the electronic medication chart.

Dispense a specific item from an eMedChart

It is also possible to dispense a specific item from an electronic medication chart without having to select the item from the item selection prompt.

When retrieving the eRx token for the electronic medication chart, include hypen (-) followed by the item number.

Using the above example, if you want to dispense simvastatin 10mg Tab—that is, item 4 in the electronic medication chart—retrieve 356TH7HRJ9N6TD569A-4.

This will begin dispensing the item without the need to select from the item selection screen.

Maximum Number of Supplies

For certain medication chart items (e.g., Schedule 8 medicines), the prescriber may specify a maximum number of supplies allowed. This works similarly to how a prescriber includes the number of repeats on a standard prescription.

The prescription displays both:

  • The number of supplies already dispensed, and

  • The maximum number of supplies permitted.

In the example below, the prescriber has allowed a maximum of one supply, and currently zero supplies have been dispensed. This means there is one supply remaining for Oxycodone 5 mg Tablets.

If a Max Supply value is not shown on the prescription, it means the prescriber has not set a limit on the number of supplies for this item. Standard PBS requirements still apply, including the rule of no more than one PBS Code per prescriber per day.

If a previous supply has already been dispensed from this chart, the details will appear above the prescription in the yellow section.

Patient Profile

When an eRx electronic medication chart token is scanned, the token will automatically be saved against the patient profile. Entering chart mode with CTRL + SHIFT + C will automatically load the current eRx eMedChart