Aseptics

PTS 5 allows for prescriptions to be comprised of multiple child prescriptions. Booking in such a prescription type automatically suggests and books in the related child prescriptions with their own independent schedule and target times. These are known as "regimens".

Using this facility a pharmacy or manufacturing unit can easily create regimens that consist of a schedule of drugs. Booking in the regimen will automatically suggest and book in the appropriate batches of drugs at the correct individual dates, times and frequencies to administer the course, and allows the regimen to be tracked collectively rather than booking in the individual drugs. The feature is particularly popular with Aseptic departments who wish to track courses of chemotherapy, for example.

While the regimen can pre-define a schedule of drugs, doses etc. it can still be amended on-the-fly if an existing regimen does not exactly meet a patient’s particular needs. Indeed regimens can be created entirely on the booking in screen if you so wish.

User views can be utilised to give the dispensary a real-time view of the progress of the regimen. In addition the dispensary can also see what is outstanding for any patient at any time.

Prerequisites

• For this feature to work in any meaningful way, you will need a populated drugs table.
• It's helpful later on to have a dedicated Aseptics dispensary.

Setup

Prescription Types

This part of the setup process involves creating a uniquely configured prescription type to act as the parent container (regimen) of the child prescriptions (drug batches).

1. As a PTS administrator, create a new prescription type and name it "Regimen" or "Aseptics Regimen" or similar. The name can be generic; this prescription type will be reused for many types of regimen.
2. The parent prescription type should have the following specifics:
   1. Under type details set regimen to "yes", and set show on homepage to "no".
   2. Under scanning sequence, booking in should be the first and only activity (the parent prescription does not itself get tracked; it's constituent child prescriptions do).
   3. Under booking-in options, set number of patients to 1, set number of labels and number of tickets to 0, and set start type to always start.
   4. Include the Aseptics dispensary in applicable dispensaries.
3. RECOMMENDED: Set up new prescription type/s for the child prescriptions/drug batches (see below). The setup of these types have no special considerations except that their start type should be never start, so that the prescription remains pending until the correct time according to the schedule. The number of patients should also be set to 1. Other than that the scanning sequence, target time and demographics etc. are up to you.

Regimens

Adding a drug batch to a regimen.

This part of the setup is where you define the regimen and its schedule of drug batches.

1. As a PTS administrator, create a new regimen and give it a unique name.
2. Under batches, click the plus button to add a drug batch to the regimen:
   1. Under type select the prescription type you want to use for the drug batch.
   2. Begin typing the name of the drug in the drugs field; it should auto-complete for you as you type.
   3. Enter the number of doses (remember this is based on the drug pack chosen in the previous step).
   4. The "starting on requested date" field allows you to build in a delay between when the regimen is booked in and when this particular batch should start. e.g. enter 0 to have this batch start immediately, or enter 3 to have this batch start 3 days after the regimen is booked in (it will be "pending" until this time).
   5. Enter the number of weeks the drug batch should repeat for. This, and the previous step, provide the foundation for the scheduling aspect of the regimen.
3. Repeat step 2 for as many drug batches belong on the regimen.

It's also valid to create a regimen with no pre-defined batches on it at all. This results in a regimen that is entirely defined during the booking in stage. This allows for you to create a custom schedule of drugs on-the-fly and can be a better idea if you're unlikely to re-use a regimen.

User Views & Homepages

A user view configured in regimen mode. Notice that the prescriptions have a batches drop down that displays the associated drug batches.

Expanding the batches drop down reveals the drugs that comprise the regimen. Other than the way they are organised, these act as normal PTS prescriptions and can be selected and progressed in the usual ways.

It's recommended to create dedicated user views for Aseptics.

Because you are utilising regimens and drug batches, you can configure user views to organise the regimen and their related drug batches together which allows for an uncluttered overview of your Aseptics department. That being said a common setup is the use of two different Aseptics user views; one to provide an overview of the regimens like this, but also a separate view to provide an ungrouped view of the individual batches more resembling a normal PTS user view. This gives the user a choice between a patient focused view and a more standard workflow focused view depending on what information they're looking for.

General information on how to set up a user view can be found on the Setting Up User Views page, but the specifics are as follows:

1. Patient focused view (as per screenshots):
   1. Have Aseptics as the sole dispensary filter. If you don't have an Aseptics dispensary, add a filter for the "Regimen" or "Aseptics Regimen" prescription type you created earlier.
   2. Select the show related batches option.
   3. Sort and group the user view however you see fit.
2. Standard view:
   1. Have Aseptics as the sole dispensary filter. If you don't have an Aseptics dispensary, add a filter for the applicable drug batch prescription types (e.g. "Worksheet") if you created one earlier.
   2. Do not select the show related batches option.
   3. Sort and group the user view however you see fit, but consider having the most urgent items near the top of the list.

Usage

Booking In

The booking in screen when booking in a regimen. You can make last minute changes to the regimen before confirming.

If the prescription type and regimen setup has been implemented correctly you can now book in a regimen. Booking in a regimen is achieved on the normal booking in screen which is accessed in the standard way (e.g. via the actions menu in the top right menu of your home pages).

The booking in process proceeds as normal with the following specifics:

1. Type
   Select the prescription type you created earlier.
2. Regimen
   Because you just selected a Regimen prescription type, a new menu will appear wherein you can select a regimen created in the Regimens setup page.
3. Batches
   Having selected the regimen, the drug batches that are defined for the regimen will now be displayed. You can make last minute changes to the batches here, similar to the initial setup, up to and including completely deleting batches and adding new ones. If the regimen has no pre-defined drug batches you could construct the entire schedule on the booking in screen if you wanted.

Once booked in the drug batches will be booked in as child prescriptions and if configured to do so, a barcode label will be produced for each batch.

Progressing

It might seem like PTS is now being used in a highly specialised way, but bear in mind once a regimen is booked in you simply have a collection of prescriptions (the drug batches) which progress like any other PTS prescription, and a parent prescription (the regimen) that no longer requires your active attention.

Whether progressed with a barcode scanner or on-screen using either of the customised user views, the drug batches now progress in accordance with the scanning sequence of the prescription type you assigned them when creating the regimen and/or during booking in.