Prescription Types
Overview
Setup is found in the grey left-hand side bar. Hover over the sidebar with the cursor and the bar will expand. Select Setup to expand a drop-down list of setup pages within PTS. To choose a setup page, select its name from the list.
Prescription types are the fundamental category that a prescription falls into. TTO, Outpatient, Inpatient and Controlled Drugs are examples of prescription types.
Prescription types are also where the prescription-related activities are associated with a prescription and the order in which they should be recorded (i.e. the scanning sequence).
Adding new prescription types
PTS is shipped with a number of popular prescription types pre-configured, such as Inpatient and TTO. If you need to create a new prescription type access the actions menu by clicking on the actions menu icon at the top right of the page, then from the actions menu click the New Prescription Type button.
The process then continues in the prescription type popup.
Editing existing prescription types
To edit an existing prescription type, select the prescription type you wish to amend by clicking on its entry in the list to load the prescription type popup (note clicking the tickbox has another dedicated function).
Prescription type popup
Type details tab
- Description
A short but descriptive name for the prescription type, e.g. Inpatient, TTO etc. - Abbreviation
This can be a code or initials that will appear on the dispensary status screen. - Items desc.
Here you can set the terminology used to describe the items on a prescription. The default is "item", but it may be appropriate to change this if you are using PTS for a more bespoke purpose, such as "containers" or "pallets" in a warehouse environment. - Target completion time
This is the maximum duration in minutes the prescription type should take to complete the dispensing process. This is the time that controls the various red, amber and green indicators throughout the system such as user views and status screens. - Amber method
Here you can set the methodology to determine when the prescription’s progress bar turns from green to amber. The options are either a percentage of the target completion time or when there are a pre-defined number of minutes until the target completion time. The prescription always turns red when the target time is breached. - Amber % or mins.
Enter the value before the progress bar turns from green to amber. This will be either a percentage or number of minutes, based on the Amber method setting. - Record collection?
If you intend to record the collection of this prescription type, choose Yes. When this is enabled the collection status will change to "Waiting for Collection" when the prescription is completed. Turn this off if you do not intend to record collection or your prescriptions will remain at waiting for collection indefinitely. - Record delivery?
If you intend to record the delivery of this prescription type using the Android or iOS PTS app, choose Yes. When this is enabled the collection status will change to "Waiting for Delivery" after it is collected. - Target delivery time
The target time for delivery in minutes. This is the time from being started in the dispensary to when it should be delivered to the ward. This time is used to control the red, amber and green indicator on the Delivery Status screen. - Process Disp. Close after...
When a dispensary is closed, specified users have the opportunity to record the close of the dispensary in PTS. Doing this will record any "on Dispensary Close" auto-recorded-notes that have been defined for a Prescription Type, and will also record an activity (usually "end of shift") against all users that are recording activities on incomplete status prescriptions. Setting a value in this field will allow a grace period before this procedure is performed. For example you might want to give staff 20 minutes to finish off work on some Prescription Types after the dispensary closes. This setting is particularly useful when the closing of the dispensary is automated. - Active?
If you no longer use this prescription type you can make it inactive, if you select No this prescription type will no longer be available when booking-in or for filtering user views. However, data already associated with this prescription type will still be available for reporting purposes. - Colour
Click on this to open the colour palette. The colour selected here will be used on the statistical analysis on the home pages and on some of the reports. - Display on Homepage?
This allows this prescription type to be shown or hidden on the graphs on the right- hand menu of any User views established for a user. If there are more than 6 Prescription Types that are to be displayed on the charts for a Dispensary, the charts will show a single ‘All Prescription Types’ line rather than a line for each type. This is to avoid the charts becoming cluttered. - Recalc. Target on Start?
This option only has an effect if the Start Type for a prescription type is set to either Never Start or Start if dispensary is open (This option is explained below). If set to Yes, the Target time of a pending prescription (one that was booked in when the pharmacy was closed typically via e-prescribing) will be recalculated when the prescription barcode is scanned or by starting the prescription on screen e.g. If a TTO has a target time of 120 mins and was booked in at 03.00 and the dispensary opens at 09:00, the Target time will be set to 11:00 (120 minutes after it opens). If the dispensary starts the prescription at 09.30, the target time will be recalculated to 11.30 (120 minutes after it was started). - Send HL7 Status Message?
Where PTS is integrated with other systems, e.g., whiteboards on the wards, this setting allows messages to be sent to the other application. - Regimen?
When set to ‘Yes’ the booking-in screen will prompt to enter the name of the Regimen to pre-populate user defined batches for a patient. The use of Regimens is intended for use within an Aseptic dispensary and is discussed in detail in Module 6.