Prescription Types

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).

Accessing the setup page

The PTS sidebar with Setup selected.

Like many of the different PTS utilities, setup is found in the left-hand side bar.

Hover over the sidebar with the mouse cursor and the side bar will expand. Select Setup to reveal a drop-down list of the various setup pages you have permission to access.

To choose a setup page click on its name in the list to be taken to the setup page.

PTS 5 is the most user configurable version of our Prescription Tracking System to date. As a result parts of this Wiki assumes that the reader has permission to access the elements of the system in question. If you don't see specific items and utilities where they are supposed to be you may not have permission to access them.

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

The prescription type popup.

The prescription type popup appears after adding a new prescription type, or clicking on a prescription type in the list to edit it.

Enter the following information and click the Save button to finish creating or editing the prescription type. Some fields may be optional.

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" automatic 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 a prescription type you can make it inactive to hide it from the booking in screen, as opposed to deleting it outright. This way prescriptions previously associated with this prescription type will remain available for reporting purposes.
• Colour
  The colour selected here will be used on the statistical analysis on the home pages and on some of the reports.
• Display on Homepage?
  Specifies whether the prescription type will be displayed or hidden on the graphs on any appropriate user views. When there are more than 6 prescription types to be displayed on the charts for a dispensary, the charts will consolidate them to a single "All Prescription Types" data point rather than show an entry 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. If enabled, the target time of a pending prescription (i.e. one that was booked in when the pharmacy was closed, typically via e-prescribing) will be recalculated when the prescription is started, which is when a pending prescription's barcode is scanned, or it is started on-screen. For example if a TTO has a target time of 120 minutes and was booked in at 03:00, and the dispensary opens at 09:00, the target time will initially be set to 11:00 (120 minutes after open). With this setting enabled, and if the dispensary starts the prescription at 09:30, the target time will then 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 for HL7 messages to be sent to the other application for this prescription type.
• Regimen?
  When enabled the booking in screen will include a field to enter the regimen to pre-populate user defined batches for a patient. The use of regimens is intended for use within an aseptic dispensary.

The scanning sequence tab

Scanning sequence tab

The prescription type scanning sequence, or activity sequence, is one of the core things you will configure in PTS. Here you will define which activities will be scanned and in what order for every prescription that is booked in. You can set a different activity sequence for each prescription type.

After clicking on the scanning sequence tab you'll be shown the existing scanning sequence for the prescription type as an ordered list of activities, like so:

1. Booking In - "Booking in" is always the first activity.
2. Clinical Check
3. Label Production
4. Dispensing
5. Final Check

The scanning sequence can be as long or as short as necessary - though it must always start with booking in. It's not uncommon for some types to be as simple as:

1. Booking In
2. Prescription Complete

Adding a new activity to the sequence.

Adding an activity to the sequence

To add a new activity to the sequence, click the Add button. A popup will appear for you to select a prescription-related activity as previously defined on the activities setup page (go to the activities setup page first if the activity does not exist yet). Select the desired activity from the drop down list and specify whether the activity should be optional or mandatory by toggling the Optional tick box, and then click OK. An example of an optional activity may be Clinical Checking, which is sometimes already done by the ward before the prescription is booked into pharmacy.

When you're done the new activity will be added to the end of the scanning sequence. It's currently not possible to add a new activity to the middle or start of an existing sequence; you should remove the activities back to the point you want to make changes and then add them back in.

Removing an activity from the sequence

You can remove the last activity from the end of the sequence by clicking the Delete button.

To remove an activity from the middle of the sequence you must delete all the activities in reverse order, and then add back any activities you want to keep.

Applicable dispensaries tab

When PTS is being used across multiple dispensaries you can determine which dispensaries may process the prescription type, for example outpatient prescription types may be dealt with exclusively by an outpatient pharmacy and should not appear when logged in to the inpatient dispensary.

To add a dispensary click on the Add button, then select the dispensary from the drop down list and click OK.

To remove a dispensary, click the Delete button.

Role permissions tab

Every role added to PTS will be listed here next to a dropdown where you can set the access that they have to this prescription type.

• Hidden
  Users of this role will not see prescriptions of this type anywhere, even when viewing a home page view that contains one.
• View
  The prescription type will be visible to the user, but the user will not be able to book in a prescription of this type themselves.
• Create
  User will be able to see and book in prescriptions of this type, assuming the user has permission to book in in general i.e. BOOKIN = Yes. This granular control has proved useful in allowing ward users to book in prescriptions of specific types only, such as an Order for Controlled Drugs. This setting will not override BOOKIN = No.

Booking-in options tab

• No. of patients
  Primarily used for multi-patient prescription types. If you need to record details of more than one patient against the prescription increase the default from 1. You can enter "0" here to produce completely anonymous prescriptions but this will also result in not being able to specify number of items or drug details; you can use the demographic options instead for greater control.
• Split into multiple RX?
  If No. of Patients is greater than 1, you can have each patient booked in as a completely independent prescription.
• No. of labels
  The amount of barcode labels produced when booked in.
• No. of tickets
  The amount of tickets produced when booked in. These are the tickets given to outpatients to monitor their prescription on the patient-facing collection status screen.
• Start type
  You can specify the conditions under which a booked in prescription might be considered pending, rather than immediately in-progress. "Pending" is a new prescription status that occurs before the dispensing process, where the prescription is booked in and is recorded in the system, but the "clock" is not started. Chronologically the status after pending is the "incomplete" status, which is when the prescription has started and the dispensing process is underway. A pending prescription is started either on-screen or by scanning the prescription barcode with a barcode scanner.
  1. Always start
     Whenever a prescription is requested (i.e. booked in) it will start immediately, bypassing any pending status. This is the default behaviour.
  2. Never start
     When booked in the prescription will not start immediately and will instead go to the pending status.
  3. Start if dispensary is open
     If booked in when the dispensary is open, the prescription will start. If the dispensary is closed the prescription will be booked in as pending. The opening times of each dispensary can be configured in the dispensary setup page.
• Print labels when
  The prescription status upon which the barcode label will be automatically printed. "Incomplete" is the default, meaning when the prescription is booked in or is otherwise no longer pending (see Start Type setting).
• Reprint labels on
  Choose whether to reprint labels on the same printer used when the prescription was booked in, or on the automated printer specified in Applicable Dispensaries.
• Label Style
  Choose from Normal, Stores, CD Form (A4) or Requisition Form (A4).
• Password when created?
  Whether the user will be asked to re-enter a valid username and password when booking in this prescription type. Primarily used in conjunction with the CD Register.
• Restart days
  The number of days that are allowed to lapse after a prescription is completed during which you can record an activity to restart it. The default is 0, i.e. it can only be restarted the same day it was completed.

Demographic options tab

For each prescription type you can define the demographic information to be captured when the prescription is requested.

• National ID
  This is usually the NHS number.
• Local ID
  This is usually the Hospital number.
• Title
  Patient's title.
• Gender
  Patient's gender.
• Date of Birth
  Can be useful when handing out a prescription to confirm identity.
• Mobile number
  Can be used for texting the patient.
• E-mail address
  Can be used to send an email to the patient.
• Address
  This is the patient’s postal address. Used for satellite navigation and proximity confirmation on the delivery app. Will also generate an address label at the same time as the barcode label to affix to the package.
• Record Drugs
  Before this optional facility can be used the PTS Drugs table must be populated. Options are "No Drugs", "Single Drug" or "Multiple Drugs".
• Select drugs from
  If one of the Record Drugs options is selected, you must specify which list of drugs to be selected from. The options are:
  1. All Drugs
     You can select from any drug/s in the entire PTS Drugs list.
  2. CD Register - Check Disp. Stock
     You can select any drug in the dispensaries CD stock list, if the drug is presently in stock.
  3. CD Register - Don't check Disp. Stock
     You can select any drug in the dispensaries CD stock list, regardless of whether the drug is presently in stock.
  4. Dispensary Drug List
     You can select from any drugs that have been added to the dispensaries drugs list.
  5. Ward Drug List
     You can select from any drugs that have been added to the wards drugs list.
• Schedules
  You can further limit the list of selectable drugs to certain CD schedules.
• Dose units
  If drug information is being captured, enabling this option allows for the dosage data to be entered as well.
• Date requested
  Generally not required but this option allows for the time that the prescription was requested to be entered.
• Security check field
  Specify the security check question used before an outpatient prescription is given to the patient. This is used by an optional patient-facing PTS application that can be installed on a kiosk. If you want more information on this facility, please contact TMSi.

Automatic notes tab

Adding an automatic note.

This tab allows you to specify notes that should be automatically recorded against a prescription whenever it reaches a certain status. When combined with the dynamic nature of PTS 5's notes utility you can accomplish many different things here.

To add a note to be automatic for this prescription type, click the Add button. On the left of the window, select the prescription status at which point the note should be recorded automatically, and then click the OK button.

Some examples of how automatic notes could be used:

• Automatically sending a patient a text message when their prescription is complete.
  Build a note that has "text patient" enabled in the messaging options, and add it to the completion status on this screen.
• Automatically displaying the average waiting time on the ticket that is given to a patient.
  Build a note that has "average waiting time" as additional info, enable Display on Ticket in the display options, and add it to the start status on this screen.
• Recording a signature when a prescription is delivered.
  Build a note that prompts for a signature, and add it to the delivery status on this screen.
• E-mailing a patient a link to a survey for them to complete when they collect their prescription.
  Build a note that includes the link, enable e-mail patient in the messaging options, and add it to the collection status on this screen.
• Automatically suspend prescriptions when the dispensary closes.
  Build a note that suspends the prescription, and add it to the dispensary closing status on this screen.

E-Prescribe mapping tab

If you have e-prescribing configured you can map a prescription type to an EPMA order type and sub type here. This tells PTS which prescription type to book in the EPMA order as.

• Order Type
  The order type in the EPMA system that corresponds to this prescription type. e.g. "T"
• Sub Type (optional)
  The sub type in the EPMA system that corresponds to this prescription type. e.g. "NP"

Printing prescription type barcodes

To begin, select the prescription type for which you want to generate barcodes by ticking the tick box to the left of their entries in the list. You can select multiple prescription types at once. Once you've done so the Actions Menu will slide in from the right-hand side of the webpage.

Click on the Print Barcodes button and the available printers will be listed, along with the option to print a QR code for use exclusively with 2D barcode readers.

Click on the printer you want to use and the barcode label will be printed. If you chose Browser Printing then your web browser will handle the print job as opposed to PTS and a print preview will be displayed along with the option to choose an attached printer.

Available barcodes

• Create Prescription
  Attempts to automatically book in an anonymous prescription for a specified ward.
• Create To-Follow
  Use in conjunction with an existing prescription barcode to book in a follow up prescription of the selected type.