CPRS enables providers to place complex Clinic Medication orders. These orders must be placed from a clinic location. CPRS will ask you to confirm that you are placing a Clinic Medication order. You will also have to change the encounter location to an appropriate clinic. For outpatients, you will be prompted if no encounter location has been defined yet and then asked to confirm that you want to order Clinic Medications. For inpatients, you will be asked to confirm that you want to order Clinic Medications first and then prompted for an appropriate clinic location.
In a complex dose order, the user must define specific characteristics for the order. Because the dose can affect the quantity, for example, changing certain fields may cause the quantity field to either recalculate or reset to zero to force the user to enter the quantity.
To order complex Clinic Medication orders, use the following steps:
Note: Depending on how menus are set up at your particular site, you may need to select a different option from the Write Orders pane. Many sites have customized the items in the Write Orders pane. Check with your CAC (or the person who manages information resources at your site) if you have trouble locating the Clinic Medications item.
Note: The following prompts will be slightly different based on the patient’s location. You will be asked to verify that you want to write Clinic Medications and to ensure that the encounter location is a clinic location
You can use an existing appointment if one exists or create a new one. To use Clinic Medications, you must enter a location that was previously defined clinic. If you chose a clinic location, you will see this dialog.
This dialog is to ensure that the user knows they are about to enter Clinic Medications.
Note: CPRS now only auto-selects (highlights in blue and places that entry in the field) a medication, dosage, route, or schedule if the user types enough characters to uniquely identify an item in the list. If the user does not enter enough characters to uniquely identify an item, CPRS waits until the user manually selects an item using the mouse or the keyboard.
Select the quick order or medication name using the mouse or keyboard.
Once the name is selected, CPRS displays a second dialog to select the items for the rest of the order. In the top field of the second dialog, the generic medication name and the synonym (usually a brand name) are displayed
Note: If the selected medication is a controlled substance that requires the signature of a provider with a DEA or VA number, the DEA# Required dialog appears. CPRS allows orders for controlled substances only when selected providers are able to sign the orders. You may need to exit the Medication Order dialog, change the provider selection, and then reenter the dialog.
You must have a DEA# or VA# to order certain medications
Note: CPRS requires a patient have a valid address if the selected outpatient medication is a controlled substance that requires the signature of a provider with a DEA number. For outpatient controlled substances, CPRS displays a message – “Controlled substance prescriptions require a patient address. Please contact administrative support to update patient address information.” if the patient does not have a valid address. The contact information in the display may be customized using the Enter/Edit Missing ZIP Code Message option in the GUI Parameters menu.
Controlled substance prescriptions require a patient address
Note: After you begin a complex dose medication order, you must remain on the Complex tab until you finish the order. If you switch to the Dosage tab, CPRS clears all complex dosages and you will be forced to start again.
The dosage may not begin with a decimal, for example .5; it must begin with a numerical value, 0.5 for example. Also, the character “^” may not be entered in the Dosage field. (The associated cost is displayed to the right of the dosage.)
Note: CPRS now only auto-selects (highlights in blue and places that entry in the field) a medication, dosage, route, or schedule if the user types enough characters to uniquely identify an item in the list. If the user does not enter enough characters to uniquely identify an item, CPRS waits until the user manually selects an item using the mouse or the keyboard.
When the user selects a regular schedule that does not have PRN, the administration times may display in the Schedule column. The administration times will display if they have been defined for the ward or if there is a default
Note: Users can assign either a schedule from the list or specific administration times, but not both. If launched from the Complex tab, the Day-of-Week Schedule builder does not display one-time schedules in the schedule list. Also, because the user is specifying days of the week and a schedule, the list will contain only schedules less than 24 hours (for example, Q36H will not be in the list).
WARNING: The administration times in the Schedule field apply to each day of the week that is listed, such as TU-TH-SA@0800-2000, for example. To create a schedule such as TU@0800 TH@2000, users would have to enter two separate orders using the complex medication order dialog. Also, users may not enter a schedule that only has administration times and PRN but no days.
The Order with Schedule ‘OTHER’ dialog allows you to enter a customized day-of-week and/or administration-time schedule. The user can enter specific administration times or select a schedule from the available list.
PRN will display in the schedule field if the PRN checkbox is checked or if the schedule is defined in the Pharmacy files as a PRN schedule
Note: When selecting the PRN checkbox, the quantity and say supply are zeroed out and will need to be adjusted manually. If the checkbox was accidentally selected, de-selecting it corrects the quantity and day supply.
Note: The conjunction “Then” requires a duration to be added.
The dosage may not begin with a decimal, for example .5; it must begin with a numerical value, 0.5 for example. Also, the character “^” may not be entered in the Dosage field. (The associated cost is displayed to the right of the dosage.)
Note: Your site’s IRM staff may have specified rules governing the status of inpatient medication orders when patients are transferred from one ward or service to another. It may have also specified the number of days an inpatient medication order remains active. Please check with your site’s IRM staff for information about these rules.
Note: You can also add or remove a row in the complex dose. To add a row, select the gray area in front of the row and select Add Row (CPRS places the new row above the selected row). To delete a row, click the gray area in front of the row you wish to delete and select Delete Row.
The date and time that the patient is scheduled to receive the first dose of the medication appears under the Comments field. (For example, CPRS cannot show an expected first dose for “on call” or schedules with PRN. On the complex tab, it will not try to determine an expected first dose after a THEN because the first item must be completed.)
This graphic shows an example of the Give Additional Dose Now for Complex Order warning.
When you select the Give additional dose now check box, CPRS creates two new orders. Depending on your version of CPRS, the order priority and dosing schedule may be set automatically or may require manual adjustments. The pop-up messages displayed will also vary.
The dosing schedule and priority are set automatically for each order. The first order is scheduled for immediate administration (NOW) and is assigned a priority of ASAP (or a site-specific alternative). The second order is given the priority ROUTINE and follows the regular dosing schedule that you defined when placing the order.
If you select a value for the Priority field before you select the Give additional dose now checkbox, a message notifies you that the selected priority will be changed to the “Give additional dose now” priority settings.
Note: If your site does not use the priority ASAP, then an alternative priority (for example, STAT) will display in place of ASAP.
Warning displayed when “Give additional dose now” is selected
When Give additional dose now is selected, the Priority field is automatically set to ASAP (or a site-specific alternative). If you select a value for the Priority field before you select the Give additional dose now checkbox, a message notifies you that the selected priority will be changed to the “Give additional dose now” priority settings.
CPRS displays a notification that “Give additional dose now” overrides any previously selected priority
The default value of ASAP can be changed by selecting a different value from the Priority field before submitting the order.
Note: If you do not complete the mandatory items, or if the information is incorrect, CPRS sends a message to tell you that the information is incorrect and shows you the correct type of response.
-or-
select Quit.
On the Orders tab, CPRS displays Clinic Medications in the Clinic Medications display group, with the clinic location in the Location column.
Related topics