How to create a new Regular Prescription
- Cathy Allison
This page was created for VetView 2.0.11 and has been updated to reflect changes made in VetView 4.0 and later on 9/29/2023.
How do I request a basic prescription?
A Regular Fill prescription in VetView refers to a standard prescription request that will be submitted by student or staff, approved by a clinician, sent to the Pharmacy to be filled, and then picked up by the client to go home. For a Go Home (Client Labeling) Regular Fill , no MAR will be required as the assumption is the patient will not be taking any of this medication while under the care of the hospital.
For In-Hospital Use (Administration Record), the Pharmacy Fill will require a MAR in the patient record. If your usual workflow is for one or the other, this can be set as a user preference, alongside a default Pharmacy.
How do I create a Regular Fill request from the Episode?
There are multiple ways to request the prescription for a specific patient. All of these methods will load the exact same New Prescription dialog box.
On the Visit Information tab, you can access the Add Prescription button via the right click menu on the Episode Header.
You can also add a prescription by clicking on the Add Prescription button on the header of the Medication section, if it is already visible on the episode.
From the patient record Prescriptions tab, Click on the New Rx button. This will load the New Prescription form.
How do I start requesting a Regular Fill prescription?
Fill Type and Pharmacy Selection
Select Go Home (Client Labeling) to start. Verify that the correct Pharmacy is in the drop down menu, or change to the correct Pharmacy. Then choose the Regular Fill radio button.
Product Selection, Instructions, Quantities, and Refill Level
Next, select the product for the prescription request. If you know the product number you can enter that, or just start typing the drug name to display a list of all matching products.
To see the details regarding the selected drug, including the drug class, generic family, and the labeling that will be applied, mouse over the info dot.
For states that require certain products to contain the text Dispense as Written, click on the flag. This option is only available if it is turned on for the selected pharmacy.
For a Regular Fill prescription, you will need to enter in the Instructions, the Total Quantity, and for some pharmacies, the Days Supply. For non-controlled substances, you can also select a refill level up to PRN (permission to refill as needed.) Controlled substances will have restrictions on the refill level defined by the DEA classification of the drug.
Label Expiration, Refill Expiration, and Withdrawals
These control the dates related to the prescription and the patient while taking the prescription.
Label Expiration is how long the prescription itself is valid to be filled. Most of the Regular Fill prescriptions within your hospital will be filled the same day or the next business day unless you checked the Hold Approved Script for Later Fill option, but for external prescriptions, this date will let the pharmacist know the script is still valid. It usually defaults to one month after the request.
Refill Expiration is how long any refills can be processed for the prescription. Depending on your pharmacy’s settings, this is usually up to six months or one year from the date of issue. The prescribing DVM can change this if they don’t want the prescription to be issued past a certain period of time.
Withdrawal how long the patient must have stopped taking the product. This is flag matched on a per patient basis, so the options will only apply if your patient has one of the flags checked in their Patient Details. For example, a bovine that is marked as a dairy producer may have a withdrawal time of 24 hours after taking the product before they can be used for milk again.
Comments, Patient Status, and Status Note
You can pass on any additional information to the pharmacy in this section, such as a mailing address if the client wants the prescription mailed, or notes about the patient status. In this example, the patient will be going home at 2PM.
Patient Statuses are customized by your pharmacy. Contact the pharmacy with any questions about the statuses, or their preferences for the comments and notes for each status.
Dosing Calculator
A Dosing Calculator is available to help dosing levels and capture other information like weight and the diagnosis being treated. The system will prompt for weight to be updated if it is not populated, or if it's marked as approximate. This information may be required for compounded products, such as those used for chemotherapy. (For instructional classes, this feature may be hidden.)
Predefined Instructions and Draft Instructions
There are also two sections to help quickly create instructions: Predefined standard instructions (which can be defined for the most commonly prescribed products) and Draft Instructions. These are built at the Product Setup level by your pharmacy or unit administrators. (Predefined instructions can automatically fill in the quantities and dosage as soon as the drug is selected, depending on the species and product defaults.)
Predefined Instructions
Clicking on the name of the predefined instructions will automatically load the Instructions, Quantities, Refills, and Withdrawals for the prescription. This can be a handy shortcut for common prescriptions.
Draft Instructions
This model is primarily used for teaching the language and pattern of how prescription instructions should be issued.
Reset, Add Script, and Done/Close buttons
Once the prescription has been prepared, it can be saved by the student to have a clinician review it at a later time, or it can be immediately reviewed and approved over the shoulder of the student.
Reset
This button will clear out all of the fields. Use this if you will not be requesting a prescription after all, or want to start over.
Add Script
Click Add Script to save the prescription in a Draft or Requested status to the patient record.
Done/Close
This will close the Prescription window. If you haven’t clicked on Add Script to safe the draft prescription, it will prompt you as to whether you want to safe first before closing the window.
Prepared Prescription List
Multiple prescriptions can be created and stored from the form without returning to the patient record. These can then be reviewed individually, or reviewed and approved all at once.
The prescribing DVM will default to the attending DVM, but it can be changed. A notice can be sent to the prescribing DVM that there is a prescription ready for review.
Once a prescription has been Approved, it is sent to the pharmacy and can no longer be edited by the clinician or student. Any changes will need to be called in to the pharmacy.
If you find yourself frequently prescribing a very standard course of certain common products, talk to your unit administrator about setting up pre-defined instructions! These will let you load the instructions, the refills, the total quantity, etc in a single double click or even as soon as the drug has been selected from the list. For products with a standard instruction set, like flea prevention or Clavimox, this can reduce errors.
How do I create a Regular Fill request from the Patient List?
If the Pharmacy column is visible on the Patient List, and you have the right to Request a prescription, you can open the Prescription Request Window directly from this screen.
Click on the prescription icon to start a new prescription request for the patient.
How do I approve a Regular Fill request from my Mail Notifications or the Home Screen?
Clinicians who had a prescription request sent in their name will receive a Mail notification in VetView (as well as their person email if it is set to forward.)
Click on the patient name to go to the patient record.
The requested prescriptions should be at the top of the Active Prescriptions tab. Click on the product name to open the prescription and approve it.
These prescriptions can also be viewed on the Home screen on the My Pending Prescriptions (Prescribing DVM) widget. You can multiselect prescriptions on this widget and have them all load for approval at once.
On the Prescription Request window, click on the edit pencil icon to view the details of each prescription on the list before giving final approval.
How do I track the status of my Regular Fill prescription?
For students and staff who Requested the prescription, you can see if it's been Approved yet by going to the My Pending Prescriptions (Requested By) widget on the home screen.
If a prescription has not been approved, it can still be edited by the Requester as needed.
This screen also displays all prescription statuses prior to Filled (such as the Ready for Pickup status from the Pharmacy) so you can see if a prescription has been processed yet.