Image-based prescribing commenced in March 2020 to coincide with the rollout of COVID-related telehealth options, and allowed prescribers to email, text or fax a digital image of a paper script to the patient’s pharmacy following a telehealth consult. This has been used across Specialist Clinics, ED Virtual Triage and all services at Northern Health that use telehealth (televideo and telephone) consults with patients.
This will now cease across Australia for Telehealth on 31st December 2021. Northern Health has commenced a project to ensure that patients that have telehealth consults at Northern Health can still receive prescriptions in a timely manner and to ensure patient safety is maintained. The project will involve reviewing and then implementing an electronic prescribing software that is on the Electronic Prescribing Conformance Register from the Australian Digital Health Agency https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-09/ep-conformance-register-20210907.pdf
The change to image based prescribing will affect the clinicians who work from home or who do Telehealth at Northern Health in many different programs. This includes Medical, Nursing and Allied Health.
Further information: