National standardised PBS medication chart to be developed.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care is developing a national standardised medication chart for inpatient and outpatient use in public and private hospitals that will provide for the prescribing, dispensing and claiming of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines directly from the chart, “as appropriate”, the Commission has said.
The Department of Health said the ‘PBS Hospital Medication Chart Project’ aimed to improve the safety of medication management in hospitals through standardised medication charting and management practice.
It would be developed in two phases, with the first phase a paper only period, where trials of paper-based hospital medication charts for PBS prescribing, dispensing and claiming were planned for the first half of next year.
The second phase would be electronic, with trials starting in 2016, to be finalised by March 2017, the Department said.
Stakeholder consultations, including with pharmacy, would be held and a schedule was being developed, it said.
For more information, see tomorrow’s Pharmacy Daily.
