Pharmacy Daily | Reforms set to make eRx a reality

PHARMACISTS are being urged to brace themselves for managing both paper and electronic prescriptions by the end of the year.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) issued an update to its electronic prescriptions last week noting that changes to the regulatory and technical frameworks for e-scripts were underway, with the goal of enabling paperless scripts by Dec.

Speaking at Pharmacy Connect earlier this month, Fred IT Group Product Manager eHealth and Innovation, Danielle Bancroft, said pharmacies will need to adapt to deliver a seamless patient experience.

"Paperless prescription is the single greatest impact and customer change that we've had in pharmacy in decades," she said.

"Opportunities exist to create a frictionless patient experience by integrating the old practices that we have with the new, and helping our patients to move toward tomorrow's model of care.

"We must exceed our customers' expectations, and [the pharmacy group] with the best customer experience will win this huge upcoming opportunity."

The PBS reported that the Federal Government has been working with State and Territory legislators to create nationally consistent regulations that will pave the way for e-scripts to be dispensed without the current need for a patient to present a paper copy of the prescription.

Pharmacy Guild of Australia NSW Branch Vice President, Paul Jones, told pharmacy owners at Pharmacy Connect that they needed to prepare for a dual, paper and e-script environment once the Federal Government gives the green light.

"We need to start to think about it," he said.

"It's going to happen, [and] we're going to have a dual system for a number of years.

"We're going to have paper and digital scripts - the digital scripts will probably happen with the younger cohort of patients who will demand them from their GP.

"An analogy I use with people is that in 1984 in Australia we got EFTPOS machines, and before that you have to go into the bank between 9:30am and 4pm when they closed ... to get money out.

"In 2017 the Reserve Bank of Australia said we're going to finally phase out cheques.

"So it took 33 years to go from having digital money to phasing out paper money in the form of cheques.

"In health, we can't take 33 years to go from paper scripts to digital prescriptions. It really needs to happen in less than 12 months."

The PBS has outlined eight key principles for electronic prescriptions, with patient choice, data security and integrity central to them.

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