Prescribing

Before prescribing, you should ensure that your account settings are configured:

• In Settings > Manage Users, select your username and open the Practitioner Details tab to view your Billing Provider status.
• At the bottom of the Practitioner Details tab you can enter your prescriber number, and select your prescriber type.
• After entering your details, select the Save button to exit this window. 
  

You should also ensure that you have your pre-printed PBS/RPBS forms ready.

1. Access the patient's file and select Add > Medications.
   
   
   
   • The first time you select Add > Medications, a disclaimer will appear, as shown below.
   • Please read through the disclaimer carefully and select either Accept or Decline.
   • The disclaimer will only appear the first time you attempt to add a Medication for any patient, unless you select Decline.
   • Please note that you will not be able to proceed with adding medications or creating prescriptions until you have read and accepted the disclaimer.
     
     
2. After you accept the disclaimer, you will see the Add Medication section appear, as shown below.
   

While searching for medications, you will be able to view the patient's adverse reactions (allergies), past recorded medications, and diagnoses, by expanding the respective headings.

Search for medications

1. Click into the 'Search for medications' field and begin typing in the medication name (either brand name or active ingredient/generic name specific). You must enter at least 3 characters in order for Gentu to begin searching & display results.
2. Gentu will present you with a list of medication names matching your search term.
   

In compliance with Active Ingredient Prescribing legislation, both the brand details and active ingredient will be shown in your search result if you are searching by brand name. If you are searching by active ingredient or generic name, brand information will not be available unless the item is not bio-similar between brands or the brand is mandatory.

3. Select a medication from the list of results.

Adding multiple medications

To add additional medications to the prescription:

1. Return to the 'Search for medications' box at the top of the screen.
2. Enter the new drug name.
   
3. Select the additional drug from the results list to add it to the prescription.
4. Repeat as needed until you have added all desired medications to the script.

Removing/changing medications

If you have accidentally selected the wrong medication from the search results list:

1. Find the drug name in the Medications list.
2. Select the X icon to the right of the drug name.
3. Press Confirm to remove the medication from the script.
4. Alternatively, remove a drug from the current prescription by clicking the X to the far right of the drug name under the Selected Medication heading.
   
   
   

Medication details

After you have selected at least one drug, it will appear under the Selected Medication heading.

• Gentu will prompt you to enter further details - the start and end date, dose, repeats, quantity, frequency, instructions, and reason.
• If the medication is of Restricted or Authority type; Gentu will also present you with prompt. Confirm the prompt to proceed with prescribing the drug under the selected scheme, or cancel the prompt to prescribe the drug privately.
• Please see the Authority Prescribing section below for more detail.
• Within the Selected Medication, you can change the Scheme of the drug by clicking on the current scheme type and selecting the appropriate option from the menu.
• If there are PBS recommendations available for the drug (e.g. Quantity, Repeats), these values will be automatically populated into the Medication Details section. These values can be left as is, or amended as needed.
• If you wish to include the brand name of a medication on your printed script, you will need to manually select the checkbox for the medication. If an item can only be prescribed by brand, this will be selected automatically.
• If you are creating a script containing multiple drugs, you can collapse or expand the medication details by clicking the arrow icon to the left of the drug name.
  
• After you have added the necessary details for each drug, press the Prescribe button at the bottom right of the screen.
  
• Gentu will generate a prescription for printing, and will save all medications on the script to the patient's Medications table.
  
  
  • Please note that in order to successfully print, you must ensure that the Start Date, Dose, Repeats, Quantity, and Frequency details have been entered for all drugs.
• If you do not wish to print the prescription, you can simply press the Save button. This will save the selected drugs into the patient's Medications list, without printing.

Printing prescriptions

Prescriptions generated in Gentu are designed to be compatible with pre-printed PBS/RPBS forms.

It is not possible to edit or change the prescription print-out template.

To ensure that the prescription prints correctly, the following print settings are recommended:

• Paper size should be set to A4
• Scale should be Actual Size or 100%.
• Any 'Scale to fit' options should be disabled.

You can change these settings in the browser's print dialog box which appears when you click Save in the new request window.

To create authority prescriptions:

1. Select Add > Medication, search for the drug, and select the result from the list.
2. Once the authority medication is selected; if needed, you can change its Scheme by clicking the current Scheme type and selecting the new option from drop-down menu as shown below.
3. For Authority drugs, you may be prompted to confirm the clinical indication for the drug.
   
4. Select the clinical indication by clicking the tick icon next to the appropriate option (if there are multiple).
5. You will then be presented with the Authority Details pop-up window.
6. Here you will see useful information such as the PBS and RPBS hotline numbers and the patient's full name and Medicare details.
   
7. Below this, you can enter or edit the Dose, Qty, and Rpt options, and enter the Approval Number provided by the PBS/RPBS for this prescription.
8. If the Authority Prescription is an Emergency Prescription, you can tick the Emergency Prescription checkbox at the bottom of the window and fill out the details that appear.
9. Once you have entered all required Authority Details, press Save to save and close the window.
10. If you need to edit the Authority Details you have entered, you can click the Edit button in the authority details banner, or select Restart to clear the current authority details and begin process again (as shown below).
11. You will be returned to the Selected Medication screen where you can continue filling out the script details, such as Frequency, Instructions, and Reason.
12. Once you have entered the details for each drug on the script, press Prescribe to print, or Save to save without printing.

If you would like to prescribe a certain medication but cannot find it when searching the PBS/RPBS drug database, then you may wish to add the drug as a custom medication.

You can add custom medications at the time of creating a prescription.

1. Within the patient's file, select Add > Medications.
2. Type in the full name of the drug you wish to prescribe.
3. Please note: custom medication names are case-sensitive.
4. If no results are found, Gentu will prompt you to create the medication as a new custom entry.
   
   
5. Select Create Medication.
   
6. The new medication will populate into the Add Medication field.
7. You will be prompted to enter the drug form & strength. You can also edit the drug name here, and select the scheme.
   
   
8. Click the tick icon to save any changes.
9. Once you have added the custom medication, you can continue to enter the prescription details (such as the Scheme, Quantity, Repeats, and Frequency).
10. Once complete, click Save or Prescribe.

To ensure custom medications are exempt from Active Ingredient Prescribing legislation, "(free text)" will always appear next to the medication name on the printed prescription.

Gentu will then save this custom medication to the drug database list. In future, you can search for and select this medication to add it to a prescription as you would for any other PBS/RPBS drug.

Previously added prescriptions and medications can be reprinted, or used to generate a new prescription as needed.

Please note: reprinted prescriptions will include all of the original prescription details, including the date of prescription and any authority approval numbers (where applicable).

Reprinting should be used in the instance where, for example, a patient has lost their original prescription.

If you wish to generate a new prescription for the patient based on a previously prescribed medication, you should instead recreate the prescription.

Reprint a prescription

You can reprint prescriptions from the Medications table within the patient's Clinical tab.

Under the Medications table you will see a list of all past medications prescribed or recorded for this patient. 

• Medications which were prescribed are indicated by a printer icon to the far right of the drug name.
• Medications which were saved as existing medications for a patient, without prescribing will not show a printer icon.

To reprint a previous prescription, simply click the print icon.

Please note this will not create a new script for the patient. Gentu will recreate the script print-out using all of the script's original details, including the original date of prescription. If the script is an Authority script, it will print with the original authority number.

Please note: it is only possible to reprint one medication at a time.

Recreate a prescription

To recreate a prescription based on a previously prescribed medication, you can use the following steps.

If you are wanting to recreate medications that were prescribed to a patient before 1 February 2021, they will need to be recreated using the Create a prescription section above to ensure that all new medications comply with Active Ingredient Prescribing legislation.

1. Expand the Medications table within the patient's Clinical file.
2. Find the medication you wish to recreate the prescription for.
3. Click the medication to open its View Medication window.
   
4. Click Add.
5. Gentu will open the Add Medication section and add the medication to it.
6. You can then enter the dose and frequency for the new prescription.
7. If the script is an authority prescription, you will be prompted to enter the authority details.
8. You can continue to add previous medications to the same prescription by selecting them and clicking Add.
9. Press Prescribe to print the medication to a script.

Note: even if a medication has been deactivated, you can still recreate its prescription as you would for an active drug.

If you wish to remove a medication so it no longer appears in the patient's current Medications table, you can do so by ceasing the medication.

Ceased medications will be kept in the background where they can be viewed, re-activated, or re-prescribed as needed.

Cease a medication

1. Expand the Medications table within the patient's Clinical tab.
2. Select the medication you wish to cease.
3. Click the Ceased Medication radio button and click Save.
4. The medication will move to the Ceased medications list. 

View ceased medications

To view ceased medications:

1. Click the 3 dots icon within the Medications table heading.
2. A pop-up menu will open.
3. Select the Ceased medication or Both option.
   
4. Gentu will reload the Medications list to show the relevant medications.
5. Ceased Medications are shown in greyed-out text.

Note that it is not possible to reprint a prescription for a ceased medication. You would need to re-activate the medication before reprinting its original prescription.

However, it is possible to recreate a new prescription from an ceased medication. 

Re-activate a medication

1. Select an inactive medication from the patient's Medications table.
2. Click the Activate button and click Save.
3. Gentu will return the medication to the patient's active Medications list. 

Delete a medication

You can delete medications as follows:

1. Selecting the medication to delete from the patient's Medications table.
2. Press the Delete button.
3. Confirm the prompt.

> Is Gentu Active Ingredient Prescribing compliant?

Yes, Gentu is compliant with all Active Ingredient Prescribing (AIP) legislation. 

Medication workflows in Gentu have always referenced active ingredient and generic medications in the application and when printing scripts for patients. 

To further comply with AIP legislation, brand information is shown when brand names are matched in medication workflows. Prescribers can determine for themselves if the brand name is clinically necessary to print on the scripts.

When searching for active ingredients or generic choices where brands are not bio-similar, all brand options will be shown in search for the item. Gentu will prompt users to include brands when printing the script, although this decision remains at the discretion of the prescriber.

There are also a number of PBS items which are either exempt from legislation or where brand name is mandatory - typically where only a single brand is available or there are more than 4 active ingredients in a product. Brands will always be printed for these items.

Custom medications can continue to be prescribed from Gentu, however, the suffix (free text) will be added to the printed script immediately following the medication to comply with the AIP legislative requirements.

Please see our Active Ingredient Prescribing announcement for further information on exceptions and requirements.

> Does Gentu show medication results by brand name, or by generic name?

In line with February 2021 Active Ingredient Prescribing legislation, you are able to search for drugs by either brand name or by the generic / active ingredient name of an item. If the brand name is matched in the search, brand information will be shown. If active ingredients are matched in the search, only the active ingredient information will be shown.

Active Ingredient Prescribing legislation stipulates that brands should always be shown for medications where generic products are not bio-similar, however, it will ultimately be at the discretion of the prescriber to include this brand information when printing a script. Gentu will provide a prompt in the search results and in the prescribing workflow to suggest including the brand for these items.

There are additional items which are exempt from AIP legislation that will always show the brand name on printed scripts. Gentu will also notify you when the inclusion of the brand information is mandatory.

> Which drug database does Gentu use for its medications?

Gentu currently uses the Australian PBS/RPBS drug database.

> Can I add a medication without creating a prescription (or without searching the PBS/RPBS drug database)?

You can add medications without prescribing them by simply selecting the Save option (instead of the Prescribe option) when adding medications.

> I cannot see the Add > Medication option, or I cannot see the Prescribe button to print a prescription.

This may be due to your current User Role and its enabled permissions. Within Settings > User Roles, you will find the Medications heading and associated permissions.

You must ensure the appropriate option is selected (e.g. Add/Edit, Print Prescription) in order to have access to that feature. If you are unable to change your User Role permissions, or if you cannot see the User Roles link within Settings, please speak to your Gentu administrator, who can enable these permissions for you.

Please also note that you must be a marked as a Billing Provider in Gentu in order to create and print prescriptions. Users who do not have the Billing Provider option ticked in their User Preferences will not be able to print prescriptions.

> Do you have Consumer Medications Information and Product Information for Doctors?

This is a feature available to our Integrated Medicine Information subscribers. Please see our Integrated Medicines Information page for more details