Skip to main content

Blogs • Electronic prescriptions

New accredited electronic prescriptions courses available

Published 12 August 2020

With social distancing requirements highlighting the need for electronic prescriptions, now is the time to get trained up and accredited. New eLearning courses for prescribers and dispensers are available on our online training page.

Electronic prescriptions form part of the broader digital health and medicines safety framework. They enable the prescribing, dispensing and claiming of medicines without the need for a paper prescription. Prescribers and patients will be able to choose an electronic prescription as an alternative to a paper prescription.

Electronic prescriptions will provide greater choice for patients, support digital health services such as telehealth to ensure continuity of patient care, and help protect community members and healthcare providers from exposure to infectious diseases (for example, COVID-19).

The eLearning courses will help you get ready for national rollout and include three modules:

  1. Introducing electronic prescriptions
  2. Using electronic prescriptions
  3. Preparing for electronic prescriptions

After completing the course, learners will be able to:

  • Describe what electronic prescriptions are and where they are stored
  • Discuss the token model and how it is used to prescribe and dispense medicines
  • Identify key legislative and software conformance requirements
  • Outline the steps needed to prepare an organisation for electronic prescriptions
  • Respond to common patient questions about electronic prescriptions.

The course includes a patient case study to illustrate how a doctor generates an electronic prescription during a consultation, how the patient receives their prescription, and how their medicine is dispensed by a pharmacist. Guidance is provided on how to answer patient questions throughout the modules and videos are used to demonstrate how to register and prepare for electronic prescriptions.

The courses have been accredited by the Australian Pharmacy Council, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine. Practitioners can claim accreditation points on the successful completion of each module.

Please remember that at this stage, prescribing of electronic prescriptions should only be within the constraints of defined ‘electronic prescribing Communities of Interest’. These are locations involving at least one general practice and a community pharmacy in close proximity who MUST BOTH be ready to prescribe and dispense electronic prescriptions.

If there are not community pharmacies nearby who also have their dispensing software enabled, patients may not be able to get their electronic prescription dispensed. Unless you are working within a known Community of Interest, we request you do not yet use the electronic prescription functionality.

Digital Health Security Awareness course

The importance of keeping a patient’s healthcare information safe and secure is a shared responsibility amongst all healthcare professionals. To help you with this, the Agency has developed a free Digital Health Security Awareness eLearning course, available at training.digitalhealth.gov.au.

Share this article