The EMR medication orders relating to dose ranges have been updated in preparation for the barcode medication administration process at the Victorian Heart Hospital. The necessary changes however need to be applied to the medication order sentences across our current inpatient EMR workflows, at all Monash Health sites. Insulin sliding scale orders will not change.
There are two main changes:
- Medications with regular and scheduled administrations will no longer have dose ranges in the order sentences
- Only medications that are to be administered ‘when necessary’ (PRN) will have pre-built order sentences with dose ranges specified
Existing order sentences saved in favourites can continue to be used at our current hospital sites but not at the Victorian Heart Hospital.
This change does not impact: i) insulin sliding scale orders, or ii) continuous infusions.
| Scenario 1: For medications where regular administration is required, the Dose Range in special instructions have been removed. |
| Previous: | New: |
| 20 – 40 mL Lactulose order | Order either 20 mL Lactulose |
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| OR, 40 mL Lactulose | |
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| Note. Do NOT order both doses |
| Scenario 2: For medications that are more commonly administered ‘when necessary’ (PRN), the PRN have been added to the order sentence to allow for Dose Ranges to be administered. |
| Previous: | New: |
| Once only 4 mg Ondansetron PRN up to 8 mg | 4 mg PRN up to 8 mg per dose up to 3 times per day |
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Approved by Michael Franco