Managing a Medication Register
Maintaining clear and accurate records of a Client's medication requirements and a register of medication administration is a critical requirement for many providers.
To assist providers with managing this information, SupportAbility provides a couple of useful features.
This article outlines how a Client's medication requirements can be recorded in the Medical Conditions section of the Status tab in a Client record, and administration of medication can be tracked via Client Journals.
Journal Types and Tags specifically related to medication administration can be utilised to group Journals with similar content, thereby making them more easily identifiable in a Search Report. Journal Templates can also be used to guide Staff as to the required information to be entered, to ensure essential data is captured and consistent information is recorded.
Privileges: access to the relevant Client records
Audience: Support Staff and Team Leaders
Summary
The following list summarises the content of this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- Recording a Client's Medication Requirements
- Recording the Administration of Medication
- Reporting on Medication Requirements & Medication Administration
Recording a Client's Medication Requirements
A Client's Medical Conditions are recorded on the 'Status' tab of their Client record. There is also provision to enter information about any related 'Medication' that is used to treat or manage the Client's 'Condition', along with 'How it is administered' and additional 'Notes' may also be added to provide further details:
Additional information is available in the 'How to create a Medical Condition' section of the Client Warnings, Medical Conditions and Behaviours article, linked below for reference.
Recording the Administration of Medication
Many providers have found Client Journals and the related Journal functionality to be an effective way to manage the accurate recording of medication administration.
Journal Types
We recommend creating one or more specific Journal Type/s to manage this, which will facilitate your organisation being able to search for and report on these types of Journals specifically.
A single overarching Journal Type may be appropriate for managing this e.g. Medication Administration.
Alternatively, if your organisation requires specific information to automatically pre-populate in Client Journals about specific medications or purposes for using a medication e.g. Pain Management, then multiple Journal Types may need to be created accordingly, each with a uniquely configured Journal Template.
Staff can then select the relevant Journal Type when documenting the administration of these medications.
It is important to note that if your organisation has configured a specific Journal Type to automatically preselect when Staff are adding Client Journals from a Client or Activity record, then Staff may need to be reminded to update the Journal Type to the relevant option when they are recording the administration of medication.
Journal Templates
Journal Templates serve as a useful prompt for Staff as to the required information to be recorded e.g. time administered, administered by, medication administered, dosage etc. Any standard actions requiring completion can also be added here as a reminder.
A different Template may be configured for each Journal Type as required.
Configuring Journal Types and Templates
Journal Types and Templates are configured on the Journals tab in System Preferences:
Once configured, when staff add a new Journal and select that Journal Type e.g. Medication Administration, the corresponding Journal Template will automatically populate in the 'Notes' field:
Staff can then enter the relevant information as required.
Additional information is available in the Configuring Journals article, linked below for reference.
Journal Tags
Creating related Journal Tags e.g. Pain Management, and applying these to the relevant Journals will further assist with grouping similar Journals and identifying them in a Search.
Journal Tags are created on the Tags tab in System Preferences:
Once Journal Tags have been configured and the Journal record created, these can be applied as required:
Additional information is available in the Configuring Tags article, linked below for reference.
Reporting on Medication Requirements & Medication Administration
Medication Requirements
The 'Client Warning Report', accessible via the Client records section of the Reports menu, is a useful tool for identifying Clients with specific Medical Conditions and Risk Levels using the corresponding search criteria i.e Warning Type and Risk Levels respectively.
Assuming staff are entering medication information in the Medical Conditions 'Notes' field, Clients requiring specific types of medication may also be identified by entering a related keyword such as the medication name e.g. Paracetamol, in the 'Notes' Search filter:
The Search will then return a list of Clients where this keyword has been entered in the Notes field of their Medical Condition:
Additional information about this Report is available in the Client Warning Report article, linked below for reference.
Medication Administration
The Journal Search, accessible via the Dashboard menu, will assist your organisation with identifying Journals related to medication administration when filtered by the relevant Journal Type/s your organisation has configured and is using for this purpose e.g. Medication Administration:
If your organisation is also using Journal Tags the Search can be filtered by the relevant Tags e.g. Pain Management, to refine the Report results further:
N.B. While the Tag details are not displayed in the onscreen results you can be assured the Search has filtered the results by all search criteria selected.
The 'Journal List - Detailed' may be printed for sharing with other relevant parties as appropriate or downloaded for further review as required.
Additional information about this Report is available in the Journal Search article, linked below for reference.