ePrescribing with Audit4
Audit4 v19.2.0 and above supports sending paperless electronic prescriptions (ePrescribing) within Australia. After prescribing a medication in Audit4, the print/send process allows clinicians to send a script token to their patient either via SMS or via email. This token includes a QR code that can be scanned at the pharmacy to retrieve the electronic script.
Getting your Audit4 setup for ePrescribing
Register for My Health Record / Healthcare Identifiers Service
Audit4 needs to be able to communicate with the Services Australia Healthcare Identifiers Service in order to send a script electronically. ePrescription tokens include patient Individual Healthcare Identifiers (IHIs) which are also used to identify patients in My Health Record. If you do not already have My Health Record in your Audit4, follow the registration guide on the following page.
Digital Health – My Health Record: register-and-set-up-access
For assistance with the registration process, the relevant contact details are located under the For Healthcare providers section on the Digital Health contact-us page:
https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/contact-us
Once your registration is complete, contact S4S Support to help you configure your Audit4 to connect to My Health Record.
Register
with eRx
ePrescribing is facilitated through Audit4 integration with eRx Script Exchange. You will need to register with eRx via the following link:
https://register.erx.com.au/asprescriber
You will need to register each prescriber at each location separately.
Please ensure you select Audit4 as your Prescribing Software for each registration.
Once eRx provides us with your registration details, S4S Support will contact you to configure your Audit4.
Start Sending Electronically
For prescribers already using Audit4, once you have completed the registrations above and Audit4 has been configured, your practice will be able to send paperless ePrescriptions to your patients. A training video for Audit4 Clinicians is provided within 4Learning, accessible via the Help menu in your Audit4.
See Also: My Health Record in Audit4
Frequently Asked Questions
- S4S are not charging any fees to help setup ePrescribing in Audit4 for existing Audit4 users.
- There are no charges when sending an ePrescription via email.
- When sending via SMS to a patient’s mobile phone there are no fees for the SMS message. The 2023 May Federal Budget has funded a four year contract with a provider which covers the SMS costs. Thus prescribers will incur no additional costs when sending an eScript via SMS until at least 2027. For more Information:
https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-05/connecting-to-the-national-prescription-delivery-service_0.pdf
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/new-contract-secures-immediate-future-of-subsidise
A PKI Certificate is an electronic certificate used by computer software to secure the communications across an internet connection. In the Australian digital health context:
- A NASH PKI Certificate (often more simply referred to a NASH Certificate) is required for the HI Service which is used to identify patients for both ePrescribing and My Health Record
- A NASH Certificate can easily be obtained and renewed online through HPOS.
- Medicare PKI Certificates have been used for well over a decade, principally for Medicare Online Claiming and ECLIPSE Claiming. As of March 2022, they are essentially legacy and no longer required for any Audit4 interoperability. Integration with Medicare Online and ECLIPSE in Audit4 is now done via a PRODA B2B Device – no PKI or NASH Certificate is involved.
- ePrescribing with eRx can use either a NASH PKI Certificate or a Medicare PKI Certificate for secure transmission of electronic prescriptions (ePrescription tokens).
- As the Medicare PKI Certificate is now deemed legacy, S4S Support opts to only use NASH Certificates for eRx integration in Audit4.
- Existing ePrescribing deployments that were configured to use a Medicare PKI Certificate have been changed over to use your NASH Certificate.
NASH SHA1 versus NASH SHA2
- Until late 2021, NASH Certificates obtained via HPOS were all SHA1 whilst those issued after were SHA2. The main difference is the strength of the encryption – SHA2 is far stronger thus ensuring the encryption stays ahead of the capability of those that might want to crack the code. Increases in computing power is such that the extra work associated with using the stronger SHA2 poses no real problems.
- The Australian Digital Health Agency requires that all SHA1 NASH Certificates be replaced with SHA2 NASH certificates by Dec 2022.
- Audit4 is SHA2 compliant (as well as SHA1) and already many Audit4 installations are using a SHA2 NASH for either My Health Record or ePrescribing or, more usually, both).
- Audit4 sites that renew their NASH in HPOS anytime from now, will be provided with a SHA2 NASH.
- Audit4 will automatically provide ample warning before your NASH expires, and the renewal process is relatively simple with instructions provided in 4Learning. Contact S4S Support for assistance when your new NASH is ready to download and install.
- Any Audit4 site that renewed their NASH Certificate after the 20th of Sept 2021, will already have a SHA2 NASH.
- Unfortunately, a number of Audit4 sites do have SHA1 NASH Certificates that are due to expire sometime after Dec 2022. S4S Support will identify and help these sites to renew prior to Dec 2022 to ensure a SHA2 NASH is being used.
No. The ePrescribing system uses its own email system to send the script token to the patient’s email address. You do not need to have any email address or email program when using the ePrescribing email option.
Once you have a Proda Account and you have an HPI-O then the request for a NASH Certificate only takes a few days after which S4S Support can setup My Health Record for you.
After you have registered with eRx, they will confirm your registration with an email, but it may take them some time before they process your registration. Please forward this email to S4S Support just so we know you have registered. Once eRx have processed your registration, they will send an email to S4S Support. Usually this doesn’t take too long, but if you haven’t heard anything from them or us after 2 weeks, please contact S4S Support.
Training videos are available in Audit4 Learning. To access Audit4 Learning, click on the question mark and you can find a video all about Patient IHI retrievals on the Admin Staff page, and the ePrescribing, Viewing and Uploading from My Health Record videos are available under the Clinician Advanced page.
Mostly, the ePrescribing and the My Health Record interfaces in Audit4 are highly intuitive, but the videos will help you get the most out of the new features and are highly recommended.
As at Aug 2021, the eRx website stated:
“More than 90% of Australian pharmacies are registered with eRx Script Exchange …” Our own checks have confirmed that all the major national pharmacy chains have statements on their websites indicating that all their stores can accept an electronic script.
Some small independent pharmacies may not be able to accept an electronic script at this stage so for patients that have limited options (e.g. patients in a small rural town/area) or patients that want to use a particular pharmacy only, you may need to check with the pharmacy or resort to a printed script.