Sydney-based St. Vincent’s Alcohol and Drug Service has launched SafeScript NSW's Clinical Advice Line, a telephone advice service supporting prescribers and pharmacists.

SafeScript NSW, a real-time prescription monitoring system, provides medical professionals with access to real-time information about their patient's prescription history for certain high-risk medicines. 

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

The phone service provides advice related to the safe and appropriate prescription and dispensing of monitored medicines. It is staffed by clinical advisors, such as senior nurses and clinical nurse consultants. The SafeScript team at St. Vincent's is also joined by the hospital's experts in the fields of addiction, pain medicine, and psychiatry.

WHY IT MATTERS

Leona Djajadi, a clinical nurse consultant at St. Vincent's, said the service is about "improving patient safety by supporting prescribers and pharmacists to consider safer and more appropriate prescribing and dispensing of monitored medicines".

THE LARGER TREND

Last year in October, SafeScript NSW was introduced at Alfred Health. It has been integrated with the hospital's Cerner EMR with a link to the National Data Exchange of the state of Victoria.

In November, NSW Health began the first phase launch of the real-time prescription monitoring system. It is still rolling out the system across the state over a six-month period although the use of SafeScript NSW remains non-compulsory for all services.