ARTICLE: Dispensing Medications

ARTICLE: Dispensing Medications


Administering both Prescription Medications (PMO) and Over-the-Counter (OTC) medications to students is done via the Medications Module Dispensary. 

The Dispensary is designed to display the daily list of 'Scheduled Medications' and 'Administered Medications' for all students, in one convenient location, to manage the administering, recording, and reporting of medication as required. The students listed are Scheduled to be administered medication today, at the specified time, as dictated by the requirements of their Prescription Medication. This schedule is automatically populated by Reach, based on the frequency and dosage of any Prescribed Medications entered by your school into the student profiles. 

An image and voice tutorial guide is provided here;  Administering Medication

Capturing Administering Staff Identity
AdministeringMedication is a critically important procedure that requires accurate information of the actions and identification of the staff.  
Using generic staff login profiles (eg: Supervisor on Duty) is not adequate record-keeping and will expose your school to the risk of not maintaining adequate records.  It is vital that staff Administering medications are logged into REACH with their own profile.


How to Dispense Medication

Go To: Heart Icon - top menu bar 
Once the Dispensary is open, you can see the two main sections of Scheduled and Administered Medications are clearly separated as top/bottom.


Dispensary Dashboard Basics;

Scheduled 
  1. Standard Search features include; Student Search Bar (top left), General Search Bar (top right), drop-down filters - Houses/Dorms, Years/Grades, Locations, Groups, Column Headers/Filter control arrows and at the bottom of the Scheduled section are the 'Show' filter on the left and the 'Page' control buttons on the right. 
  2. Additional Dispensary controls; Add OTC, Bulk Actions
  3. Download Scheduled Report - Filter your requirements to appear on screen, then click the download button 
Administered 
  1. Standard Search features continue here with drop-down filters and the General Search Bar
  2. The Download button now reflects the Administered section - Filter your requirements to Download the 'Dispensed Already' Report 
  3. NOTE: The Notifications Column now shows O and P icons to indicate OTC and PMO medications have been dispensed



PMO Medication

These are medical products that are prescribed by doctors or nurses. A prescription is required to buy these medicines from a pharmacist. Otherwise, only authorised health care professionals can supply them, such as in a hospital setting.

How to Administer PMO Medication

Only staff who have MED_ADMINISTER switched on in Infinity Permissions and the Accessibility tab of their Personal Profile have permission to administer medications.
  1. Click on the Heart Icon and the Medication Module Dashboard will open in a new tab
  2. Click on the student requiring medication from the Scheduled table
    1. If required, use the search features to select a specific student
      1. or scroll down the listing
    2. Once selected, click on that line item, this will open the PMO Administering dialogue
    3. Check you have the correct student - if not, click the X to close the window
  3. All important information and notes are provided in the PMO Administering dialogue window
    1. A brief Medication History is also provided under the profile photo
      1. This remains blank if there is not administering history to display
  4. Follow the information provided in this window to administer the medication
  5. Check you have the correct student, their name and profile photo are provided
  6. Check you have the correct medication and dosage
  7. Check the scheduled time 
  8. Follow the Notes section as required
  9. The staff name is automatically listed, this is acquired from your login and is historically reported
  10. Enter the Dosage amount and Type as detailed in the medication window
  11. Enter any Notes that may detail this action for the record
    1. In the example below, you can see Notes have been entered to reflect this staff member has ensured the directional notes have been followed, Miss Biggs consumed her medication capsules with food, and her temperature was checked, as was her general wellbeing and overall health
  12. Once all is checked and complete, click the Green Dispense button 

When a PMO medication is administered, it will move from the Scheduled table, down to the Administered table, on the Dashboard. Under the Notifications column header, a blue P icon will appear to reflect this line item is a PMO medication.

An image and voice tutorial guide is provided here;  Administering Medication to a Student


OTC Medication

These are medical products that can be purchased over-the-counter (OTC) for self-treatment from pharmacies, with selected products also being available in supermarkets, health food stores, and other retailers.
Within the Reach Medications Module, OTC Medications are, in most cases, administered in an ad-hoc manner as required by students, this is carried out via the Module Dashboard. 
In some instances, OTC medications may be prescribed for a student by a doctor or nurse when treating illness or injury.  In these instances, the OTC medication must be set as a prescribed medication in the Profile of that specific Student.

For further assistance in this process, please view the Scheduling OTC Medicines details in the following section of this document 

Students require OTC permits
OTC medications can only be administered to a student that is permitted to take that specific medication or category (eg: Paracetamol).
Permits are set for the student, by parents in the Parent Permissions section of the parent's Reach account.
Approved staff can also set student permits for OTC medications. 

How to Administer OTC Medication

Only staff who have med_administer switched on in Infinity Permissions and the Accessibility tab of their Personal Profile have permission to administer medications.
  1. Click on the Heart Icon and the Medications Module Dashboard will open in a new tab
  2. Click on the Add OTC button
  3. The Dispense OTC Medication window will appear.
  4. Click the Student search field and select the required student
    1. Check you have the correct student, their name and profile photo are provided
    2. If not, search again or click the X to close the window
    3. If a student has not been given the Approval to be administered any OTC medications, a Pop-up will appear to advise you
    4. When this occurs, there are two options, depending on the operating protocols of your school
      1. Contact the parent to have them approve the OTC medication permissions via their Reach Login
      2. Authorised staff can switch-on the required OTC medication in the Student Profile >> Medical Tab 
  5. Once you have the required student and their Permits and Permissions are switched on
  6. The OTC Medication can be administered
  7. Check you have the correct student and their OTC medication requirement is clear
    1. Check recent administering activity for this student
    2. A brief Medical History can be seen under their Profile Photo - if any
  8. Click the Medication field to search for the item you require
    1. Only the Permitted medication for this student will appear 
    2. In the example image below, Miss Beatson is approved to receive Panadol
  9. Enter details for medication Dosage amount and Type.
    1. The Medication selected will show the specific details of that medication entered in the system, that is in stock
    2.  In the example image below, this is 'Panadol 500mg Capsule'
  10. Enter any Notes that may detail this action for the record
    1. In the example below, you can see Notes have been entered to show the staff member has checked the student's wellbeing and noted the issue and reason for the OTC to be administered
  11. Once all is checked and complete, click the Green Dispense button 
When an OTC medication is provided to the student, it will appear in the Administered table, on the Dashboard. Under the Notifications column header, an orange O icon will appear to reflect this line item is an OTC medication.

To search the recent Administered Medications history of a specific student, the search features can be used to list the transactions for that student or a group depending on your chosen filter settings.

An image and voice tutorial guide is provided here;  Administering Medication to a Student


How to alter a Dispensing Record

Medication actions, once submitted, can not be altered, they remain a historical record of that action.
There may be an occasion within the dispensing area, that a staff member feels it is easier to just update the medical record already submitted, however, medication being so vital, and so important to keep correct at all times for student safety,  records can not be altered.

There are two options;
  1. Administrator - Your schools Reach administrator, or trusted staff with the EDIT_PASTORAL permission enabled within their profile, can adjust submitted records
    1. However, this "does not" alter the database and if a medication report is generated, the original record will be reported
      1. The 'adjusted' pastoral note, will not display, therefore the 'adjusted' note and the database will have conflicting data
  2. Reach Customer Service - The only way to change the database is for your school to submit a ticket and request a medical record to be altered
    1. In which case the Reach policy dictates that 2 staff (one a senior admin) must be conscious of the change request
    2. Reach, by default maintains a record of the original database record and the altered record 

Detailed information regarding the Medication Module can be found here: Document / Webinar


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