NZePS integration mandated as move towards ‘truly paperless’ prescribing

Integration with the NZ ePrescription Service (NZePS) is now a minimum requirement for all prescribing and dispensing systems operating in New Zealand as the country moves towards a “truly paperless” prescribing process.

A Medicines Data Repository (MDR) has also been commissioned to provide a single source of truth for prescribed and dispensed medicines information for New Zealanders, based on real-time information received directly from the NZePS.

Vidhya Makam, Te Whatu Ora programme lead Digital Medicines portfolio, says a number of projects are working towards the goal of making the prescribing process “truly paperless”, including working with IT suppliers to ensure they are NZePS-compliant.

In June this year the Te Whatu Ora Whānau, Consumer and Clinician Digital Council endorsed integration with NZePS and MDR as a digital minimum requirement for prescribing or dispensing systems operating in New Zealand.

There are 14 prescribing systems that are already integrated, including all practice management systems used by GPs.

It also includes both Elekta, which provides specialist oncology solution Mosaiq and the Incisive prescribing system used mainly by private specialists.

Both pharmacy systems used in New Zealand are also integrated, so even if a script is not sent via NZePS, the dispensed details are still sent through to the service and can be captured in the MDR.

“This creates a single source of truth of a patient’s medication history that can be integrated with our clinical systems, so the information is available to clinicians wherever they are in the country,” Makam says.

“It will also feed into the medication summary for the patient so that as a consumer you will be able to see what was prescribed or dispensed and what repeats you have available.”

In December 2022, changes were made to allow signature exempt prescriptions for controlled drugs to be made through NZePS.

To enable this, the team has introduced the ability to send immutable script images to NZePS and enable the script and the script image to be directed to a patient’s chosen pharmacy. NZePS-integrated systems are now rolling out these changes.

When fully implemented, a patient will not have to carry a paper copy of the script to a pharmacy if they have nominated a pharmacy to the prescriber.

Per month 1.9 million scripts are being sent using NZePS out of a total of 2.7 million scripts.

Makam says the current work is targeting that remaining 30 percent of scripts to make them NZePS-compliant.

In 2020, a temporary signature exemption was put in place that allowed non-NZePS scripts to be sent electronically as part of the pandemic response. This waiver has been consistently extended, but is currently set to expire in October 2024.

The Digital Medicines portfolio team will be speaking at Digital Health Week NZ 2023 in Hamilton this November.