Getting Started with Drug Manager
- First Time Use
- Setting Up Drug Manager
- Using Drug Manager
- Changing User Permissions
- Alerts
- Training Courses
- Reports and Audits
Please note: Drug Manager is hosted on the NHS network so you will only be able to access it from within the N3 network. This is due to Information Governance requirements.
When accessing drug manager for the first time a new user will created for you. Because FPMS Pro and drug manager are closely linked, all of your user information will be transferred over automatically. You will need to provide a password and re-enter it to confirm
When entering drug manager you will be presented with one of 2 screens; if you are an admin in FPMS Pro then you will see the following options:
If not then you will see a message informing you that you need to contact an administrator to change your role.
If not then you will see a message informing you that you need to contact an administrator to change your role.
Locations
In drug manager there are locations and containers. A location is any location you wish to categorise things by, this could be by surgery so you could have one location for main surgery and one for a branch surgery. To add a location go to settings > locations > locations > create
A location can also be an area within a building, for example top floor. Locations can be within another location so when adding a location you could set top floor to be within main surgery like below:
Containers
Once you’ve added the locations you want it’s then time to add containers. Containers are physical places that drugs are kept, this can be a controlled drug cabinet, fridge or a doctors bag. To add a container go to settings > locations > containers > create
When adding a container you must select a location that the container is based in so make sure you’ve added the location you want to add the container to:
Suppliers
Suppliers are the companies that you order any drugs from, when adding drugs into the system you are asked to select the supplier that provided the drugs, this information is used to track where a drug came from for auditing purposes.
To add a supplier go to Settings > Suppliers > Create new
You’ve now completed the initial requirements for setting drug manager up.
Before you can use drug manager you’ll need to add some drugs into the system. To add a drug you’ll need to go to Delivery, this can be done through the delivery option on the menu or from the drug delivery button on the home page:
To add drugs just type the details of the drug you want to enter and drug manager will automatically search the NHS drug dictionary for any drugs that match. The more information you provide the more accurate the results are so try to provide as much information as possible. For example, typing the drug name, strength and manufacturer will usually provide you with a very accurate list of drugs.
Once you find the drug you want to add simply click the row in the table and you will be provided with a box to provide details about the drug. See below for instructions:
Carry on adding drugs t the delivery until you are done, once you’ve added all the drugs you wish to add simply press the delivery option on the menu or press go to basket:
Here you will see a list of all the drugs you have added to the delivery, you can edit a drug if anything is wrong or remove a drug completely. If everything is fine then press complete delivery
Now you will be prompted for information about the delivery, this allows you to trace exactly what delivery a drug came from.
Once you have drugs in the system you can then perform various actions with them. The 5 main actions are as follows:
- Administer drug:
Administer drug is where you give a drug to a patient, here you provide information about the patient, the date you administered the drug and the dosage. If the drug is a controlled drug then a witness must be provided. The witness must authenticate with drug manager using their username and password to ensure that the user witnessing is actually there to witness the administering of the drug.
- Transfer drug:
Transferring a drug is where a drug is moved from one container to another, this may be to a container in a different location. You can transfer the whole pack of drugs or only some of it.
- Destroy drug:
This is where a drug is destroyed and removed from the system, a reason for the destruction must be provided. If the drug is controlled then a drug destruction witness must also provide their username and password to ensure they are there when the drug is destroyed.
- Return drug to supplier:
Returning a drug to supplier removes the drug from the system and records that the drug was returned to the supplier, because drug manager knows which supplier the drug came from in the first place there is no need to provide the supplier details. You must provide a reason for the drug being returned to the supplier. If the drug is controlled then an authorised witness must authenticate with drug manager to ensure they witnessed the returning of the drugs to the supplier.
- Correct drug stock
Sometimes mistakes happen and so it is here that any mistakes that have been made are corrected. Provide the actual stock of the drug and the reason the stock amount was incorrect. If the drug is controlled then a witness must authenticate with drug manager to confirm the actual stock of the drug.
To perform an action with the drug simply click the icon on the right hand side of the drug.
The icons for each action are as follows:
You must be a clinician to perform this action (see user permissions) .When administering a drug you need to select a patient that you are administering the drug to. To do this click the magnifying glass icon next to Patient
To find a patient, type the patients name into the search box on the right hand side of the popup and then select the patient from the list.
If the patient you want to administer the drug to isn’t there then click add patient, provide their details and click add, then search for them in the list and select them as above.
Once you’ve selected a patient, provide the dosage administered, the date administered and press administer drug. The drug administration is now recorded and the stock has been updated.
Destroy Drug:
Destroying a drug requires clicking the destroy drug icon, providing a reason for destruction and then pressing destroy drug. If the drug is controlled then this must be witnessed by a controlled drug destruction witness. See below for how to do this:
Transfer drug:
Transferring a drug is relatively simple in drug manager. Firstly, press the transfer drug icon; you are now presented with a drop down list of all the containers you can transfer the drug to, select a container and then enter the number of items you wish to transfer, this can be all of them or just some. Press transfer and the drugs will move from their current container into the one you selected.
Return drug to supplier:
Returning a drug to a supplier is very similiar to destroying a drug, the process is the same but it is audited that the drug was returned. A reason must be provided for the drug being returned, if the drug is controlled thena witness must also be provided and authenticated. Press return drug and the drug is now removed and recorded as returned.
Correct drug stock:
Correcting the stock of a drug is something that in theory should never need to happen. Mistakes do happen though and this is how mistakes are corrected. If you realise a mistake has been made then press the correct drug stock button, provide the ACTUAL stock of the drug, provide a reason for the discrepancy and press correct drug.
By default, unless the user is an administrator in drug manager users can’t perform any actions other than logging in. Users are created automatically when a user logs in from FPMS Pro into drug manager, all of their details are automatically entered, if you find any details are incorrect then you can edit the user and change their settings to the correct ones. User permissions are changed through the users section in settings. To edit a user go to Settings > Users > (click the edit button on a user).
The main purpose for editing a user is to change their permissions. User permissions are changed by changing the user permissions selected option and then pressing save. The now has permission to perform the actions for that group.
If you wish to view information about what a group can do then select the group from the drop down list and click Role responsibilities to view a list of actions the group can perform.
Users can also be assigned to a training course, to create a training course please see Training courses. To add a user to a training course click the Blue plus button under training courses, then select a training course and provide an expiry date if relevant. This will no show the users has the training course selected and when it expires.
Alerts are short messages that let users know that action needs to be taken or it needs to be taken soon. There are three categories of alerts,
Urgent alerts
Urgent alerts are shown in red and tell the user that action may need to be taken as an item is either out of stock or has expired.
Warning alerts
Warning alerts tell the user that action may need to be taken soon as an item will expire soon or run out of stock soon.
Action taken alerts
If an item has an urgent or warning alert and a user then takes action to remedy the problem (eg adding more of a drug that is about to run out of stock or expire) then the alert for that item will turn to green to let other users known that action was taken to remedy the problem
Alerts are generated for the following reason:
- Drug is low on stock (less than 25% of the original quantity added) –(Warning)
- Drug is out of stock - (Urgent)
- Drug expires in 7 days or less – (Warning)
- Drug has expired – (Urgent)
- User’s training course expires in 30 days or less (Warning)
- Users training course has expired (Urgent)
Alerts are added to the alerts page; the number of current alerts is displayed in brackets in the alerts section. For example in the menu below there are
The alerts are shown as below:
If you wish to search alerts then simply type in the search box and alerts will only be shown where they contain the text searched for. To acknowledge and alert and remove it press the cross on the far right of the alert row, it will now be removed for you but still visible to other users.
Training courses keeps track of all the training courses that the staff at the practice can take regarding controlled drugs. Adding a training course is done by going to Settings > Training courses > Create new
Here you can provide the details about a training course. Once added it will now be selectable in the training courses section when editing a user (see user permissions) where a user can be added to a training course, along with the date it was taken. If the training course has an expiration date then alerts will be generated if the training course is nearing expiration.
Reports and audits provide details on every action that goes on within drug manager. Because controlled drug legislation requires very strict auditing of every action that happens to a drug from the moment it enters the system to the moment it leaves, the auditing section is very detailed and allows the users to filters the audits in a variety of ways. Audits are also grouped together to make it simpler to find the information you need. Reports can be accessed by pressing the reports button on the menu or the reports and Audits button on the home screen
Reports are grouped into 4 categories
Drug delivery:
Drug delivery shows every delivery that has being entered into the system. Deliveries can be searched by a number of fields, for example, entering a delivery date will show all deliveries that occurred on that date or entering the order number will shows deliveries with that order number, fields can be combined to make searches more accurate.
For more search options click the filter button to show all options:
See below for an example of how to search for deliveries:
Current stock:
Sometimes it’s nice to get an overview of all the drugs at a practice. Pressing current stock initially gives you a list of all drugs in drug manager. Using the filters at the top you can show all drugs in a location or in a specific container. Should you need to view information about the delivery a drug came in then there is a view delivery button to give more information.
User actions:
User actions displays every action a user has performed with a drug, from the moment it entered the system to the moment it left. User actions contains a lot of information so the filter options at the top allow you to restrict the report to only show the information you are interested in. To provide more filter options press the filter button which will show you the following options:
For example you may wish to show all actions a user has performed in a one week time period in a specific container, using a combination of the filter options you can quickly get the actions you’re interested in. Once you find an action you want to view more information about simply click the action row and you’re able to view all the information you need about that action:
Stock take:
Stock takes are required when managing controlled drugs. To make this process as simple as possible drug manager allows you to navigate to a container and allows the user to enter the Actual drugs stock for that item, drug manager automatically works out if there’s is a discrepancy and requires the user to enter a reason for the discrepancy. Once all the values have been entered press
See below for an example of how the stock take page detects discrepancies and prompts the user for more information