Preparing Medications

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Using the eMAR to prepare medications

Using the Med Prep Report to prepare medications

There are various areas of EPR that can be used to review order details in full while preparing medication doses for administration.

Using the eMAR to prepare medications:

As well as documenting medications for your patients, the MAR will provide you with information for pulling, pouring, and preparing medications that are ordered in EPR.

1.   In the Med Prep room, using the EPR computer, log in to EPR and open the MAR for your patient.

Note:  To view details on one medication at a time, you can choose the button Order Detail and then select the medication from the grid. See Topic Order Entry Overview for more information.

2.   To pull the meds, refer to both the EPR MAR and the paper BDM MAR.

Note:  Once the medications have been verified by Pharmacy, they can be dispensed from the Pyxis machines.  There is an override period for unverified meds (by Pharmacy) in which the nurse can pull the meds during weeknights, weekends, and STAT holidays.

3.   On the MAR, you can select a single medication or multiple medications.
To select multiple medications, hold the CTRL key down while selecting various individual medications and click OK. You can also select an entire column.

4.  If there are any new or changed medication orders that you have selected, you will now be directed to the Nursing Inbox to review, acknowledge and sign off on these orders.  Click Accept Final Review.

Note:  To check if your medications have been verified by pharmacy, pharmacy verification is indicated under the Department Reviewed field in the Inbox, once an item has been selected.

5.   You are now being prompted to enter the date/time of administration of all the selected medications.

Note:  You are not administering at this time - you are only prepping your meds. Click OK to accept the default of now.

6.   The Administer All screen appears.  Use this screen to reference when prepping all of your medications. The list of medications that you have selected displays, along with the administration information.

Note:  An incomplete status does not have to be addressed here, as you are prepping medications at this point and not administering them.

Using both the EPR MAR and the paper MAR, pull all the medications (from Pyxis and/or the med prep room or fridge). Place the prepared medications in the labelled plastic bag for your patient. Click Cancel as you are finished prepping/pulling your medications (and not documenting administration of these medications at this time).

7.   When prompted to quit the task, choose Yes.

8.   If you are going to continue to prepare and pull medications from more than one patient, close this patient and open the MAR for your next patient.  

9.   Once the medications from both the paper MAR and EPR MAR have been prepared and pulled for all of your patients, you can sign out of EPR. You may now lock the medications in the drawer of your assigned workstations on wheels (WOW).

Using the Med Prep Report to prepare medications:

Alternatively, you may run the Med Prep Reportto prepare medications for your patients. This report will show all the active medications for your patient. Using this report is up to user preference. To learn how to navigate the report, see Med Prep Report.

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