How do I change frequency of High Risk Drug Monitoring?

For certain high-risk drugs (HRDs), such as Methotrexate, our system can identify when a patient has been newly started on that medication and so needs more frequent monitoring. For example, monthly monitoring of Methotrexate for the first 3 months.

In some areas, shared care prescribing is only ever put in place once a patient is stable and they can be monitored on a less frequent basis. In the example of Methotrexate, this would be every 3 months. We have a localisation option that monitors these HRDs on the basis that they are stable and can be monitored less frequently. If you would like the system to work in that way for your practice, and it doesn't already, please let us know and we can change your settings.

Making monitoring more frequent

If you need to make monitoring more frequent, please use the "Select Tests for Monitoring" template. You can configure the blood tests a particular patient needs and how long for. See this support article for more information- How do I arrange tests for Regular Monitoring?

Making monitoring less frequent

The "Select Tests for Monitoring" template can't make monitoring less frequent due to the safety issues associated with that, unless you're changing what's already been configured for a patient. e.g. if you set monitoring to be 6 monthly, and then they were put on Methotrexate, that would be unsafe.

If the system has identified the patient as being newly started on medication, but they are in fact stable and can be put on less frequent monitoring, there is now an option on the Manage Recall page to record the patient as stable:

You first need to select "Stable on HRD" and then you can select the relevant medication on the drop down. If you need a different medication configuring, please let us know and we can add that on.