#180 How SafeScript can help during COVID-19
24 June 2020
A SafeScript update from the Department of Health and Human Services
Many medical practitioners have seen an influx of new patients due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it remains important clinicians take all reasonable steps to check SafeScript when prescribing or supplying a monitored medicine such as an opioid or benzodiazepine.
As a real-time prescription monitoring database, SafeScript is a valuable source of information because it provides prescription and dispensing history of high-risk medicines. In other words, SafeScript will help you to make safer clinical decisions but it does not prevent you from prescribing or supplying high-risk medicines. Using SafeScript will also assist you to:
- Identify potential high-risk circumstances early
- Access your patient’s history of high-risk medicines, even if they are new to your practice or have visited other clinicians for a prescription
- Hold meaningful conversations about the risk of prescription medicines.
Most importantly, using SafeScript will help reduce harms related to high-risk prescription medicines.
For questions or further information about SafeScript, clinicians are invited to visit www2.health.vic.gov.au/safescript or help.safescript.vic.gov.au/help-topics.htm.
