Electronic National Residential Medication Charts (eNRMC) National Rollout
Page last updated: 27 July 2022
The Department of Health (the Department) is implementing an eNRMC Transitional Arrangement from 1 July 2022 to allow Residential Aged Care Services (RACSs) to begin adopting and benefiting from eNRMC products
On this page
- The eNRMC Transitional Arrangement – an overview
- I’m a prescriber or pharmacist servicing RACS, what do I need to do under the transitional arrangement?
- Further information
The eNRMC Transitional Arrangement - an overview
The Department of Health (the Department) is implementing an eNRMC Transitional Arrangement from 1 July 2022. The Arrangement will allow all RACSs to begin adopting and benefiting from eNRMC products. For the purposes of this Arrangement, “RACSs” encompasses Residential Aged Care Services, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program residential services and Multi-Purpose Services that provide residential aged care services. The Department is also releasing an eNRMC Adoption grant opportunity in July 2022 which will provide financial assistance to RACSs for the adoption and use of eNRMC products.
The Transitional Arrangement allows RACSs to benefit from the use of eNRMC products that meet the technical requirements of Conformance Profile version (CPv) 3.0, while Prescription Delivery Services and dispensing software vendors continue to work towards conformance with CPv3.0. EMM vendors will need to apply to the Agency to have their product approved as a Transitional eNRMC Product which can then be used under the Transitional Arrangement.
The government is enacting the Transitional Arrangement through an amendment to the eNRMC Trial Legislation: National Health (Electronic National Residential Medication Chart Trial) Special Arrangement 2018. The legislation allows RACSs that provide residential aged care to adopt Transitional eNRMC Products under the Transitional Arrangement. Although the legislative instrument allows RACS to participate Australia-wide, state or territory restrictions may still apply.
Similar to the eNRMC Trial, RACSs, prescribers and pharmacies can use a Transitional eNRMC Product for PBS medication chart prescribing, dispensing and administration. When prescribers use a Transitional eNRMC product for medication chart prescriptions, a paper copy of the prescription is not required. However, the software must not send the prescription to the PDS. Therefore, Pharmacists must continue to manually transcribe the prescription information from the Transitional eNRMC Product into their dispensing software. Prescribers and pharmacists must follow specific prescribing, dispensing and claiming requirements under the Transitional Arrangement.
I'm a prescriber or pharmacist servicing RACS, what do I need to do under the transitional arrangement?
The Department has developed information packs for pharmacists, prescribers, software vendors and RACSs, which are available on the Department of Health’s website. These information packs provide an overview of the Transitional Arrangements and requirements for participating under these conditions. This includes the obligations of all participants, to ensure safe operation under the Transitional Arrangement.
Further information
For more information about the Transitional Arrangement and Transitional eNRMC Products, please see the Department of Health’s website or contact eNRMC@health.gov.au
For more information about the eNRMC Adoption grant opportunity, please see the GrantConnect website
