Overview
Summary: Allergies are potentially life threatening reactions to medications, and must be recorded accurately in EMIS
Intended Users: Pharmacists & Prescribers
Recording an allergy
With the patient loaded in EMIS:
Go to: Add → Allergy
- All drug allergies should be coded in their generic names for EMIS to be able to produce an alert, should a different clinician issue the same medication
- Allergies should include the the type of reaction to the drug in Descriptive Text
- An exhaustive list of a patient’s drug allergies will appear on the right-hand side of their EMIS record under ‘Warnings,’ and the same list will also show under the ‘Medication’ page
Reporting serious adverse reactions
If a patient has a serious adverse reaction to a drug, it should be reported to the MHRA, and a Significant Event should be raised
- Reactions are to be reported using the MHRA Yellow Card scheme and documented in EMIS
- A significant event should be logged (See also Significant Events)
Why record drug allergies
Records are kept to maintain patient safety, and ensures safe prescribing
- Proper documentation is important as the patient may not be available to ask or have capacity to give correct information
- It ensures medicines safety when patients are transferred between care settings
- All prescribing clinicians should know where such information is to be recorded on EMIS