Even if you don’t work at Alberta Health Services (AHS), you’ve probably heard about Connect Care, the new health information system being launched across AHS sites. Connect Care will be complete in 2023. Community pharmacies will begin to see more documents from AHS as Connect Care rolls out, depending on when it is launched at AHS sites across Alberta.
Connect Care will provide an opportunity for more consistent communication between AHS and community pharmacies, particularly when patients are discharged from AHS facilities. Once Connect Care is launched, the AHS facility will send the discharge prescription and/or MedRec for Community Pharmacist Report to the pharmacy of the patient’s choice via fax or other means. The information provided in this report should be considered by regulated members providing care to the patient and where appropriate retained as part of the patient record.
The discharge prescription contains new or modified medications to be dispensed by the community pharmacy. It does not include instructions for
- medications with no changes and that the patient is to continue (using existing supply), or
- medications that the patient has stopped taking.
The MedRec for Community Pharmacist Report is a list of all medications including medications that have been continued, modified, newly started, and stopped.
The patient may provide additional documents including the After Visit Summary (AVS), which includes a complete list of medications to be taken after discharge for the patient to use as a reference and to communicate with health professionals and/or family. It may include comments by clinicians about why medications were changed or other supporting information.
If the patient does not have any new or changed medications that require a prescription, but has discontinued medications, the MedRec for Community Pharmacist Report will be faxed to the patient’s community pharmacy to update the patient’s care plan. For more information, including examples of the above documents, visit the AHS website.
