We use OpenEMR to teach health informatics students at the University of West Florida. Today we successfully installed RxNorm and SNOMED (pop-up said successful install). However, when I selected a new patient and went to the summary page and selected Prescription no search for any common medication was successul. I thought once RxNorm was installed it would search that drug database. Am I missing a step? I just want my students to be able to search for a medication and then add it to the problem list (not send an eRx). Thanks.
RxCUI was there before I installed RxNorm and marking that active did not change the search ability for a new drug. See screen shot of code types (attached). Do I need to manually enter RxNorm as a new code type?
The “working” mechanism to bring in RXCUI codes is here(“Native Data Loads”): http://www.open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/Code_Types#RXCUI
(this is what you turn on when turn on RXCUI in Administration->Lists->Code Types)
I was eventually able to upload RXNCONSO.RRF successfully but when I search for a drug or a drug code under Medications or Prescriptions no drugs come up. Not sure what I am missing. RxCUI is set on active, drug box is checked and no is set for external load.
While waiting for a response I went back and this time uploaded the entire RxNorm_full_11022015.zip file, but with the same results. I would appreciate any help…Bob
RxNorm/RxCUI, if successfully imported, will be used in the Fee Sheet for billing, not Issues-Medications nor Prescription module. See 1 & 3.
Presently a user can manually add medications to Lists/Medication Issue List. See 2.
The online search in Prescription has been defunct. In order to have meds in Prescription, the Dispensary module must be enabled & meds added manually.
For didactic purposes adding 10 meds should be sufficient. Manual addition probably will take as much time as figuring out which tables for .sql inserts.
To explain why this “Native Data Loads” mechanism was built; it was built by Rod to fulfill MU2 requirements(rxcui codes were required for the Medications; they were not needed for the Prescriptions module since the NewCrop module is being used for RX for MU2).
Note that the rxcui codes are NOT used in the fee sheet(the “Hide” column in the code type lists gui means the items are not shown in the fee sheet). They are used to add medications for a patient at:
Medications->Add->Coding
(this then opens up a popup and a drug can be selected)
Note that the rxcui codes are not used in the prescription module(at least not yet).
RxCUI will work in the classroom, but it would be impractical in clinical practice. By the time one types in the name of the drug & selects it; it would be faster to enter name of drug, dosage & frequency into Title. RxCUI codes will not supply frequency.
In the early version of Firefox with AutoComplete, it was even faster.
We don’t dispense meds in our office, therefore we don’t bill for them. If an insurer requires the explicit naming of drugs & HCPCS is insufficient; I would think that drug codes will need to come into service for the Fee Sheet in future.
Bob,
See attachments for using RxCUI in Medications-Issues.