1. Monitoring Template
To access the Sulfasalazine monitoring template, go to Autoconsultations > Ardens Drug Monitoring J to Z. If a patient is on Sulfasalazine, they will also have a
icon under their name. Clicking this icon will also open the template. The medication must be on their repeat medication list to show the alert.
If the medication is under shared care, this can be recorded at the top of the template. If this is left blank, it will be presumed that the monitoring is done in primary care. As there is only one ‘High Risk Drug Monitoring – Primary Care’ read code, if a patient is on two or more high risk drugs it is assumed monitoring will be the same for each drug. For information about recording hospital medications, please see here.
On the template is also information about what tests need doing and the warning thresholds. Click in the free text notes box & look to the right to see previous notes.
2. Reviewing Patients With Overdue Tests
To review patients on Sulfasalazine with overdue tests, go to Clinical Reporting > Ardens > Prescribing > Monitoring | DMARDs. Here you can run the '?Review Sulfasalazine as no FBC, UE or LFT in 12w + Primary Care' report and then review the patient's record. On the drug monitoring template above is a link to the 'Drug Monitoring Letter' template with some useful pre-set text and letters.
3. Discontinuing Monitoring in Stable Patients
In line with NICE guidance, once the patient has been stable for 12 months it is possible to discontinue their monitoring. Click on the "Stop/Restart Monitoring" button on the Sulfasalazine monitoring template to discontinue monitoring for the patient. This will remove them from the 'Overdue Tests' report above.
4. Register Of Patients With Discontinued Monitoring
To see a register of your patients on Sulfasalazine who have had monitoring discontinued, go to Clinical Reporting > Ardens > Prescribing | Monitoring Invitations > Suspended drug monitoring. Here you can run the 'Sulfasalazine on repeat and monitoring discontinued' report and then review the patients record. If they need to have monitoring restarted, just open the template and click the 'Stop/Restart Monitoring' button again. This will then place them back in the monitoring 'Overdue Tests' reports.
Discontinuing monitoring will add the following read codes to the patient's records:
- Community DMARD monitoring suspended (XaIrB)
- Sulfasalazine (x02L9)
Restarting monitoring will add the following read codes to the patient's records:
- DMARD monitored in primary care (XaQEg)
- Sulfasalazine (x02L9)
For an overview of all of the Ardens drug monitoring resources please have a look here.