New electronic fax prescriptions from Connect Care coming July 25

Read time: 1 minute

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is introducing a more direct and secure way to provide patient prescriptions to community pharmacies. Beginning July 25, 2023, physicians and physician assistants at AHS and AHS partner facilities using the Connect Care clinical information system will be able to send prescriptions directly to community pharmacies via an electronic fax process, without the need for a printed prescription.

The prescriptions will be electronically faxed directly from Connect Care to the patient’s preferred pharmacy. For security and safety, each prescription requires an electronic signature linked to the unique username, password and professional registration number of each prescriber (such as your CPSA registration number). The electronic signature replaces a handwritten/wet signature required for paper prescriptions. Additionally, each prescription has a unique order number that is specific only to that prescription.

Community pharmacists will have access to a new real-time electronic validation tool that can verify that each electronic prescription is authentic.

Please note that this new electronic fax functionality is not applicable to Type 1 Tracked Prescription Program (TPP) Alberta prescriptions.

For more information and resources, including FAQs and prescription examples, please visit the AHS website.