Purpose
The purpose of this document is to outline best practice procedures relating to using MIS
DIRECTIONS. This dictionary is used to define and maintain medication administration
directions (also known as SIG times) for your healthcare facility.
Intended Audience
All clients of MEDITECH SA on the MAGIC SYSTEM
Description
When a user enters an order, at the “SIG” prompt the user can enter a direction created
in the MIS dictionary Or System convention directions. The system then calculates the
number of doses to dispense to the patient and If there’s a time associated with the
direction the system also calculates the stop and start time.
How to associate times to a SIG:
When creating a direction the following fields control when the order will start and stop:
Day Schedule: At this prompt, you can indicate the daily schedule or days of the week a
medication is to be dispensed.
● Examples are every day; every other day; two days; Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday, etc
Facility: Here you specify which facility you are setting up the times for. it can be .DFT for
all facilities.
Modules: If the times are for OE, EDM or PHA or or leave it blank for all of them
Times: The times associated with the direction for that facility, and Module or leave it
blank.
NB: Press <Shift>+ the right arrow key to access the Module and Time fields.
Use Day Schedule from start time: To allow the selected module to calculate a default
schedule for the selected direction using the Day Schedule value as the interval between
times (instead of specific times), enter Y.
● For example, suppose you enter a direction with a day schedule value of QD and
enter “Y” in this field. When a user enters an order at 1200 for a medication using
this direction, the system calculates the next dispense time as a day later (in
24-hour intervals) at 1200.
● To allow the selected module to calculate a default schedule for the selected
direction based on values you enter at the Times prompt, enter “N”.
Example:
See the example below of the direction setup in the Dictionary and how it is presented in
PHA:
Figure 1: Direction Dictionary
Figure 2: Direction in Order entry in PHA
