Atlas eMAR has a colour coding system to guide you through the administration of each medicine and help you see at a glance which medicine or which resident requires action. It’s based on the traffic light system, so you can more easily remember the key steps. Make sure you learn what each colour means to improve your medicine round efficiency and give you more time for resident care.
RED | This needs to be actioned immediately e.g. the medication for this resident is due but has not been administered |
ORANGE | The medicines last administration was attempted but not given (reason is documented on the patients screen), you can try to administer this medication again |
GREEN | The medicine is not due for the time being |
YELLOW | The medicine has been accounted for and about to be administered to the resident (or marked as not given) |
WHITE | The medicines dose must be manually checked by the nurse on each round to see if it is needed |
BLUE | The resident is either absent from the home or self-administering this particular medicine |
Red icons or medications on the residents list need to be actioned immediately, even if the resident refuses the medication or does not require it at this time. If a medication is not actioned then it will appear as a missing entry, which means that any audit trail for that medication/resident will be incomplete. On a MAR chart you would not leave an administration blank, this also applies when using the Atlas eMAR. This can lead to errors such as double doses or the resident going without their medication.
If it is an order or stock icon that is appearing red then this must also be actioned immediately.
If an order icon is red it means that the medication is due to be ordered, if this is not actioned in time then the request to the pharmacy will be delayed, leading to the prescription being delayed, meaning that the medication may not be ready for that resident before they run out and they may end up without any medication.
If a stock icon is red then it means that medication has arrived into the home but has not yet been booked into Atlas eMAR, or that a resident is close to running out of medication. If stock is showing to still be booked in this means that the stock levels showing on the Atlas eMAR for that resident will be incorrect and need to be rectified as soon as possible. Incorrect stock levels can lead to unnecessary orders of medication to the pharmacy (if the stock is showing as low or zero) and potentially can lead to residents missing doses even though they have the medication in the home. If a resident has appeared under thelow stock icon, this means they are in danger of running out of medication and this needs to be ordered with the pharmacy as soon as possible.
Orange icons may need to be actioned on the next medication round. If a medication is appearing in orange this means that on the previous round the nurse has tried to administer the medication but has been unable to for various reasons. This reason will appear on the medication icon in a grey box in the bottom right hand corner. All icons appearing in orange need to be actioned, even if this means that the icon will stay orange until the next round. For example, if a resident refuses his medication on the morning round it needs to be recorded as resident refused, and if he also refuses his medication on the midday round it will need to be recorded as resident refused again so that there is an accurate audit trail in case of any queries or problems.
Green icons mean that no action needs to be taken at present, everything is up to date.
Yellow icons mean that a medication has been marked as ready for administration, or has been marked as not given. Medication showing as yellow will need to be actioned before you will be able to move on to the next resident and administer their medication.
If a medication has been placed into the pot, the resident will have to take the medication and you will need to confirm that the pot has been given. This will mean that the medication will change from yellow to green and no more action will need to be taken. If a resident refuses the medication once it has been placed in the pot then you need to mark the medication as not given, confirm that the medication has been disposed of and give the reason for refusal. The yellow icon will then turn orange and can be given later if required.
White icons mean that the medication is not due at any set time and so can be given as and when required by the nurse. This means that on every medication round the medications showing as white must be checked to ensure that the patient does not require them at this time. White icons can include creams, homely remedies, anything that is administered by the district nurse, dressings and PRN medication.
Blue icons mean that either a resident is absent from the home and so no action needs to be taken until they return, or that the resident is self-administering. It is good practice to check that the patient has taken the medication if they are self-administering, but no action needs to be taken on the Atlas eMAR system.