Viewing a patient's medication history

What a patient tells you they're taking and what they've actually been dispensed are often two different lists. Medication history closes that gap: DoseSpot can show you what has been filled, including scripts written by clinicians who have nothing to do with your practice.

It's the same integration you prescribe through, so if DoseSpot is already working for you, medication history is already available — see Setting up DoseSpot if it isn't. On a visit, archived patients now show This patient is archived and Restore them to prescribe. when you try to open the prescription surface.

Opening a patient's DoseSpot chart

In the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name. In the chart sidebar, choose DoseSpot under E-Prescribing. The same item sits in the sidebar of an open visit, so you can reach it mid-consultation without leaving the note. Use DoseSpot (1) to open the workspace where you can view medication history.

If you are linked as a proxy, choose the prescriber whose queue you are preparing prescriptions for before DoseSpot opens. What you prepare is staged in their queue for them to review and send. After DoseSpot opens, the banner shows who you are queueing for; use Change if you need to choose a different prescriber.

On a phone, DoseSpot first asks whether to open in a separate tab or use the embedded frame. Choose Open DoseSpot to use the full-screen tab, or Use it here instead to stay inside Ona.

Viewing the history

In the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name. In the chart sidebar, choose DoseSpot under E-Prescribing. On the DoseSpot screen, next to Patient Overview, click Medication History.

DoseSpot asks you to confirm that the patient has authorised the request before it will retrieve anything. Once you've confirmed, choose to show the history and the results load into the panel.

The request is made live at the moment you ask for it, so a patient's history is never sitting in the chart waiting to be read — you pull it when you need it.

Where the data comes from

Open the patient's DoseSpot chart (in the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name; in the chart sidebar, choose DoseSpot under E-Prescribing) and DoseSpot retrieves the history in that workspace. That reach is the point. A patient who saw a cardiologist last spring, or who filled something at an urgent care while travelling, shows up here even though none of it touched your chart.

It is not, however, a complete list. Fills paid in cash, pharmacies that don't participate, and plans that don't share claims data simply won't appear, and there's no way to tell from the screen that something is missing. Read it as strong evidence rather than the whole truth, and keep asking the patient.

Consent

Open the patient's DoseSpot chart (in the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name; in the chart sidebar, choose DoseSpot under E-Prescribing). The confirmation you tick before pulling a history is an attestation by you, the prescriber, that the patient has authorised it. The patient is not notified — nothing is sent to them and nothing appears on their side when you request their history.

Because of that, don't treat the checkbox as the consent itself. Capture authorisation in writing where you can point to it later — a consent form the patient signs at intake covers every future request in one go. See Building consent forms.

It doesn't fill in the chart

Surescripts medication history is read-only, and it stays in DoseSpot. It does not flow into the Medications section of the Ona patient record — nothing from that history appears on the chart, in a note, or in the patient's clinical records afterwards.

Medications and allergies entered in DoseSpot are different. Ona pulls those back into the patient's chart when the DoseSpot session closes.

So when the Surescripts history tells you something worth keeping, chart it. Open the patient (in the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name), then open the patient's Medications section and use Add medication to record it properly, with dose, frequency and dates. That's the version that trends over time, shows up for the next clinician, and carries into your notes. See Creating a patient record.

The upside of the split is that your medication list stays deliberate. Twelve months of pharmacy claims includes a lot of noise — a one-off course of antibiotics, something started and abandoned — and none of it lands in the chart unless you decide it belongs there.

When history won't open

Open the patient's DoseSpot chart (in the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name; in the chart sidebar, choose DoseSpot under E-Prescribing). Everything that blocks prescribing blocks medication history too, since both need the same DoseSpot session. The message on screen tells you which step is missing, or whether the patient is archived. For DoseSpot settings, an Owner or Admin clicks Settings at the bottom of the left sidebar, then clicks DoseSpot under E-Prescribing.

• "DoseSpot is not set up" — the organisation isn't connected yet. An Owner or Admin completes Settings → DoseSpot.
• "DoseSpot is not set up for your account" — the clinic is connected but your account isn't linked to DoseSpot. An Owner or Admin links you as a prescriber or proxy in Step 2 — Provision prescribers and proxies.
• "Complete patient profile" — DoseSpot needs the patient's name, date of birth, gender, phone, and a full US address with a two-letter state code. The screen lists exactly what's missing under Required by DoseSpot.
• "Cannot sync inactive patient" — re-activate the patient before opening prescriptions.
• "This patient is archived" — restore the patient before you prescribe.

The demographics one is worth dwelling on, because it has a second effect. Those same fields are what Surescripts matches the patient on, so a profile that's complete enough to open DoseSpot but wrong in a detail — a misspelled name, an old address — can return an empty history for a patient who definitely has one. If a history comes back blank and that surprises you, check the demographics before concluding there's nothing there.

When you open DoseSpot in a separate tab on a phone, medication and allergy changes sync back to Ona when you return to the app.

For anything else, see Setting up DoseSpot and Troubleshooting.