When a clinic enables electronic prescribing in Australia, onboarding often involves identifiers that connect the practice or prescribing entity to electronic prescription exchange infrastructure. One term you may hear in vendor and clinic conversations is an eRx entity ID (wording can vary by vendor and onboarding pack).
What it is, at a high level
An eRx entity ID is typically an identifier associated with a prescribing entity — commonly a clinic, organisation, or prescribing site — used when connecting clinical software to electronic prescription exchange services. It helps route and attribute electronic prescriptions in the national ecosystem, alongside clinician-level identifiers such as an HPI-I.
Think of clinician identifiers and entity identifiers as complementary: one points to the individual prescriber; the other helps situate prescribing within a clinic or organisational context for exchange connectivity.
When clinics usually need it
Practices often encounter entity ID requirements when turning on electronic prescribing for the first time, adding a new site, connecting a new prescribing product (including standalone software), or re-onboarding after a practice merge, rename, or vendor change.
If your clinic already issues electronic prescriptions through an existing PMS, some identifiers may already be in place. Adding standalone software like ScriptPad may still require confirming or extending that onboarding so the new product is correctly associated with the clinic entity.
How clinics typically obtain or confirm it
Generation and confirmation usually go through official or practice-authorised channels — for example, the electronic prescription exchange / eRx onboarding process your clinic uses, or the vendor implementation team working with your practice manager. Individual doctors are not always the ones who request the entity ID; it is frequently an organisational step.
- Ask your practice manager whether the clinic already has an eRx / exchange entity identifier on file.
- If you are adding ScriptPad (or any new prescribing product), share the vendor’s onboarding form so they can map it to existing clinic identifiers.
- Prefer official onboarding packs and secure channels over informal email chains for identifier exchange.
- Do not reuse another clinic’s entity ID or invent a placeholder value.
How this relates to standalone software like ScriptPad
ScriptPad is designed to work as standalone clinical scripting software, or alongside a PMS. Either way, connecting to Australian electronic prescription infrastructure still depends on correct clinician and clinic identity setup. During onboarding, you (or your practice manager) may be asked for entity-level details in addition to your personal HPI-I.
Standalone does not mean “outside the national framework” — it means you are not forced to prescribe only from inside a full PMS. Identity and exchange onboarding remain part of going live.
What ScriptPad support can and cannot do
Vendor support can usually explain which fields are required on the ScriptPad onboarding form and whether a value looks malformed. Issuing or resetting exchange entity identifiers typically sits with the exchange / eRx onboarding authority and your clinic’s authorised contacts — not something to improvise inside the app.
Related: Find your HPI-I · Standalone vs PMS · All guides
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