Aged Care Quality Standards
ACQS25-5.6 Prescription before administration and safe administration by practitioners
Clause and reference 15-30(6) of the Aged Care Rules 2025 · our reference ACQS25-5.6
The requirement
No medicine is given to a person before it has been prescribed for them, and medicines are given, watched and reviewed safely and appropriately by registered health practitioners, with the person's clinical needs and their informed decisions in view.
Our wording of the requirement: our statement of what the clause asks, not the instrument verbatim. Source: Aged Care Quality Standards on the compliance desk.
The evidence to bring
- Medication charts with prescriptions
- Administration records
- Medication review records by practitioners
- Swallowing and crushing assessments
What assessors commonly find
- Medicines given from outdated charts
- Administration outside practitioner oversight
What evidence do I need?
For ACQS25-5.6 Prescription before administration and safe administration by practitioners, the evidence to bring is: Medication charts with prescriptions; Administration records. It sits under Standard 5 - Clinical care and the instrument's own clause is 15-30(6). Keep every record dated, signed and current, and name who owns it.
Answer the reviewer first
Show me medication charts with prescriptions, and tell me who owns it and when it was last reviewed.
That is the question a quality assessor opens with for this requirement. Have the record on the desk and the date it was last reviewed to hand.
Read your own evidence against this clause
Paste your policy or evidence pack and the reading marks, line by line, whether a phrase from this requirement appears and quotes your own words when it does. It is a reading of your text, not a compliance result; a quality assessor decides whether a requirement is met. Read your pack, free See the paid reading