ADMIN - Enable eRx: Ensora

This guide walks you through setting up Ensora eRx (e-prescribing) for your practice. Complete it before anyone prescribes medications electronically, including controlled substances.

Ensora was previously known as NewCrop.

Setup has three parts, done in order:

1. Configure your account. Fill in the practice, user, and patient information Ensora needs.
2. Request activation. Ask OpenCoreEMR to connect your practice to Ensora.
3. Complete Ensora onboarding. Launch Ensora, accept its user agreement, and register your prescribers.

When setup is complete, users with an Ensora eRx role and the Provider, Administrator, or Superadmin EMR role see Launch eRx on a patient’s Prescriptions tab. Prescriptions and allergies are then managed in Ensora and synced back to the patient’s chart.

Before you begin

Have the following ready:

• Access to Admin with permission to manage your practice and staff
• Your practice’s tax ID: its EIN (Employer Identification Number), or SSN for a sole proprietor
• Your practice’s full address, phone number, and fax number
• For each prescriber: NPI, plus their DEA number and state license number if they have them
• For each nurse practitioner or physician assistant: whether they prescribe on their own or under a physician’s supervision
• For each prescriber: an ID.me account, or a driver’s license or passport and a smartphone with a camera to create one

Part 1: Configure your account

Ensora reads your practice, user, and patient details from OpenCoreEMR each time someone launches it. If a required field is blank, Ensora refuses the launch, so complete every step in this part before you request activation.

Step 1 - Update your organization and location

Ensora reads your practice’s business details from your organization, and its site details from a location. Both are on the Practice page.

Update your organization

1. Go to Admin > Practice.
2. On your organization’s row, select Edit. The Edit organization form opens.
3. Fill in these fields:
   • Organization name
   • Tax ID: choose EIN or SSN, then enter the number
   • Street address, City, State, and ZIP
   • Country, for example US
   • Phone
   • Fax: if your practice doesn’t have a fax number, enter your phone number again
4. Select Save changes.

Ensora uses only the organization’s address, phone, and fax for your practice’s account. An address or phone number entered on a location doesn’t replace them.

Check your location

1. On the Practice page, find the location listed under your organization. If there isn’t one, select Add location on your organization’s row.
2. Make sure the location has a Location name and an address with a ZIP code. To change it, select Edit on the location’s row.
3. Select Save changes.

If the location has no fax number, Ensora uses the organization’s fax.

If your practice has more than one location, Ensora needs to know which one each user works from. Set Prescribes from for every user with an Ensora eRx role (Step 2).

Step 2 - Set up prescribers and staff

Every user who will open Ensora needs two roles: an Ensora eRx role, and an EMR role of Provider, Administrator, or Superadmin. Users whose EMR role is Front desk or Billing can’t open Ensora, even with an Ensora eRx role. Prescribing roles also need credentials on the user record.

1. Go to Admin > Staff.

2. Select an existing user to open Edit user, or select Add user.

3. In the Access section, choose an Ensora eRx role:

   Role	Use it for	Credentials
   Prescriber	Anyone who prescribes without supervision: a physician, or a nurse practitioner (NP) or physician assistant (PA) who prescribes on their own	NPI. Add a DEA and state license if they have them. A DEA is needed to prescribe controlled substances.
   Mid-level prescriber (supervised)	An NP or PA who needs a physician to review the prescriptions they write	NPI. Add a DEA and state license if they have them.
   Supervising physician (offsite)	A physician who supervises your mid-level prescribers but doesn’t see patients at your practice	NPI. Add a DEA and state license if they have them.
   Nurse (prescribes on a prescriber’s behalf)	Staff who write the prescriptions a Prescriber directs, on that Prescriber’s behalf	None
   Administrative staff (non-prescribing)	Clerical staff who enter medications a patient already takes and manage pharmacy favorites. They can’t prescribe or send prescriptions to a pharmacy.	None

   Choose the role by supervision, not by degree. An NP or PA who prescribes without supervision is a Prescriber, the same as a physician. As a rule of thumb, look at the prescriptions your practice writes today. If the NP’s or PA’s own name is at the top, they are a Prescriber. If a physician’s name is at the top, they are a Mid-level prescriber.

   A Mid-level prescriber must choose a supervising physician every time they open Ensora. Ensora lists only physicians who have already opened Ensora for your practice, so have at least one supervising physician launch Ensora before a Mid-level prescriber does. A physician who supervises mid-levels and also sees patients at your practice is a Prescriber. Use Supervising physician (offsite) only for a physician who doesn’t see patients here.

   Nurses and administrative staff work in Ensora on behalf of a Prescriber.

   Choose each role carefully the first time. Once someone has opened Ensora, changing their eRx role also needs a change on Ensora’s side. Contact OpenCoreEMR before you change the eRx role of anyone who has already launched Ensora.

   If someone prescribes on their own in some states and under supervision in others, OpenCoreEMR can’t set that up yet. Contact OpenCoreEMR before you choose their role.

4. In the same Access section, make sure the EMR role is Provider, Administrator, or Superadmin.

5. If the role uses credentials, go to the Qualifications section and enter the ones this user has:

   • NPI number
   • A DEA qualification with the DEA number
   • A State license qualification with the license state and number

6. Select Save changes.

7. If your practice has more than one location, set where this user works from:

   1. In Edit user, select Edit staff roles.
   2. Select the edit button on the user’s role.
   3. Under Prescribes from, choose the location.
   4. Select Save changes.

8. Repeat for each user who will use eRx.

Ensora refuses to open for a user whose role needs an NPI and doesn’t have one. A missing DEA or state license doesn’t stop Ensora from opening.

Controlled substances (EPCS): Setting up EPCS requires two users, because a second user must grant prescribing rights to the prescriber. If you’re the only user at your practice, create a second user with the Administrative staff (non-prescribing) eRx role and the Administrator EMR role for this purpose, and set your own eRx role to Prescriber. The second user must open Ensora once before they can be made an EPCS administrator, because Ensora adds each user to your account the first time they launch it (Step 6). A prescriber needs a valid DEA number to register for EPCS, so add it in this step before they start.

Step 3 - Create a test patient

Use a test patient with a complete address to try e-prescribing during onboarding. Don’t use a real patient for this.

1. Create a new patient.
2. In the Patient Profile, fill in:
   • First name and Last name
   • Date of birth
   • Administrative sex
   • Address line 1, City, State, Postal code, and Country
   • Home phone
3. Select Save.

The Country field is required. Ensora refuses a launch for any patient whose address has no country, so make sure your real patients have one too.

Step 4 - Prepare prescribers for identity verification (ID.me)

Ensora may ask each prescriber to verify their identity with ID.me during onboarding. Each prescriber must complete this personally.

ID.me allows only one verified account per person. If a prescriber has more than one account, they must merge or close the duplicates to avoid verification issues. A single ID.me account can hold more than one email address, for example a work and a personal address. See how to add another email to your ID.me account.

• If the prescriber already has an ID.me account, confirm that they can sign in to it.
• If they don’t have one, Ensora guides them through creating it during onboarding. They need a driver’s license or passport, a smartphone to photograph the ID and take a selfie, and a valid email address.

Part 2: Request activation

OpenCoreEMR connects your practice to Ensora. You can’t turn this on yourself in Admin.

Step 5 - Ask OpenCoreEMR to enable Ensora eRx

1. Before you contact us, confirm that:
   • Your organization has a name, Tax ID, full address with country, phone, and fax (Step 1)
   • Your practice has a location with a name and ZIP code (Step 1)
   • If your practice has more than one location, every user with an Ensora eRx role has Prescribes from set (Step 2)
   • At least one user has the Prescriber role, with an NPI number (Step 2)
   • You have a test patient with a full address, including country (Step 3)
2. Contact OpenCoreEMR and ask to enable Ensora eRx. Include your practice name.
3. Wait for us to confirm that your practice is connected.

Once your practice is connected, users with an Ensora eRx role and the Provider, Administrator, or Superadmin EMR role see Launch eRx on a patient’s Prescriptions tab.

Part 3: Complete Ensora onboarding

Step 6 - Launch Ensora and register

Have a user with the Prescriber role do the first launch. This can be a physician, or an NP or PA who prescribes on their own. Nurses and administrative staff work on behalf of a Prescriber, and Mid-level prescribers work under a supervising physician. Ensora adds each user to your account the first time they launch it, so the Prescriber or supervising physician has to launch first.

Each prescriber sees the Ensora User Agreement (EULA) the first time they open Ensora. Every prescriber at your practice accepts it for themselves, not once for the whole practice.

1. Sign in as a user with the Prescriber role and open your test patient.
2. Go to the Prescriptions tab and select Launch eRx. Ensora opens inside the page.
3. Read the Ensora User Agreement. Accepting it binds your practice, so it must be accepted by someone at your practice who is authorized to do so. OpenCoreEMR staff won’t accept it for you.
4. Optionally, download the Ensora user manual.
5. Complete Ensora’s registration. Choose the path that fits your practice:
   • Sign up for eRx only if you don’t prescribe controlled substances.
   • Sign up for eRx with EPCS if you do. Before you start, sign in as the second user (the one with the Administrative staff (non-prescribing) eRx role), open your test patient, and select Launch eRx once. Ensora adds a user to your account the first time they launch it, so the second user can’t be made an EPCS administrator until they have. Then sign back in as the prescriber. After identity proofing:
     1. Your Ensora account needs two EPCS administrators. One of them must have EPCS rights and a valid DEA number.
     2. Sign in as the second user.
     3. In Ensora’s EPCS Administration section, go to Grant/Revoke Prescriber and grant your prescriber. Ensora also creates a default “Test, Doctor” entry, which you can ignore.
     4. Sign back in as the prescriber and finish the remaining steps.
6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 for each additional prescriber. Each prescriber accepts the user agreement on their own first launch.

Step 7 - Confirm the result

1. Sign in as a user with the Prescriber role and open your test patient.
2. On the Prescriptions tab, select Launch eRx.
3. Ensora’s Compose Rx screen opens, showing:
   • The patient’s name, date of birth, and sex
   • The prescriber in the Doctor field
   • Any allergies Ensora has for the patient
4. Select Back to prescriptions to close Ensora and return to the chart.

After the first launch, the patient’s chart shows what Ensora holds:

• The Prescriptions list shows the patient’s prescriptions from Ensora. It’s read-only in OpenCoreEMR, so create and change prescriptions in Ensora.
• The Allergies list shows the allergies Ensora holds for the patient. Allergies recorded in the chart are sent to Ensora when you launch it.

A Mid-level prescriber sees Ensora’s Staff Selection screen every time they select Launch eRx. Choose your supervising physician in the Doctor list, then select Compose Rx. Nurses and administrative staff use the same screen to choose the Prescriber they work for.

See Recording and Managing Prescriptions for day-to-day prescribing.

Troubleshooting

There’s no Launch eRx button on the Prescriptions tab. Your practice hasn’t been connected to Ensora yet (Step 5), your user has no Ensora eRx role, or your EMR role isn’t Provider, Administrator, or Superadmin (Step 2). Check your roles in Admin > Staff. If both are set, contact OpenCoreEMR to confirm that activation is complete.

Ensora won’t open, and the message says information is missing. A field Ensora needs is blank. The message names what’s missing. The most common causes are:

• Your organization has no Tax ID, full address, Country, Phone, or Fax (Step 1).
• Your organization has no location with a name and ZIP code (Step 1).
• The user is missing a credential their Ensora eRx role requires, such as an NPI number (Step 2).
• The patient’s address has no Country (Step 3).

Fill in the missing field and select Launch eRx again.

Ensora won’t open, and the message says a value is invalid. A field Ensora needs is too long or in the wrong format. The message names the field. Correct it in the patient’s chart, your organization or location, or the user’s record, then select Launch eRx again.

Ensora won’t open, and the error is about your location. Your practice has more than one location and your role doesn’t say which one you work from. Set Prescribes from for your role (Step 2), then select Launch eRx again.

Allergies or prescriptions won’t load before the first launch. This is expected. Ensora doesn’t know about your practice until someone launches it for the first time. Complete Step 6, then reload the patient’s chart.

If they still won’t load after a successful launch, contact OpenCoreEMR.

The Doctor list on Staff Selection is empty. No physician has launched Ensora for your practice yet. A Mid-level prescriber’s launch doesn’t fill this list. Have a physician with the Prescriber or Supervising physician (offsite) role complete Step 6, then try again.

Ensora keeps asking me to pick a doctor on Staff Selection, but I prescribe on my own. Your eRx role is Mid-level prescriber (supervised), which Ensora uses for NPs and PAs who prescribe under a physician. If you prescribe without supervision, you need the Prescriber role. Because you’ve already opened Ensora, contact OpenCoreEMR to switch you to Prescriber rather than changing the role yourself (Step 2).

I see a different error. Contact OpenCoreEMR and include the error code shown on screen. Error codes don’t contain patient information, so they’re safe to share.