North Bristol NHS Trust is celebrating going live with electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA), with hopes of improving medication safety, streamlining clinical workflows, and enhancing patient care.
Jenna Auchraje, lead pharmacist for electronic prescribing, and leading the trust-wide implementation of Careflow Medicines Management, shared news of the “successful” go-live on LinkedIn.
In her post, Jenna referred to the go-live as a “huge milestone” in the trust’s digital transformation journey, and the beginning of months of work to embed the system, optimise workflows, and continue to innovate.
“Getting here wasn’t easy,” she shared. “Over the past two years, our team has navigated countless challenges, complex builds, evolving clinical needs, rigorous governance, testing cycles, data migrations, and extensive training, all while continuing to support our colleagues across the Trust.”
Moving on to thank all those involved in the project, across the project team, digital clinicians, and trust leadership, Jenna commended the hard work and dedication of the EPMA pharmacy team, adding: “You’ve all truly been a driving force behind this achievement.”
Earlier this year, we spoke with Dr Daniel Keith, consultant dermatologist at North Bristol NHS Trust, about his work on the Dermoscopea project, which offers innovative dermoscopic imaging and online educational resources for specialist and non-specialist healthcare professionals.
We also caught up with Amy Davey, lead reconstructive scientist and lab manager, to discuss the Bristol 3D Medical Centre, including what went into setting it up, successes and key learnings along the way and what the future might look like. We also looked at the impact of emerging tech on the centre and what Amy has seen in terms of patient acceptance and staff training.
Wider trend: Electronic prescribing
For a recent HTN Now webinar, we explored the impact of EMPA, taking a closer look at its role in increasing efficiency and accuracy in prescribing, in improving patient safety, and some of the challenges with introducing and implementing EPMA systems. Our expert panellists, Fhezan Ashraf, senior pharmacist clinical configuration manager at The Dudley Group; and Hui Yi Lee, advanced clinical pharmacist & EPMA clinical lead at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust shared their own experiences and insights, detailing outcomes, challenges, engagement, design, interoperability and training.
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust deployed its electronic prescribing and medicines administration system earlier this year, highlighting benefits around increased efficiency and patient safety. The ePMA system has reportedly been successfully deployed at Musgrove Park Hospital and all community hospitals, with the team now focusing on enabling ePMA across all acute inpatient settings and emergency departments at Yeovil Hospital.
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust recently began recording and administrating medical information through the electronic prescribing and medicines administration system, MedChart, as part of their ongoing “strategic initiatives” to increase digital adoption. The system has been piloted by the trust’s EPR team with support from colleagues on Ward 8 at Moseley Hall Hospital – a 28-bed inpatient ward that helps with the rehabilitation of stroke patients.
