North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust introduced the InterSystems TrakCare electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) system, removing the previous paper based process.
The trust said in result nurses have saved more than 50 hours each day, or 19,345 hours a year, and have seen safer ways of working and a substantial reduction in the time it takes to complete drug rounds.
Clare Ranson, Clinical Matron, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust “It’s definitely reduced the amount of time nurses spend on medication rounds. The real-time record allows all those involved in care to see what’s happening – the nurses, doctors and pharmacists – not just the person holding the piece of paper.”
“This is making rounds ‘leaner’ with less time spent chasing up paper records across wards, freeing up time for nurses to focus on what’s important – time with patients.”
The trust was the first in the UK to use the InterSystems TrakCare ePMA system, since going live in 2018. They cite the previous paper process would take an average of 10 minutes for each patient, now reduced to 3 minutes by going digital.
Mandy Skilcorn, Ward Matron, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust “Nurses have taken to ePMA very, very quickly, and it is very safe for patients. Before ePMA we had a completely paper-based medicine chart process that led to handwriting challenges, and actually being able to get hold of the chart to view and record administration information was difficult.”
“Now, through ePMA, nurses can quickly see if anything has been missed, you can read the prescription, and you can see when drugs, like paracetamol for example, are needed, and when they were last given. Using ePMA feels a lot safer.”
Professor Graham Evans, Chief Information and Technology Officer, added “ePMA is one of the biggest transformational changes we will implement as part of our EPR programme.”
The deployment of ePMA is key part of a wider deployment of the TrakCare electronic patient record at the trust.
