HTN recently spoke with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust on the deployment its electronic prescribing and medicines administration system (ePMA) at the trust, 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.
On the system’s main benefits, the trust highlights “clear, accessible information” for patients and staff, clinical decision support, and the automation of “many tasks that were traditionally done on paper”. It also offers the ability for information to be shared or transferred between systems, and generates an audit log detailing each step in the process, the trust stated.
David Chalkley, deputy chief clinical information officer and associate director of pharmacy, shared that the system is simplifying patient transfers between the trust’s sites, adding: “This consolidation and expansion of prescribing system is a significant digital transformation as it will enhance care continuity between settings, improve medication prescription accuracy, increase efficiency by streamlining process, enable connected medication records, enhance patient safety, and act as a digital gateway for additional digital transformation.”
Whilst there have been “a few bumps along the way”, according to digital project manager Jurgis Petunovas, “any issues that have been encountered have been used to improve the subsequent deployments and all of this learning will be used to progress the roll-out in Yeovil”.
In June, join HTN, Leo Marti-scott, digital lead pharmacist and David Chalkley, associate director of pharmacy, deputy CCIO, and clinical safety officer from Somerset NHS Foundation Trust for a webinar to focus on the utilisation of dm+d native digital clinical systems.
Wider news on digital and data from Somerset
Earlier this year, Somerset ICS shared key updates on their cyber security strategy, with the aim to fulfil five objectives surrounding the reduction of cyber risks. The objectives are outlined in order to achieve this: developing and embedding a cyber aware culture; improving cyber risk visibility and management; building robust third-party assurance; prioritising collaboration; and ensuring ongoing resilience.
The ICB also highlighted progress on its Recovering Access to Primary Care programme, noting digital progress against key deliverables. The ICB states that more appointments are being provided than before the pandemic, however its approach to access is wider than focusing on the number of appointments and to “promote community-based person-centred care”. Here, the ICB references as an example, to increase self-referral opportunities for patients and focus on digital innovation to improve efficiency, patient and staff experience.
On the region’s Digital, Data and Technology strategy, published with the intention of supporting communications and building a movement for change, the ICS shares how it conducted an initial assessment of “as is” capabilities, requiring an audit of technologies in use across the system, integrations, digital services, and dashboards. This included domain mapping to understand how different parts of the system work together and how that can be improved, how information moves, how business processes function, and potential future opportunities.
