Safer hospital, safer wards technology fund - ePrescribing
In May 2013, the Secretary of State for Health and Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, Medical Director of NHS England, launched the £260 million Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards Technology Fund (now renamed The Integrated Digital Care Fund).
In its first round, the Integrated Digital Care Fund was open to
NHS Trusts to support the rapid progression from paper-based
clinical record-keeping to integrated digital care records
(IDCRs).
The trust has been successful under the Safer Hospitals, Safer
Wards Technology Fund in obtaining funding to support the
implementation of an electronic prescribing and medicines
administration system (EPMA) with an aim to improving safety,
quality and efficiency.
The EPMA will combine three functions to provide all clinical
staff with an integrated view of a patient's medication history,
through:
- electronic communication of a prescription or medicine
order
- aiding the choice, administration and supply of a medicine
through knowledge and decision support
- providing a robust audit trail for the entire medicines use
process
In so doing it will deliver a broad range of benefits which can
be summarised as follows:
- Patient safety: no more illegible, ambiguous or incomplete
prescriptions; single and comprehensive view of a patient's current
and historical drug record; real-time decision support to guide and
improve the appropriateness and accuracy of prescribing; real-time
view of medicines administration
- Quality and clinical governance: ability to monitor and
evaluate key performance indicators, total visibility of clinical
decisions and outcomes. It is anticipated that EPMA will
positively contribute to achieving a range of national and local
targets, including NPSA alerts, never events, NICE guidance, CQUINS
and antimicrobial stewardship monitoring.
- Operational productivity: improved communication of real-time
information between prescribers, pharmacy and nursing; paper less;
streamlined operational and clinical processes; more effective
control and management of drug expenditure.
For more information, please read the commencement to proceed
notice below.