Two mental health rooms run by the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) have come into operation with a TPP electronic prescription and medication administration (EPMA) system.
Redwood Ward and Kershaw Ward of St. Charles of West London were selected as the first pilot sites to launch the SystmOne EPMA solution in July.
By switching to paper, the prescription information in the wards is now more accessible to all clinical staff who require it.
This means nurses no longer have to call the pharmacy for charts or ask doctors if they can get charts for drug rounds.
In addition, large screens have been installed in medicine carts, nurses’ offices and rooms where room rounds are held, which means staff can access information when and where they need it.
Doctors have also saved half an hour a day that was previously spent rewriting medication charts to ensure consistency and accuracy, meaning they have more time to focus on patient care.
Tf Chan, CNWL’s chief pharmacist and project sponsor for the SystmOne EPMA deployment, said: “Introducing an EPMA system is always a challenge, but even more so during a pandemic.
“Despite the current obstacles, the ease of use and intuition of SystmOne have greatly facilitated change for staff. For example, EPMA medication tables that are set up in the same way that paper medication tables are familiar have helped teams quickly get started using the system. “
In addition to providing benefits to patients and clinical staff, the solution also helps standardize documentation. Staff can see exactly who has prescribed or administered medication, so they can contact the right person if they have any questions.
In the case of patients refusing medication, staff previously had no consistent method of documenting it, but can now document these events at the touch of a button. All this contributes to a reduction of the error, in addition to a better audit and control of the attention.
The error is further reduced with the ability of staff to set drug review dates in the system. They can enter a date to review and have the system to send a reminder, making sure patients receive responsibly managed medications that are reviewed periodically.
Following the successful launch of SystmOne EPMA at its first two clinical sites, the CNWL team plans to manage six lives a month from early September and should have all 52 mental health sites with EPMA in April of 2022. The trust will use any learning of daily life in the pilot sites to support future releases.
Tom Hardy, TPP’s chief clinical systems analyst, added: “TPP is pleased to see that SystmOne EPMA is already starting to help CNWL staff with their work and hopes to continue to support them in their deployment.
“EPMA will ensure that staff and patients in the area benefit from comprehensive management of fully well-managed and fully digitized medicines and prescriptions.”
In addition to providing an EPMA solution, TPP also provides an electronic health record solution, and earlier this year Digital Health News reported on three NHS mental health trusts deploying the technology.
Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP), Leicester Partnership NHS Foundation (LPT) and Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) all deployed SystmOne Mental Health in the second half of 2020.
