Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has further advanced its digital maturity by successfully going live with Altera Digital Health’s ePrescribing and Medicine Administration (ePMA).  Disparate and paper-based workflows have been digitised and standardised across 56 inpatient wards and urgent care areas spanning the trust’s three hospital sites, significantly reducing variations in prescribing practice to enhance patient safety.

ePMA is the latest phase in the trust’s integrated EPR programme, having taken a modular, flexible approach. Harry de Voil, Chief Information Officer for Allied Health and Nursing at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals, said: “This latest ePMA go-live is an important step on our digital maturity journey.  Not only is it key to driving efficiency, quality and patient flow improvements, but it is also a key enabler for other aspects of our EPR and patient safety enhancements further on in the journey, such as closed-loop e-prescribing.”

The system has streamlined the electronic discharge process by ensuring discharge medication orders are immediately available for dispensing, helping to avoid delays resulting from the transfer of the paper medication chart from ward to pharmacy.

For the clinicians, it is saving time producing electronic discharge summaries (EDS) for primary and community care providers.  Prior to go-live, teams had to manually transcribe the prescriptions into the EDS. But now, the information is automatically pulled across from the solution, enhancing patient safety, improving patient flow and enabling clinicians to focus more on direct care.

Clinical decision support and alerts, such as allergy and interaction warnings, have been introduced based on the patient’s record and the medication being ordered, which is designed to support patient safety, reduce medication errors and improve adherence to evidence-based guidelines.

The system is also designed to eliminate patient safety risks and inefficiencies associated with handwritten drug charts being lost, illegible or transcribed incorrectly.  Further efficiencies are being released on the wards with instant access to the complete patient’s record and easier identification of missed doses to ensure timely care. The solution also incorporates a decision-support tool for prescribing, adding further enhancements for patient safety.

Faiza Khan, Chief Pharmacist at the Trust, said: “Thanks to the huge amount of planning and preparation work in the weeks and months leading up to launching ePMA and the hard work and professionalism of all the teams involved, the phased roll out across the Trust over a four-day period went really well.

“In the first week alone, we have seen more than 800 patients transcribed from paper to the Sunrise ePMA solution, and more than 23,000 medicines have been recorded as administered. The rollout has been supported by more than 1,000 hours of on the ward support from members of the digital team.

“We’re already seeing the benefits in terms of patient safety and efficiencies for staff—including drug chart legibility, overdue drugs being clearly highlighted, reduced transcription errors and improved efficiency thanks to drug charts being readily available.

“Work will now continue to embed the system, working closely with clinical teams to incorporate feedback to further enhance the system’s safety and user-friendliness.”

Staff engagement was high throughout the implementation with positive attendance at weekly upscaling sessions, regular scenario-based training and user acceptance meetings.  Over 100 digital champions were also enlisted to support staff and ensure a smooth transition to the new way of working.

Mark Hutchinson, Executive Vice President at Altera Digital Health (UK & EMEA), said: “I would like to extend my congratulations to Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust for achieving another successful milestone on their EPR roadmap.  They should be very proud because the immediate and longer-term benefits of ePMA are game changing when it comes to supporting safer and faster patient care.  I’m pleased to report that this go-live means 100% of our UK clients are live with ePMA.  The Worcestershire team excelled throughout the implementation, and it was great to be part of that experience. Worcestershire’s approach to lay a solid EPR foundation and build on that with modular rollouts such as this one places them in a strong position for long-term digital maturity and integrated care.  We’ll be supporting them in this endeavour as they expand the functionality of their integrated EPR further.”

Media Contact:

Jodie Cheetham, Silver Buck (on behalf of Altera Digital Health)
jodie@silver-buck.com
07967 136010

About Altera Digital Health 

Altera Digital Health is a global healthcare IT leader. With more than 30 years of experience, we develop technology to bring next-level healthcare within reach. Our approach to solutions provides a fast, flexible and clinically driven roadmap towards digital maturity across integrated care systems.

With more than 2,700 hospitals in more than 15 countries, our solutions support healthcare providers, governments and military institutions around the world. By keeping the human user at the centre of our design methodology, we are supporting caregivers and helping patients meet and exceed their wellness goals. Together, with our clients, we’re driving a new era of healthcare. To learn more, visit uk.alterahealth.com.