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NHS Trust saves more than 3 hours per day whilst reducing drug spending
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Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust is using our hospital medicines management solution to help clinicians and hospital pharmacy staff deliver medications to patients safely, efficiently, and in a cost-effective way.
The Trust serves a large area across three boroughs in Southeast London, offering a wide range of services including community healthcare, learning disability support, mental health care, and prison healthcare. With over 4,000 staff, the Trust operates in various settings, including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Memorial Hospital, and the Bracton Centre, a secure unit for individuals with mental health needs.
Previously, clinical teams relied on a manual system for prescribing, administering, and dispensing medications. This process required significant effort including scanning medication requests, writing prescriptions by hand, printing drug chats, and emailing documents to the hospital pharmacy.
To help overcome these challenges the team at Oxleas set up their eMeds programme, introducing our hospital pharmacy, electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) systems, which combine to enable closed-loop prescribing. The solution has not only saved time and helped deliver more joined-up, safer patient care but it’s also helped improve staff well-being.
It's really important for us as a Trust to improve patients' lives through the care we give, and also look after our staff as well.”
A fast and flexible paperless system
Their eMeds journey began with adopting our Hospital Pharmacy stock and dispensing system, followed by Electronic Medicine Management (EMM) and finally ePMA.
Since project completion, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust has recorded significant improvements in their medication management processes, resulting in enhanced patient care and positive feedback from the team. Dhananjay Mukherjee, Senior House Officer, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust described the new system as “fast, flexible and beautiful.”
The introduction of the closed-loop prescribing solution means that all these administrative activities are now undertaken online. ePMA has transformed historic and arduous processes. By going digital they’ve reduced the risk of medication errors and improved the Trust’s sustainability initiatives by reducing paper usage.
Compared to a paper system, the time saving is night and day”
The move to a digital system has enabled paperless tasks and eliminated the need for paper drug charts, saving around £2,000 on printing costs each year. The interactive drug chart in the ePMA module makes it easier for staff to access key information and perform important tasks from one screen, saving clinical time and admin effort. Jusvir Kaler, a pharmacist at the Trust explained how eMeds supports working offsite:
“The digital drugs chart can be accessed remotely if there are any issues, so I don’t have to go to the ward.”
Rebecca Orepo-Tailwo at Nurse at the Trust added:
eMeds make life easier when ordering medication from the pharmacy and save us a lot of time scanning drug charts to the pharmacy.”
Now, 4,500 fewer emails are sent to the pharmacy, streamlining communication between hospital wards and the pharmacy. The increased efficiency has reduced the administrative workload for nursing staff who are saving 30 minutes per day across all inpatient wards, allowing them to spend more time caring for patients.
It’s transformed the way work on the ward immensely. Multiple users using the same system works brilliantly”
A survey carried out by the eMeds project digital transformation team identified that over 50% of end users are saving time and increasing clinical productivity. It’s estimated that the saving in clinical and pharmacy staff time across all wards is approximately 3.25 hours per day.
50% of end users are saving time and increasing clinical productivity.
Improved clinical safety and reduced errors
Integrated with the pharmacy stock control and dispensing system, with a full audit trail, ePMA has helped to reduce drug spending, waste, and prescribing errors. Before using ePMA prescriptions often had missing information or illegible handwriting. Now, in a digital format, they’re clearer and can be checked alongside a patient's medication view, saving time and improving patient safety.
Medications can be clinically screened and sent directly to the dispensary team quickly. The use of pre-populated templates means that all vital information can be seen including the drug name, formulation, and dosage as well as any drug interactions highlighted with other medications.
We’re less prone to making prescribing errors, which is key for patient safety.”
New streamlined ways of working
Medication accuracy in discharge summaries has improved, as medicine information no longer requires manual transcription from the drug chart, leading to faster discharges and enhanced patient safety. This drive in productivity has improved flow, helping to bring down waiting lists across the Trust.
By embracing new ways of working teams are working more efficiently and medication errors have been reduced, which improves outcomes for patients. As Sandra Hungwe, Matron, Oxleas Foundation Trust explains,
eMeds has changed our lives.”