The ten year anniversary of an electronic prescribing system for Stockport NHS patients was marked with a ceremony celebrating the achievement, with awards for those who have helped to champion the system.
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust which runs Stepping Hill Hospital and community NHS services one of the first trusts in the country to implement its EPMA (Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration) system back in 2012.
The system manages all inpatient prescriptions, pharmacy reviews and medication administrations, and helps to include the safe and easy transfer of patient medications. The system shows where medicines are due for administration and helps highlight critical doses, which makes for a greatly improved use of resources.
Advantages of the system over the old system of written notes include a legible, clear prescription record, which improves quality and safety for our patients, preventing lost prescription charts, increased efficiency on medication rounds, the flagging up of critical medications, and safeguards within the system to improve best practice.
Over ten years the system has recorded over 870,000 prescriptions, over 1 million medical supply requests to the hospitals pharmacy, and over 34,000,000 medication administrations. Its successful implementation has been the result of close working between information and IT staff together with pharmacy, nursing and other clinical colleagues.
The system began on hospital wards B4 and E2 in March 2012, before being adopted by all other medicine wards later in the year. Surgery and maternity wards followed in 2013, and critical care in 2014, followed by paediatrics in 2020. Over 15,000 staff have been trained in the system’s use over the years, and there are over 1000 log-ins every day.
The EPMA system used is called ‘MedChart’ supplied by the firm Dedalus, which also sponsored and provided catering for the awards honouring those who have helped support the system over the years, including a custom bespoke cake. Among the awards presented were Best practice for patient safety for the Pharmacy Team, Local Heroes for the Digital Technology & Support Team, Best System Innovation for the Digital Development Team, Embedding a safety culture for Assistant Chief Nurse Carole Sparks and Diamond Team for the Clinical Digital Team.
Sarah Thompson, Chief Clinical Information Officer for Stockport NHS Foundation Trust said “Our EPMA system has been more than just a simple systems implementation, it goes to the heart of our trust’s activity, allowing us to greatly improve our medication efficiency and safety over the past decade. It’s been a real team effort implementing the system, with colleagues from all different disciplines working together. It’s been great to celebrate both these achievements and this teamwork with these awards.”