First DataBank Europe (FDBE) has successfully integrated its Multilex Drug Data File (Multilex DDF) into Lloyds community pharmacy chain’s new dispensing system, Complete Medication and Medication Support System (CoMPaSS).
CoMPaSS is designed to streamline the 110m prescriptions dispensed by Lloyds every year. The system was first piloted in Wales last year and has since been extended in all of the chain’s Scottish branches and early adopter sites in England.
As part of the new system, Lloyds worked with their pharmacists to ensure it met their requirements as electronic prescription handling rapidly becomes the norm.
Lloyds’ IT director, Gary Feary, told EHI Primary Care: “CoMPaSS really is a system designed for pharmacists by pharmacists. As part of the design process, it was evident that having electronic drug interaction reminders was a useful tool for pharmacists to ensure that patients are kept safe and are only prescribed drugs which are appropriate for them, depending on their particular characteristics.”
The CoMPaSS system was designed to support the greatly expanded role of pharmacies in UK healthcare policy arising from recent Department of Health initiatives and to enable the company’s pharmacists to work more closely with general practitioners, NHS hospitals and primary care teams.
Using FDBE’S Multilex DDF, the new checking functionality will support pharmacists in their dispensing and new prescribing roles and includes checks on drug-drug interactions, sensitivities, contraindications and precautions, drug doubling and therapeutic doubling. FDBE also provides links to Patient Information Leaflets on drugs and appliances.
Feary said: “We chose to work with FDBE because of their level of knowledge and experience in drug related clinical decision support. Patient safety is paramount to us, so it was essential that we use the UK’s leading drug database to provide the clinical checking within CoMPaSS.”
Last week, CoMPass was certified as EPS 1 compliant bu Connecting for Health and Lloyds aims to roll it out across the rest of its English branches over the coming months.
Feary said: “The system has been designed to provide a platform upon which future NHS initiatives, such as electronic prescribing and claiming, can be built. Business benefits of the new system include centralised data, improved management information, better cost control, automated inventory management with automatic reordering and replenishment facilities.
“With Mulitlex DDF we can warn customers of interactions and offer alternative choices, showing them that we do care and are focused on meeting their needs at all times. At a time when pharmacists have thousands of drugs to remember, systems such as Multilex DDF are a great boost and a welcome addition to their working lives.”
Using CoMPass patients will benefit from an expanding range of services that are supported and enabled by the new system.
These include private consultations with pharmacists, medicines reviews, management of chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes and hypertension, blood glucose monitoring, blood pressure testing, advice on healthy lifestyles, and treatment for a wide range of minor ailments.
The new system also supports extensive patient records protected by high levels of security, more efficient management of repeat prescriptions and dispensing to care homes and Lloyds is working towards achieving EPS 2 compliance.
Roy Maddison, CoMPaSS programme manager at Lloyds, said: “The role of pharmacies in UK healthcare is undergoing large-scale change, and in this new environment only those able to offer new facilities and new efficiencies will succeed. The major investment we are making in new dispensing technology reflects our determination to maintain and enhance our position of leadership in this key area of primary healthcare.”
Keith Kirtland, sales and marketing director of FDBE, added: “Our integration into CoMPaSS is extremely important to us as it allows us to work with one of the leading players in the pharmacy market.”
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