The National Programme for IT in the NHS and hospital boards should put e-prescribing at the top of their agendas because of the huge patient safety benefits to be gained, a round-table discussion has concluded.
The round table on e-prescribing, jointly organised by E-Health Insider and the British Computer Society’s Health Informatics Forum, brought together academics, clinicians and industry experts to discuss the benefits of e-prescribing and what the acute sector could learn from primary care, where it is well established.
Participants in the event, sponsored by First Data Bank Europe, acknowledged that in hospitals prescribing is a complex process, rather than a one-off act. E-prescribing systems in hospitals need to cover both the prescribing and the administration of drugs and eventually extend into pharmacy.
However, panellists felt that some useful, interim steps could be taken. For example, they felt that consideration should be given to the development of a single medication record, containing up to date details of all a patient’s current medications.
Dr Brian Robson, clinical director for e-health, NHS National Services Scotland, said the Emergency Care Summary is starting to move in this direction, with hospital pharmacists using it as “a trusted source of information about the latest GP-prescribed medication.”
English participants said local summary record schemes were being used in a similar way. However, panellists felt action should be taken to standardise drug names and drug databases.
Professor Tony Avery, professor of primary healthcare at the University of Nottingham, told the discussion: “I think we all share a view of what we want to see, and that is dealing with this in an end-to-end, holistic way. But we can’t do that in a single leap.”
He said primary care had implemented e-prescribing “in incremental bit, over 15 or 20 or more years, at a pace that people are prepared to go at.”
Despite this, there was some concern that while a handful of English hospitals have implemented full e-prescribing systems, and around a third have implemented some elements on some wards, progress has stalled. Participants felt that NPfIT needed to re-focus efforts on e-prescribing and that the benefits should be actively explained and “sold” to trusts.
In this context, the round table also recommended that the risks and benefits of e-prescribing implementations should be studied and shared widely. Participants felt that a committee, forum or group might be set up to encourage the exchange of ideas.
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