King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has started rolling out its iSoft e-prescribing system trust-wide.
The system enables prescribers to order their patient’s medication electronically and view scheduled and administered medications on an electronic drug chart via the iSoft Clinical Manager electronic patient record system.
The trust is one of the first to use the functionality, which is also in use in Salford and was piloted at Epsom and St Helier.
Ben Fidler, senior clinical analyst at King’s, told E-Health Insider: “Orders are placed in the same way as a diagnostic test in the native functionality of iCM, so it has been fairly straightforward for staff to pick up.
“It also helps to steer users towards the most common routes and standard doses, which not only makes selecting the correct dose easier but is one of the ways to reduce errors.”
The electronic prescribing and medicines management project team began rolling out the system in November 2008 in a general medical ward.
Fidler added: “The ward was a 30-bed high turnover ward, which we purposely chose because it was particularly difficult.
"We then spent six months piloting the system and tweaking the application before it went live in May 2009 on a low turnover, elderly care ward.”
In September 2009, the trust doubled the size of the EPMA team to eight and has now started rolling out two wards per month.
Fidler added: “This year we have decided to really pick up the pace. We intend to have 40 wards rolled-out by the end of the year.”
The trust is also the first in the UK to implement portable refrigerated drug trolleys from RDP, which have a computer fixed on top.
Dr Jack Barker, clinical lead for IM&T at the trust, said: “We want it to go all the way from A&E to discharge, but our problem at the moment is that A&E is treated as a different hospital. Everyone wants e-prescribing but it’s a painful road.”
E-prescribing was one of the many systems that the trust showcased at its annual IT open day last week.
The trust invited staff to see demonstrations of older systems, such as its PAS and EPR, and newly implemented systems, including an electronic whiteboard, self check-in kiosks and an e-rostering system.
Links: RDP
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Opinion and Analysis: King’s held its annual IT open day last week and Sarah Bruce was there. Read her feature in opinion and analysis.
Audio: Or listen to her interview with the trust’s director of ICT, Colin Sweeney, recorded on the day.