Wales adds medication to e-discharge

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is trialling a new module of the Welsh Clinical Portal which automatically adds a patient’s medication to the discharge summary.

The medicines transcribing and e-discharge module records a list of prescriptions for a patient and adds them to an electronic discharge advice letter, which is sent to the patient’s GP via the Welsh Clinical Communications Gateway.

Dr John Peters, the health board’s informatics clinical lead, said the board discharges more than 10,000 people a month and the new module is very important to streamline the process.

“We now have the capacity to overcome a longstanding clinical risk inherent in the written handover of patient care following hospital discharge to GP,” he said.

“MTED allows for real time and clear communication of patient status, treatment requirements and follow up arrangements. It represents a major step forward in patient safety and quality of care.”

The clinical portal has been developed by the NHS Wales Informatics Service to provide clinicians with a ‘single view’ of information from the different systems in use in Welsh hospitals.

As well as including all medicines prescribed while the patient has been in hospital, the electronic discharge advice letter also gives the GP information such as diagnosis, medical progress, advice, follow-up action and test results.

The trial of the new module is run on one ward at the health board and will be rolled out to a further five wards later this year.

The six month prototype phase will allow the health board and NWIS to gather feedback on the module. NWIS plans to make it available to other health boards later in the year.

The communications gateway, which allows GPs to send referrals to hospitals and for hospitals to send discharge summaries to GPs electronically, is used by 95% of GP practices.

Several Welsh health boards have also implemented electronic discharges to GPs. NHS Wales plans to make it available to all health boards.