ePMA
Wye Valley NHS Trust going live with Better Meds in record time
By
Better
What started in January of this year, when Better partnered with Epro and Wye Valley NHS Trust to provide the trust with an ePMA solution, and continued to do so through the pandemic, has just reached a significant milestone. Wye Valley NHS Trust has become the 3rd UK site to go live with Better Meds.
Better Meds will help the trust improve patient safety by reducing the prescribing and administration errors that could result in adverse drug incidents. It will also improve communication between pharmacists, doctors, and nurses, enable work prioritisation, enhance reporting, and optimise existing workflows. The Hereford-based trust is a Digital Fast Follower of Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, where Better Meds has been live for more than a year now. Being a fast follower means that with Better Meds they are making a significant step forward on their path to reaching the highest possible stage of digital maturity.
Stefan Siekierski, Project Manager at Wye Valley NHS Trust, shared his thoughts on successful implementation: “From signing contracts in January to our pilot in October, the teams at Epro, Better, and Wye Valley worked together in close partnership to deliver a high-quality system, improved the quality and safety of our patients and staff. We have changed our working model in response to Covid-19, and adapted to an ever-changing situation. Keeping to our timescales to date has been a result of collaborative work and the incredible support of Trust staff.”
Wye Valley NHS Trust is the 3rd site in the UK to have gone live with Better Meds, after University Plymouth NHS Trust and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, with three more trusts, one acute and two mental, to follow soon.
Christine Wadsworth, UK Clinical Lead at Better, shared: “I was fortunate to be able to attend the first ward to use ePMA at Wye Valley on the go-live date. The ward staff were very well prepared and keen to move from the paper drug charts to electronic prescribing and administration, because they recognise the benefits to the patients, to themselves, and to the Trust. The ePMA team at Wye Valley, along with the teams from Epro and Better, have done an incredible job at reaching this point of the project so quickly, and during very difficult times. I look forward to visiting again when I am able to do so, as the Trust rolls out the solution to the other wards.”
Created as a stand-alone solution, Better Meds is also compatible with any electronic patient record system the trust is using, and can be integrated with a decision-support system, as well as a hospital’s pharmacy systems. In Wye Valley, Better’s ePMA solution will be embedded in Epro’s Clinical Portal.
Dr. Francesca Leithold, chief operating officer at Epro, said: “Patient safety is a core value here at Epro, and our collaboration with Better and Wye Valley will now support clinicians as they support patients. After identifying additional opportunities to support the staff at Wye Valley, we also included our admissions checklist solutions into our integration, whilst keeping to our originally agreed timelines. We look forward to visiting our partners and continuing to support Wye Valley as they prioritise patient safety.”