Mental health prescribing goes digital at Humber

Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with a new electronic prescribing system, to better help administer medicines for NHS mental health professionals.

Trust staff at more than 70 sites throughout Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire can now securely access a patient’s medication information electronically and issue prescriptions from anywhere. The trust has become the first of its kind in the country to go live with the DXC Technology ePMA component of the Lorenzo electronic patient record system.

The accessibility to ePMA has already resulted in patient safety benefits, and a significant amount of time is being saved by busy hospital staff in both prescribing and administering medications.

The system has been implemented to meet the specific needs of mental health services at the multi-speciality health and social care provider. For example, in the case of controlled medicines, the system now automatically requires users of appropriate authority to enter a passcode, to demonstrate that medicine administration has been appropriately witnessed.

Dr John Byrne, executive medical director at Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is an important step for patient safety and for us as an organisation. Doctors can now log in and prescribe immediately at any time of the day or night, without the need to travel for up to an hour between our sites. Nurses administering medicines have much easier access to information, allowing them to see at a glance which patients are due their medication, and to more easily and more safely manage medicines for patients with mental ill health.”

The trust’s off-site pharmacy partner, LloydsPharmacy, also has direct access to the system, enabling staff to access the information they need directly from community locations.

Dr Weeliat Chong, chief pharmacist at Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is simplifying our approach to medication and care. Staff, whether working for the trust or our partner, are now able to work in a more joined up way, regardless of location, and all for the benefit of the patient.”