The Evening Times ran an article about figures in a new report showing that women from Lanarkshire experience higher-than-average rates of stillbirth and neonatal deaths than other parts of Scotland. The region recorded the second-highest rate in Scotland with 6.42 deaths per 1,000 births. However it is worth noting that the figure of 7,096 Lanarkshire resident […]
New medicines prescribing system is being introduced
NHS Lanarkshire is implementing a new clinical system called HEPMA (Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration).
The primary aim is to remove most of the current paper-based processes from prescribing and medicines administration activities and replace them with an electronic alternative which improves patient safety, quality of care and the efficiency of medicines management processes.
Dr Iain Wallace, medical director, said: “The roll out of HEPMA across our three acute hospitals provides clinical staff with a significant improvement on the current paper-based system.
“Not only is it a safer and more efficient way of prescribing and dispensing medicines, it will allow teams to access to real time information which will help them improve the quality of their prescribing practice.”
As well as supporting national targets for the wider deployment of a HEPMA system, this project will allow NHS Lanarkshire to take significant strides towards meeting the NHS Scotland quality ambitions, particularly in respect of:
• Safety: there will be no avoidable injury or harm to people from healthcare they receive, and an appropriate, clean and safe environment will be provided for the delivery of healthcare services at all times.
• Clinical effectiveness: the most appropriate treatments, interventions, support and services will be provided at the right time to everyone who will benefit and wasteful or harmful variation will be eradicated.
Deployment of HEPMA across NHS Lanarkshire’s three university hospitals will contribute to a more complete electronic case record, as well as supporting local strategies to promote paper-lite working; continue modernisation; maximise efficient working practices and develop clinical systems that can meet future demand for services.
Kenneth MacKenzie, lead pharmacist- HEPMA – “HEPMA is a great opportunity to use a digital platform to facilitate the safe prescribing and administration of medications, it will provide a robust audit trail for the entire process. The first step is to move safely from paper to digital.”
For enquires email: hepma@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk Firstport: http://firstport2/staff-support/hepma/ default.aspx
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