New contract supports the Trust’s vision for electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) to improve patient safety, increase integrated workflow and more efficient drug expenditure
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) has partnered with Civica, a global leader in software for public services, in a new five-year contract to provide its ePMA software, Civica Prescribing.
KMPT will implement Civica Prescribing as part of its long-term integrated health and social care strategy, supporting the government’s pledge to provide £75 million extra to Trusts to help bring in ePMA systems which save money, give clinicians more time with patients and reduce medication errors by up to 50% (when compared with paper systems).
Formed in 2006, KMPT provides secondary mental health services on behalf of eight local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), Kent County Council and NHS Specialist Commissioning, both in the community and within inpatient settings. With 66 premises located on 33 sites, the Trust covers a large population of 1.8 million, while employing more than 3,400 people. In 2017, the Trust cared for nearly 50,000 people, involving more than half a million contacts.
KMPT required a safe and intuitive ePMA system with specific mental health functionality allowing clinicians to prescribe and administer medications electronically – rather than via handwritten charts/prescriptions or faxed notes.
Civica Prescribing is a comprehensive ePMA solution for mental health which transforms the current manual process and improves outcomes across the NHS. Incorporating robust safety mechanisms to prevent medication errors, it delivers precise patient information and decision support. The system will ultimately safeguard patients across KMPT by mitigating potential errors and streamlining the prescribing and administration process, while maintaining patient confidentiality.
The solution complies with NICE guidelines, Clinical Safety Standards and is also CE1 registered under the Medical Device Directive providing KMPT with the highest level of clinical safety assurance.
Civica Prescribing will integrate with the Trust’s existing Patient Administration System: through sharing patient information between systems, this integration will avoid duplication of effort, increase operational efficiency and improve patient safety. These benefits extend beyond the Trust to the wider health economy as it will facilitate the sharing of medication history with GP’s through electronic discharge notifications and other health care providers via the Kent and Medway Care Record.
Karen Bartlett, Advanced Clinical Pharmacist, Prescribing Lead at Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust said: “As a Trust operating across the health and social care sector, we were seeking a trusted partner who understood the specific issues of prescribing within the mental health environment to help us maintain our high patient safety standards across KMPT. Civica Prescribing offers an intuitive and easy-to-use platform which can be specifically tailored to our needs, alongside the integration and flexibility needed to support our long-term development plan.”
Steve Brain, Executive Director, Health and Care, Civica added: “Technology, software and automation are key enablers to increase safety and drive efficiencies across the NHS. Civica Prescribing will provide KMPT with a number of safety and operational benefits to support both its local and national strategic integrated health objectives. We are delighted to be partnering with the Trust to advance its electronic prescribing and support its vision to drive digital transformation, optimise medicine management and provide the best patient care.”
With more than 30 years’ experience in the health and care sector, Civica delivers software and services to 500 health and care providers in the UK, Canada and Australia. Working across clinical, financial and operational settings, the company is streamlining service delivery with unified health and care for more than 200 NHS Trusts, a third of NHS Commissioners, and many independent residential and community care providers. More than £60 billion NHS funds are processed through Civica systems on an annual basis.
