Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with System C’s CareFlow Medicines Management (CMM) system across all adult inpatient areas in a complex project to digitise paper prescribing processes for increased efficiency and improved patient safety.
The Trust is using the new digital tool to chart drugs, complete rounds and administer medications. Staff and patients are benefiting from improved legibility of prescriptions, which is helping to free up more time for patient care and reduce errors.
At a patient’s discharge, rather than rekey prescription information, the system automatically fills in what medication that patient needs. It is available to download straight from CMM, which is making a big difference to patients, families, and GPs.
Prior to going live, medical and nursing students from local universities were invited to join the deployment team to offer support and floor walk during the implementation. Nursing and medical students are on clinical placement at Barnsley from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, with a select number of these students joining the CMM go-live team for two days a week to assist with the implementation of the EPMA solution.
Barnsley’s Chief Nursing Information Officer, Stacey Hatton, explained how the pioneering initiative is designed to engage and inspire a future digitally-led workforce and strengthen digital service improvement. “Students have said that they want to be involved in the digital agenda and they are very excited about being part of Barnsley’s transformation programme and helping to unlock the benefits it offers. As students towards the completion of their studies, they acknowledged that being part of this will allow them to understand the system more.
“The students have been a fantastic addition to the team, and we intend to run the placement programme for future projects.”
Richard Billam, Deputy Director ICT at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “The roll-out is progressing well and we’ve had some great feedback. By lunchtime on the day of go-live we had our first colleague tell us we could go, and they would be okay on their own using the system. As you can imagine, that was wonderful to hear.”
CareFlow Medicines Management is fully integrated with the Trust’s CareFlow EPR and enables the entire drug chart to be viewed on a single screen, complete with the latest lab results and drug schedules, and patient histories accessible at a keystroke. The electronic information then moves with the patient as they move between departments, helping to ensure a safer and faster transfer of care between teams.
“I’m delighted with how we have implemented CMM, integrated into the Trust’s CareFlow EPR and gone live in a record four months. It’s an amazing achievement by our Trust colleagues and the System C team,” said Nick Wilson, CEO at System C.
Image source: Steve Fareham / Barnsley District General Hospital from Pogmoor Road
