Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has stepped closer towards HIMSS stage 6 digital maturity with the implementation of a closed loop medication administration system.
The system was implemented over a three-week period in the trust's adult inpatient wards.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has selected the Altera Sunrise Knowledge based medication administration system. Implemented as part of the trust's Scan4Safety project, digital medication administration enables clinical staff to identify patients and validate their medication using barcodes.
During a three-week period in August, a phased implementation was carried out, beginning with three wards described as early adopters at the Cheltenham General Hospital. These wards had stable populations with patients that have medium to high medication needs. This provided the NHS trust with a test bed; changes were then made to the implementation before the technology was rolled out to the remaining inpatient wards and sites the following week.
Matt Little, CNIO at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said that patients "appreciate the steps we are taking to verify medications. On some wards, we have patients who receive multiple different medications, and the process of assembling those together with ensuring you've got the right strength and dose all comes under the ethos of the Scan4Safety initiative."
He added: "It is supporting teams to reduce adverse drug events and administration errors by acting as a trusted 'digital colleague'. It is providing extra confidence when administering medications and validating the five rights of medication administration: right patient, right medication, right time, right route and right dose."
James Hodgin, ePMA programme lead, added: "In the first week of September alone, 14,315 patient scans were recorded and 66,335 medications were scanned. As a trust, we're keen to deliver the benefits which closed-loop promised, and in early evaluations with our nursing staff 93% saw the benefit of the system and 64% said the system makes them feel safer when administering medications. It's a really promising start at this early stage."
The implementation of digital medication administration is part of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's digital transformation strategy as it moves towards Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) stage 6 accreditation for digital maturity.
Closed loop medicine management is a key requirement of HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model certification, the globally recognised standard for digital maturity in healthcare.
