Electronic prescribing (ERx) is in vogue at present, with more systems becoming useful, more conferences being arranged, the Government launching its 7yr strategy for the NHS Information For Health: An Information Strategy for the Modern NHS and hospitals starting to look seriously at the EPR.INTRODUCTION
I am relatively new to the area, my first insight being at the HCI in Glasgow some years back. My main interest in Pharmacy has been and remains IT. I have always believed that the key role of Pharmacy in the hospital setting is the provision and utilisation of information for the benefit of the patient either directly or indirectly. All very grand and at present in many cases somewhat cumbersome. Yet within the rapidly developing multi-media environment it is easier to visualise the benefits as well as the challenges arising from effective construction and utilsation of wholly integrated information systems within the healthcare environment (it used to be called HISS in the same way that Sellafield used to be called Windscale? i.e. it's still around doing its job but has had a lot of bad press).
Thus ERx per se in this scheme of things describes just a small part a small part of the process. What we should be looking at is the larger part that is Electronic Medicines Management (EMM) which incorporates ERx. Any system that is then developed has/must give value to the range of end users using current systems from the patient to the consultant. The list of end users that come to mind are as follows:
This is a long list encompassing a number of groups who will have differing requirements of a medicines management system. The extent of 'stakeholding' of these various groups will differ depending on thier involvement in the process. This identification of end users is the starting point from where the solution arises, for only by incorporating the needs of all end users will something that is both versatile and truly useful be developed.
- Pharmacy Staff
- Medical staff
- Nursing Staff
- PAMS
- Directorate staff
- GPs
- Community Pharmacies
- Patients
There is little information on systems or the process that I can find on the World Wide Web, there are some companies with a product for the UK the majority of which appear to be in development. There have been some interesting articles in the Pharmaceutical Journal and more recently a Hospital Pharmacy supplement. With this relative paucity we must be clear on what we require from such a system as well as flexibility which will stand us in readiness for future developments. The following pages ( as completed)
will outline my views on the requirements (based on the above end users) of the process and the resultant system as I see it. It will look at what we do at present and how EMM can 'add value' to this process, either directly or indirectly. I hope it will stimulate comments and discussion on a subject that is of critical importance to the successful development of the EPR.Please feel free to E-mail me any comments/contributions or questions
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Copyright - Will Willson 1999
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