Ascribe announced that Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have ordered Ascribe's Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) solution. The Trust has successfully used Ascribe's Web Pharmacy Solution for some time; by moving to a full ePMA solution, the Trust's clinicians can access a wider set of healthcare IT systems and improve patient safety as their clinical decisions become more fully informed.
Mike Urwin, Clinical Director of Pharmacy and Medicines Management at Northern Lincolnshire & Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said, "The introduction of e-prescribing is good news for the Trust and our patients. It enables us to implement the 'closed loop' of medicines management, allowing us to improve service delivery and improve patient safety. By using decision support during prescribing we can also enable clinicians to make the most informed decision for patients, and implement a solution that can monitor outcomes to improve the care we give to all our patients."
Ascribe ePMA improves patient safety by reducing medical and administrative errors that are linked to handwritten notes. The Trust is expecting to receive additional benefits from improved drug use reporting and cost efficiencies from their drug budget. The integrated Ascribe solution provides valuable insights into drug use and provides Trusts with a lower cost of drug ownership with improved flexibility of access.
The enterprise-wide solution will help improve communication across the healthcare team by providing a single and comprehensive source of up-to-date information relating to the management of medicines for a patient.
The Trust also uses Ascribe to provide their:
1. Patient Administration System (PAS)
2. Pharmacy stock management & clinical screening
3. Emergency Care system
Pete Wisher, Director of Diagnostics & Therapeutics at Northern Lincolnshire & Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said, "I hope that our partnership with Ascribe will enable us to better integrate our trust-wide clinical systems, both Ascribe's and additional third-party clinical systems. By connecting our systems and focusing upon the needs of our patients, we will be able to deliver safety and operational benefits."
Stephen Critchlow, CEO of Ascribe, commented on the project: "Ascribe have worked with Northern Lincolnshire and Goole for many years, and we are delighted that they have selected Ascribe to be their partner for their electronic prescribing project."
About Ascribe ePMA
Ascribe electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) provides the closed loop of medicines management leading to tighter control of drug budgets, faster discharge turnaround and increased safety.
ePMA enables complex regimens to be prescribed with a single click and supports all forms of UK practice - Independent prescribing, Supplementary prescribing and Patient Group directions. Drug supply requests are instantly communicated for faster turnaround. The prescriptions are coded in such a way that they pass seamlessly to robotic dispensing and manufacturing.
The solution is designed to follow the workflow of clinicians and nurses for prescribing and administration. The system has in-built Medicines Reconciliation and supports clinical screening by pharmacists. The use of Patient's own medication is supported and drug administration can be recorded via touchscreen devices. ePMA provides an end-to-end integrated process with no transcription.
About Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was established as a combined hospital and community Trust on 1st April 2001 and achieved Foundation Status on 1st May 2007. It was formed by the merger of North East Lincolnshire NHS Trust and Scunthorpe and Goole Hospitals NHS Trust and operates all NHS hospitals in Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Goole. Its name reflects the wider geographical area in which the Trust is a major provider of health care. The population within the area covered by the Trust is estimated at 358,000.
About Ascribe
From trust-wide EPR solutions through to individual departmental clinical systems and services, Ascribe is able to deliver IT solutions that cater to all secondary care clinical requirements. Using a professional Consultancy division, Ascribe also delivers a comprehensive range of Integration and Business Intelligence solutions based on Microsoft® & other third party IT suppliers to significantly improve clinical and operational efficiencies, to improve patient safety and reduce operating costs.