eMedicines programme

Digital on demand
NHS GGC

Digital medicines processes will build the foundation for a single digital patient medication record which will enable benefits including improving safety, quality, efficiency, and patients’ experience of care. 

Medicines processes within NHSGGC are complex, with different groups of professionals interacting within and between care settings. Many processes are paper-based, and information about a patient’s medication can be fragmented across multiple partially overlapping digital and paper records. 

Additional challenges to the healthcare system arising from the COVID-19 pandemic have increased the urgency of NHSGGC strategic aim for co-ordinated digitalisation of medicines processes. 

Successes

The eMedicines Programme is the next step in the journey for moving NHSGGC towards this strategic goal. 

Phase 1 of the Programme delivered HEPMA across Acute Hospitals inpatient areas, theatres and Mental Health wards. Phase 2 of the Programme is underway and will progress the aims and objectives of the programme which were prioritised by the eHealth Safer Use of Medicines Programme Board. This will build on what we already have, to deliver early benefits to clinical staff and patients. It will prepare for the future by assessing opportunities to digitally transform medicines practice and processes. 

Opportunities

The overall programme will work with patients, clinical staff and other stakeholders across care settings to improve medicines pathways. It will identify and prioritise requirements; investigate, design, build, test and deliver solutions; and review outcomes and benefits. Some aspects will be progressed within NHSGGC, while other aspects will require collaboration on a regional or national basis with other NHS Boards, Scottish Government, National Services Scotland (NSS) and other key partners and stakeholders. 

Infographic of cogs in centre showing acute, community and primary care surrounded by mapping the citizens medicines journey, community nurse access to GP medicines info, prescribing in the community, out of hours prescribing, medicines in the care home and medicines information

Subsequent phases of the eMedicines Programme will deliver solutions which enable clinicians to maximise digital improvements in how medicines are managed across NHSGGC, for example implementing a single medication record that joins up medicines information from across primary and secondary care. 

To map the citizen’s medicines journey we will engage directly with patients and carers to understand their experience of medicines processes and identify priorities for improvement. This intelligence will inform current and future work to ensure that the patient’s voice is heard. 

As we replace paper processes with digital systems, the volume of available medicines data grows. To make sure this valuable information isn’t “locked away” we will create visual dashboards which clinical staff can use to support the delivery of care. 

The national Digital Prescribing and Dispensing Pathways programme aims to replace the paper prescription with a digital solution in all primary and community care settings. The initial focus is GP prescribing for supply by Community Pharmacy. NHSGGC eMedicines Programme is engaging with the national programme to share learning and influence direction of travel.

Strategic goals

Subsequent phases of the Programme will progress through proof of concept and pilot to implementation of Digital solutions in prioritised areas. 

Infographic of an arrow pointing right. The start of the arrow is citizen engagement workshops which capture requirements to develop dashboards with option appraisals to deliver dashboards with plan next phases to wider implementation at the top of the arrow. Outpatient proof of concept runs from develop dashboards to deliver dashboards.

  • HEPMA will be extended to outpatient and day case areas. Opportunities will be explored to extend this further in the future, for example to emergency departments. 
  • Community Pharmacy supply of medicines to patients on discharge from hospital has been successfully piloted and can enable patients to get home several hours sooner. This work will be extended, to deliver benefits more widely across NHSGGC. 
  • Develop and implement a communications solution with Community Pharmacies to improve inpatient medicines processes including discharge 
  • Options appraisals will be carried out to identify opportunities to join up and improve medicines processes for community nursing, addiction services and care homes. 
  • Development of additional medicines informatics dashboards to support service improvement. 
  • Explore options for a Single Medication View to aggregate a single view of patient’s medicines and prescriptions records. 
  • Pilot and roll out access to medicines information for Care Home staff.