Trust uses JAC outpatient e-Prescribing

Thursday 23rd October 2008

An NHS Trust has rolled out medicines management solutions supplier JAC's Outpatient e-Prescribing Module to 27 clinic rooms covering a variety of specialties and around 80 prescribing users.

Along with tackling legibility issues and prescribing errors, implementing an e-prescribing system with links to pharmacy can be used to reduce outpatient prescription expenditure.

As more than 90% of outpatient prescriptions at the Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust are generated by using a written FP10 which is then taken to a local community pharmacy, controlling these costs is a key means of reducing the trust's overall drug expenditure.

The common practice of using paper prescriptions which are dispensed externally allows significantly less control over which drugs are prescribed. This means that a doctor may often prescribe a branded product rather than a more cost effective generic alternative, an excessive supply quantity or both.

A key decision for implementing JAC's outpatient e-Prescribing Module was the integration with the trust's existing pharmacy module – allowing the trust to manage its formulary and prescribing policies centrally.

This integrated approach to Medicines Management allows expenditure to be reduced and controlled by a number of means including offering prescribers default drug and supply options or restricting choice to the trust's list of approved drugs for any particular department or prescriber.

The decision to proceed came only a few weeks after the initial clinic pilot went live as the trust realised the benefits of using the system almost immediately. The trust has further plans to roll-out the module into all remaining outpatient specialties over the coming months.

This is the first time that the JAC outpatient e-Prescribing Module has been used so extensively, and also the first time that an FP10 outpatient prescription template approved by the Prescription Pricing Authority has been used with the JAC system.

Carl Partridge, the trust's Chief Pharmacist, said: "The project has run very smoothly, with excellent collaboration between clinicians, pharmacy, IT and JAC. Although we are at an early stage, go-live has been a smooth process and we are now looking to extend coverage to smaller areas of outpatient prescribing that occur within the trust. This will include both on and off site areas with the goal of all outpatient prescribing being done via the JAC system within the next 12 months."

Steve Reggione, JAC's Senior Project Manager, said: "The trust's willingness to engage with JAC has been key to the success of this project. They have demonstrated how a strong project team with executive backing can produce immediate benefits for the trust by implementing the JAC system. The trust set itself a challenging timeframe to deploy the outpatient e-Prescribing Module and have achieved their goal thanks to the hard work of the pharmacy department with significant support from IT and clinicians."

JAC