Wrexham Maelor Hospital live with ePMA system and sharing discharge medicines with the Shared Medicines Record
Wrexham Maelor Hospital is now the first acute hospital site in Wales to have all inpatient wards live with the electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) system from supplier, Better, helping to improve medicines safety, efficiency and patient care. The transition follows a successful move to the ePMA system with their early adopter ward in the Heddfan Unit in December.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) is also the first health board to integrate its ePMA system with the Shared Medicines Record (SMR), making hospital discharge medicines information available in the SMR. This marks the beginning of delivering a consolidated record of medicines, allergies and intolerances for every patient in Wales – a major milestone for the national Digital Medicines Programmes.
The highly collaborative implementation at Wrexham Maelor took place mid-January over a three-day period, where clinical teams worked together to manually transcribe more than 600 inpatients onto the digital system, before adopting electronic prescribing and medicines administration as part of routine patient care.
Lois Lloyd, Chief Pharmacist, said: “The successful rollout of ePMA at Wrexham Maelor Hospital is a significant milestone in improving medicines safety and optimising how we use digital technology to support patient care.
"This has been a complex piece of work, and I want to recognise the commitment and collaboration of pharmacy, clinical and digital teams in making this happen. ePMA provides a stronger, safer platform for prescribing and administration, and it represents an important step forward in modernising medicines management for our patients.”
Ffion Thomas, Senior Clinical Informatician (Medications Nurse) at Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW), said: “It was excellent to be on site at Wrexham Maelor Hospital to support for BCUHB's East go-live. As a children’s nurse by background, seeing the first paediatric ward in Wales move onto ePMA was a significant milestone for me.”
“The energy, teamwork and commitment shown by teams across the whole weekend was incredible, and it was a privilege to witness and support such a major step forward in safer, more seamless digital care for both patients and staff.”
Martin Gallanders, Principal Project Manager at DHCW, said: “Being on site with Digital and Operational staff to support healthcare professionals in the transition to new systems and ways of working is what I love about my job. The enthusiasm and willingness by all, including the healthcare staff who truly want to embrace the change is just brilliant to see and be amongst.”
“It’s really exciting to be a part of the BCUHB go-live where discharge medicines are flowing into the Shared Medicines Record to start the creation of a consolidated medicines record of patients in Wales.”
DHCW is working with every health board in Wales and Velindre University NHS Trust to roll out ePMA in phases, with all making exciting progress towards implementing new software in hospitals. Read the latest updates on our Digital Medicines web pages.