E-Prescribing success continues with a specialist e-prescribing drug trolley
The St John’s Hospice new e-prescription system is now live and is supported by generous funding from The Hospital Saturday Fund. The move from paper prescriptions to online electronic chart was a big change for the team and one they have all worked hard to train for. This new system needed investment in a special e-prescribing trolley to fully support it.
Why does a ‘simple’ trolley make such a difference? Like many things in life – something may look ‘simple’ but in reality, it isn’t! A specialist trolley needs to hold the computer for e-prescribing so requires a large surface area, it also needs to be able to hold medicines securely yet ensuring they can be accessed. In addition, the trolley needs to be easily manoeuvred around patient beds and visitors without causing disruption and being obtrusive. The inpatient ward team carried out considerable research to find the right trolley to work for the team, the patients and their families.
Essentially, this trolley has helped St John’s move to a much safer system of prescribing and dispensing all medications to patient through electronic-prescribing. Also, as a non-paper-based system, it is safer and more environmentally friendly.
The trolley is absolutely integral to the success of this fundamental new way of delivering medications to patients on the ward. A big thank you to the Hospital Saturday Fund for the funding for this trolley – it is working beautifully in its support of this new way of delivering medications to patients.
Emma Dixon, Head of In-patient Services
