TECHNOLOGY
Improving outcomes with interoperability
Solving interoperability challenges in relation to healthcare technologies has the potential to improve patient outcomes, deliver financial savings and optimise clinical workflows. Edward Platt warns the healthcare sector is lagging behind and must learn from other industries.
The drive to improve the administration of medicines through digitalisation has made excellent progress in the past three years, with 83% of NHS Trusts now benefiting from electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) systems. This is a laudable rate of adoption which has significantly enhanced patient care, but this does not mark the end of the journey. In fact, we are only at the beginning of what can be achieved through the drive to interoperability of our healthcare systems. Interoperability is the modernisation and integration of systems and processes to simplify the communication and delivery of information. The concept has already reaped huge benefits in industries such as aviation and food, but the healthcare sector is lagging. We need to catch up, because the foundations are already in place, and the technology is proven. Interoperability in healthcare will improve collaboration and clinical workflows, unlock time and financial savings, and further reduce errors, resulting in better patient outcomes.
Global challenge
Medication errors are not confined to any one country – a fact recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO), which in 2017 created a dedicated Global Patient Safety Challenge called “Medication without Harm”. Its ambition was to reduce severe, avoidable medication-related harm by 50% by 2022. The scale of the issue in England was
particularly worrying, with a study at the time revealing that medication errors were staggeringly high. It was estimated that the NHS was responsible for 237 million such errors every year, as a result of poor working practices around prescribing, transitioning, dispensing, administering and monitoring.1 The 2018 EEPRU report Prevalence and Economic Burden of Medication Errors in the NHS in England, further highlighted the sheer scale of medication errors taking place.
The shock of these findings led to a
review, which set the healthcare system on the path to technological solutions, with the impressive adoption of ePMA systems.
Automated dispensing solutions have been shown to prevent and eradicate medication dispensing errors in a number of ways, including reducing selection errors.
JANUARY 2022
According to a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded study, high-risk medication errors can be reduced by up to 50% with the implementation of this technology.
Small steps
The next step to truly driving down medication errors is to integrate ePMA systems with complementary solutions, such as inventory management tracking systems, electronic controlled drugs solutions, robotic dispensing systems and automated medication dispensing cabinets. Automated dispensing solutions have been shown to prevent and eradicate medication dispensing errors in a number of ways, including reducing selection errors. The impact is even greater when integrated with ePMA by enabling, for example, the flagging of potential drug allergies or interactions for patients before that medication can be removed from the cabinet.
The advantages of interoperability
WWW.CLINICALSERVICESJOURNAL.COM l 73
▲
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
