Patientrack parent company, Alcidion, has entered into a reseller agreement with healthcare software provider, Better by Marand, to help hospitals tackle medication errors.
The news follows a renewed focus on prescribing in the NHS, with the subject featuring strongly in the recently-published NHS Long-Term Plan, and in a review into over-prescribing that was launched by health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, in late 2018. The NHS Long-Term Plan has also promised the publication of a new patient safety strategy in the NHS.
This is an important step in our expanding offering to hospitals that are determined to use digital technology to make it easier for staff to deliver safer and better care for patients
Alcidion will now resell the OPENeP electronic prescribing and medicines administration system alongside its nex- generation patient safety platform to hospitals in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors continue to be the leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in healthcare systems around the world.
In the UK alone, one paper that examined medication-related incidents identified 6.5 actual, and 5.5 potential, adverse drug events per 100 admissions, a significant number of which were preventable.
OPENeP, which has been chosen by Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, an NHS Global Digital Exemplar; and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, will now be made available to Alcidion customers who want to procure the technology as part of their digitisation and patient safety ambitions.
Donald Kennedy, general manager for Alcidion in the UK, said: “This partnership will undoubtedly interest many of the NHS hospitals we work with to enhance patient safety and the working lives of healthcare professionals.
“This is an important step in our expanding offering to hospitals that are determined to use digital technology to make it easier for staff to deliver safer and better care for patients.”
OPENeP is a closed-loop electronic medication management system that enables proper adherence to medication administration such as delivering the right dosage to the right patient at the right time and provides clinical decision support for complex prescribing scenarios including order sets, IVs, titration and anti-microbial stewardship.
By collaborating with Alcidion, we aim to create an environment that maximises patient safety, improves collaboration among staff, and prevents unnecessary errors. All this will lead to better patient outcomes
One of the significant benefits of OPENeP for hospitals is that doctors, nurses and pharmacists will no longer rely on paper records or writing prescriptions by hand, with all medication management information stored and readily available via computer devices.
Clinical staff can also receive proactive alerts when entering orders that could cause patient harm, like interaction with an existing medication or the wrong dose.
Kate Quirke, managing director at Alcidion, said that OPENeP will extend its solution portfolio to address this key clinical activity and to complement its existing workflows.
“Medications data is a critical element of the information required to improve patient safety and healthcare delivery. By adding this to our existing capabilities, we can offer our customers the opportunity to implement a modern medication management solution alongside our Miya Precision platform,” she said.
“When combined with our electronic observations and clinical documentation solution, Patientrack, and Smartpage, for clinical communication, our customers will have access to a modern, mobile, EMR platform with enhanced decision support capabilities.”
Roko Malkoč, OPENeP product manager, added: “Patients should be the focus, and it is in their interest to always get accurate treatment of the highest quality.
“By collaborating with Alcidion, we aim to create an environment that maximises patient safety, improves collaboration among staff, and prevents unnecessary errors. All this will lead to better patient outcomes.”