The use of IT in NHS hospital prescription is pretty ubiquitous,
though a visit to smaller GP's surgeries will still see you leaving
with a handwritten piece of paper to take to the chemist.
I suspect that you're more interested in pharmacy automation, robot
picking systems and supply chain linking using IT. The implementation
of this in the NHS at least seems to be patchy and the many systems in
use do not seem to be linked in any meaningful way. Projects have
been implemented by individual healthcare trusts without thought to
compatibility across the NHS. This is one of the areas that the
Government's current 10 year plan for the NHS is attemting to address.
The Department of Health report 'The Pharmacy in the Future', which is
part of the governments current NHS plan
(http://www.doh.gov.uk/pharmacyfuture/) sets out a plan to implement
many IT related prescription services by 2004 - this would suggest
that there isn't much around of it at the moment. Goals such as
-by 2004, repeat dispensing will mean that patients will be able to
get repeat prescriptions from a pharmacy, without having to contact
their surgery each time;
and
- by 2004, electronic prescribing will reduce the scope for incomplete
and illegible prescriptions and open the door to getting prescriptions
dispensed by “e-pharmacies”.
are mentioned. The plan is that eventually everybody will have access
to an 'E-Pharmacy'
"In the short-term, e-pharmacy will allow people to consult their
pharmacist electronically to seek advice and make arrangements for the
delivery of their prescriptions, but they will still need to supply
their prescription form before being sent their medicines. But, in due
course, electronic prescribing is likely to mean that often the
prescription too will be transferred electronically. "
'in due course' is Sir Humphrey speak for 'a very long time even
assuming that the funds become available'.
An Audit Commission report available from
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/publications/spoonfulsugar.shtml
says tellingly that
Computerised prescribing and
health records have been shown
to eliminate three-quarters of
medication errors, but they are
only used in a few hospitals. The
DoH’s Information Management
and Technology (IM and T)
strategy expects 35 per cent of
trusts to have installed electronic
patient record systems, including
the reporting of results and
prescribing by 2002, and all trusts
by 2005 . However, progress
is extremely slow.
Automated picking systems are becoming more common but still seem to
be rare.
http://www.pharmj.com/Editorial/20020105/news/news_heartsandminds.html
mentions a system installed in the Wirral (Liverpool) hospital. A PDF
at http://www.pharmj.com/pdf/articles/pj_20020330_automated.pdf
details the implementation.
Hope that this is a good start. |
