The health board hopes the new system will reduce the risk of medication errors and improve patient care.
Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) has chosen Better as its technology partner to support the delivery of electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA), which will help medicines management within the health board’s community hospitals and other healthcare settings.
The new digital system will streamline prescribing by replacing the use of paper in hospitals and free up time for clinicians. ePMA will help to ensure that information is captured accurately which, it says, will reduce the risk of medication errors and improve patient care.
“By moving to a fully digital system for prescribing and medicine management in Powys hospitals, we will be able to increase patient safety and simplify processes for staff,” says Kate Wright, medical director for Powys Teaching Health Board.
The implementation of ePMA in Wales is a part of the national digital medicines programme, led by Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) and is supported and funded by the Welsh government.
Improve patient safety
The ePMA programme will provide several benefits to colleagues and patients such as access to digital records 24/7, a reduction in administrative errors and the ability to audit prescribing and administrative activity.
“The clinical staff in Powys Teaching Health Board have worked hard with their digital colleagues to ensure that the system best suits their needs has been chosen,” said Lesley Hewer, DHCW chair of the National ePMA Programme.
“The new digital system will help improve patient safety through a reduction in medication errors and help us decrease our use of paper, which will not just save time searching for charts but will also help the environment, too,” she continued.
Powys Teaching Health Board is the latest health board in Wales to announce a partnership with Better and it follows announcements from Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.
