Swift Better Meds deployments:
4 NHS trusts in 5 months
Following a national government drive to accelerate the digital maturity across NHS Trusts, the UK government set a target for all Trusts to have adopted an electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) system by 2024. The number of trusts contracting Better Meds has therefore accelerated in recent years, with four new deployments between April and August 2022 alone, including two go-lives at two different trusts on the same day.
The NHS Trusts where the swift deployments took place
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust – 5 April 2022
- Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust – 5 July 2022
- South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – 5 July 2022
- North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust – 9 August 2022
Ensuring successful deployments
Better team ensures successful deployments by working closely with its partners and the Trust, providing a one-of-a-kind blend of clinical and technological expertise to achieve an in-depth understanding of the individual challenges that each trust faces when implementing the new ePMA.
“We have a high percentage of clinical staff, some of whom are former NHS staff, within our team,” – Stefan Siekierski, Delivery Manager at Better
In-depth understanding is key for a swift and quality ePMA implementation
Better team engages and interacts with the clinicians and staff at the Trust at the beginning of the project to get a holistic overview of the expectations from an ePMA system and to build interest and excitement for the ePMA system.
Following this, Better consolidates all key requirement specifications in which all relevant stakeholders from the Trust’s side are consulted, including nurses, clinicians, doctors, pharmacists, and board executives.
“What I’ve really found is that they (Better team) are so keen to understand how we work and to understand what we, the experts, need. This understanding makes the whole process much smoother for everyone.” – Lex Moon, Lead ePMA Pharmacist at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Even in case of deployments being delivered at a rapid pace, at no point is the quality secondary. This translates into beginning with an in-depth, tailored understanding of every Trust’s needs and the continuation of the process relying heavily on feedback and experience for successful navigation of the implementation landscape. Providing continuous support and adapting Better Meds for Trusts and their users remain pillars of an efficient implementation of ePMA systems that deliver better, safer care.
