Hot on the heels of Epic Pharmacy being recognised as one of Australia’s AFR 50 Most Innovative Companies, I’m excited to introduce our latest product, Medication Manager for Hospitals. The Epic Digital team have been working hard in conjunction with our hospital pharmacies to deliver this new tool designed to improve the management of medications during hospital admission and discharge, and it’s now in the final stages of testing before going live in our pilot sites.
The same Medication Manager for Aged Care principles apply, with patients and their healthcare providers able to access their medication information via any mobile device 24/7 while also permitting family members or others they choose to have involved in their care to access those records.
Our pharmacists will move to electronically capturing medication information on admission or at the patient’s bedside – not just the names and dosages of the medicines being currently taken, but other information such as any swallowing difficulties, use of dose administration aids and another relevant information. Everything healthcare professionals need to have at their fingertips to ensure they are best equipped to make the right decisions about appropriate medications for that patient.
Given that healthcare in Australia is still predominantly a paper based environment, we’ve designed a hard copy print output that allows the captured information to be printed out and placed in the folder stored at the end of the patient’s bed, but the digital capture point allows for easy population into hospital record systems plus ensuring it is also readily available in the event of future hospital admissions.
On discharge, this gives our pharmacists the ability to easily conduct a full review of the medicines recorded at admission and any changes made during the hospital stay. From this they can easily create a personalised summary for the patient to access via the Medication Manager portal, where they can view it, share it with their local doctor or pharmacist, and of course print it if they prefer to use a hard copy. The digital version contains click through links to relevant Consumer Medication Information (CMI), making sure that patients and their families have ready access information about the medicines they have received while in hospital.
Effective communication of hospital medication information has long been a challenge for the healthcare industry, and we’re really excited to explore the ways that Medication Manager for Hospital can play a role in delivering a real and effective solution for patients, community pharmacists, general practitioners and allied health professionals.