The challenge
Managing medication for care home residents is a complex process that requires accuracy, efficiency and coordination between multiple healthcare professionals.
Before implementing digital proxy medication ordering, care homes faced several challenges:
- Manual processes: Paper-based or faxed prescriptions were time-consuming and prone to errors.
- Communication gaps: Delays in relaying prescription requests between care homes, GPs and pharmacies led to medication delays.
- Administrative burden: Care home staff spent significant time coordinating orders, checking prescriptions and resolving discrepancies.
- Patient safety risks: Medication errors occurred due to miscommunication or unclear documentation posed a threat to residents’ well-being.
Our response
To address these challenges, a collaborative initiative was launched involving:
- GPs setting up accounts on their clinical system for relevant care home staff.
- Care home staff initiating and managing medication requests on behalf of residents.
- Pharmacists dispensing medications efficiently and supporting medicine management.
Key steps in implementation:
- Stakeholder engagement: Care home connected team arranged meetings between GPs, care home managers and pharmacists to discuss the digital system’s benefits and challenges.
- Care home connected team provided support to the care home to set up the process.
Outcomes
Care home staff now use a secure clinical system to order residents medications with a clear audit trail through a safe clinical system and they have found the process less time consuming and a simple process to understand.
The system is more secure and has a clear digital audit trail, which led to improved relationships and better communication between care homes and GPs and reduces medication errors.