CLEO Systems is changing the face of outpatient prescribing through implementation of its pioneering electronic prescription solution as the first London NHS Trusts go live with CLEO SOLO EPS. The solution has been implemented within three prominent hospital NHS trusts in North East London: Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT), East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT), North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) and is currently being piloted at Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
CLEO SOLO EPS digitises the process of sending FP10 prescriptions within a secondary care outpatient setting to community pharmacies, enabling patients’ prescriptions to be created and sent electronically to a pharmacy most convenient for the patient. The outcome is a streamlined approach that empowers outpatient clinicians to prescribe medication that can be collected from a pharmacy of the patient’s choice. Not only does this improve the experience for patients and the prescribing clinician, it also relieves pressure on GPs from prescribing medication to patients that they have not directly assessed, alleviating the burden on already busy primacy care services.
Following a successful deployment, the solution is being used in a range of secondary care clinical outpatient settings including: Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Rheumatology, Gastroenterology, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, memory services, perinatal services and ENT. Its adaptable integration sets the stage for increased efficiency, enabling clinicians to focus on patient care by eliminating administrative restrictions.
In some cases, clinicians will see their time released where they might normally have spent time on administration or travelling, giving them more time to care for their patients. In others, remote clinic patients will be able to obtain their medication quickly and conveniently with an easier process that avoids handling of Controlled stationary, as there is no need to order, keep, stamp and record each paper FP10.
The solution dramatically reduces ‘time sapping’ processes and duplication of work that frequently occurs between primary and secondary care, as well as costs associated with FP10 pad orders and postage.
CLEO SOLO EPS not only optimises efficiency but also champions sustainability. Patients no longer need to retrieve paper prescriptions from a hospital setting after remote consultations. This pivotal shift aligns with CLEO Systems’ commitment to patient choice and a sustainable healthcare approach.
Sarla Drayan, Chief Pharmacist at BHRUT, says: "There are many benefits of this new EPS. It helps streamline how patients get the medication they need following their hospital appointment, reduces clinician time spent managing manual prescriptions, and improves safety by reducing the risk of missing prescriptions."
Andrea Okoloekwe, ELFT Deputy Chief Pharmacist London Services says: "This new electronic prescribing system will streamline how people get their medication. Additionally, it will benefit individuals or family members who will be able to pick up prescriptions at a pharmacy convenient to them. It will reduce the risk of delays and missed doses, and make better use of everyone's time."
Dr Paul Perry, Medical Director, CLEO Systems said:
"We are extremely proud in the solution’s transformative capability that seamlessly enhances clinical safety and the experience of clinicians and their patients. Clinical safety is a key focus for us at CLEO and the elimination of handwriting from the prescribing process – and therefore errors stemming from this – is a massive plus. This has been an impressive deployment from start to finish with enthusiastic engagement from Trust leaders and frontline clinicians - we are very happy with the results. We look forward to continuing to implement CLEO SOLO EPS which is already demonstrating not only an ability to improve quality of prescribing activities and clinical safety but also, delivered from day one a measurable cost reduction for each NHS Trust."
The solution is also due to go live in Barts Health NHS Trust in the coming weeks who have been part of the NEL EPS project since inception.