Neonatal Units successfully move from paper to electronic prescribing

Our teams at both Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and West Middlesex University Hospital Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) have successfully gone live with Cerner electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) during October and November.

This means the prescribing and administration of medicines have moved from paper drug charts to a digital system on Cerner.

Mark Thomas, Consultant Neonatologist and Divisional Clinical Information Officer, said: “The introduction of ePMA on our neonatal units brings multiple benefits, particularly with safety of drug administration and integration of medications into the electronic patient record. The smooth introduction of such a complex system was made possible thanks to the meticulous preparation by the ePMA pharmacists and collaboration between all teams involved.”

Over the past year, our ePMA, pharmacy, and neonatal teams have worked to ensure Cerner ePMA is suitable for use in NICU and SCBU. This has been made possible through collaboration with teams from The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust.

Funke Abobade, staff nurse in NICU, said: “During the launch, we had amazing support from the ePMA team, and they made the transition from paper to electronic very smooth.”

This has been a huge collaborative project involving sharing of expertise, alignment of clinical and prescribing guidelines and many targeted training sessions to help provide the best possible care to patients at all our hospital sites.

Nicola Vosser, Principal Pharmacist ePMA, said: “It’s really exciting to finally bring ePMA to our neonatal units. This immensely complex yet rewarding project was the best example of teamwork across the ICS and how great we can be when we all work together. Thank you to everyone for your hard work and dedication to making this journey a success!”