ChemoCare now offers a fully networked electronic chemotherapy prescribing solution across the entire South West Wales Cancer Network region. The final two spokes Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend are the most recent sites to go live and have completed the roll out of the system across the 8 hospital sites. These include:
· Singleton Hospital, Swansea
· Morriston Hospital, Swansea
· Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth
· Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli
· West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen
· Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest
· Neath Port Talbot Hospital
· Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend
Glynis Tranter, Network Director at SWWCN said:
“We are very pleased that there has been a successful roll-out of the system across the region and in such a timely manner so that we are able to comply with the requirements of the Welsh Assembly Government ‘Strategic Framework Designed to Tackle Cancer 2’ which required that there be electronic chemotherapy prescribing in place within NHS Wales by the end of March 2010. Implementation of this system will also help the tumour site specific cancers multidisciplinary teams comply with the National Cancer Standards.
We are most grateful for the high level of commitment and enthusiasm of all those involved in the process who have supported the project and now recognise that this is a vital service which has significant benefits for patients. The system has also improved communication across a large geographic area and will also provide more robust audit data for the teams. There is little doubt that without the dedicated resource of the Lead Pharmacist and Project Manager successful implementation within the tight timescales would not have been achieved.”
It is now well established that electronic prescribing in chemotherapy minimises the growing number of clinical risks/incidents and this will benefit the South West Wales Cancer Network significantly. Examples of the benefits are:
· Reduced prescribing errors on chemotherapy and take home prescriptions
· Informed choices are more easily made by clinicians when running clinics outside of the Cancer Centre
· Constant availability of patient records allows prescriptions to be completed on time for drug preparation and reducing patient delays
· Increased prescriber time available for patient care
· Improved information access for satellite sites
· Reduced auxiliary time spent assembling notes and retrieving blood results
· Reduced emergency sterilisation cycles due to easier forward planning
David Newey, Programme Manager of CIS Oncology said:
“This project has been implemented with a customer who has demonstrated a true spirit of partnership and has been done in record time. It demonstrates ChemoCare’s ability to be implemented across a large geographical area and the principle that several PAS and pathology systems can feed one system using just the NHS number as a primary patient identifier”.
The next stage of the project will be the roll out of ChemoSchedule, ChemoCare’s integrated resource management scheduling system. This functionality will aid resource planning and chair/bed time issues across the network. |