Better Meds ‘excellent option’ for Te Manawa Taki region

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

An evaluation of the Better Meds pilot at Taranaki DHB’s Hāwera Hospital shows the electronic medication management solution is an “excellent option for further roll-out into the Te Manawa Taki region”, a DHB update says.

The positive evaluation means the HealthShare eMeds project team has started work on a Better Meds Business Case for the Bay of Plenty DHB, followed closely by Tairāwhiti DHB, to replace their current paper-based medicines management system.

Implementation for Bay of Plenty and Tairāwhiti will likely start in the fourth quarter of this year.

Better Meds provides an overview of patients’ medication records in a single, shared location and is being deployed with Alcidion.

The pilot started in early December 2021 in Hāwera Hospital’s Emergency Department, inpatient wards and maternity unit and involved switching from Dedalus’ MedChart. It recently finished, following a slight delay due to the Covid-19 community outbreak.

The Taranaki DHB Better Meds update says a variety of clinicians - including doctors, nurses and pharmacist - have been able to try out the many different features of the system and have helped to evaluate the solution.

“While many benefits could be assessed during the four-month duration of the pilot, some benefits could only be measured after a recent upgrade of the system,” it says.

“This upgrade was implemented in mid-March and will require a more extended assessment period.”

Hāwera Hospital will continue using the Better Meds system until a full assessment has been completed to get a full review of all benefits.

Kristy Darbyshire, HealthShare project manager for the eMeds project, says the March upgrade was not originally part of the pilot project, but they agreed with the provider to release some New Zealand-based developments.

This involved enhancements to the medicines reconciliation process and the ability to defer the witnessing of medicines, along with some other changes.

Benefits reported by users include the decision support around the prescribing of antibiotics based on patient context, including switching from IV to oral, which can significantly affect the length of stay for patients.

Better Meds is integrated with the New Zealand electronic prescribing service (NZePS), which means pharmacists can more easily reconcile medications on admission and prevent transcribing errors.

Medications on discharge are also in scope to be delivered so that medicines are sent back into the NZePS when the patient returns to the community, giving GPs access to the inpatient medicines.

"The flexibility and usability of the system is great, it's really about the standards and architecture and interoperability," Darbyshire says.

Kate Quirke, Alcidion group managing director, says the outcome of the pilot process is the result of a collaborative approach across the Te Manawa Taki, Alcidion and Better Meds groups to bring the new product to the New Zealand market, integrated with Patientrack solution.

"We look forward to progressing the adoption of eMedicines Management with Bay of Plenty and Tairāwhiti DHBs," she says.

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