A toolkit to support the implementation of electronic prescribing systems into UK hospitals: preliminary recommendations

What is it about?

Electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) may help to improve the quality, cost and efficiency of healthcare. There is much interest in setting up computer systems across the UK for hospital prescribing, but progress with getting ePrescribing systems into hospitals has been very slow. We are working to develop a toolkit as an online resource for hospitals to provide them with help and advice for setting up such systems. This paper shares our work so far in putting together this toolkit, which we are developing using information from the literature on ePrescribing, our own experiences and findings from early studies in this area. Importantly, we encourage users of ePrescribing systems to view setting up their system as a journey because much work is required before and after the initial phase of getting a new system. In the toolkit we give recommendations for each stage of implementing an ePrescribing system. Recommendations for hospitals include, but are not limited to: - Identify a hospital’s needs for a system - Put together a team to help with the setting up process - Look to other hospitals for help in understanding what different types of systems can offer - Involve as many of the people who will be using the system, from as many different professions as possible, when choosing a system - Build strong relationships with the people who supply the system - Have different types of training for the different types of people who will be using the system - Put all necessary hardware and software in place before setting up the system so it can run efficiently and effectively - Recognise that the process is ongoing and will continually change The toolkit recommendations will, we hope, be useful to hospitals as they judge their needs for an ePrescribing system, choose a system, plan the process of setting it up, set up the system, and maintain the system over time.

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