Ashtons e-Works EPMA system – A review from one of our client Hospices

Ashtons e-Works Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA) system is a simple, easy to use system that is specifically designed for independent healthcare providers.

It is well established in a number of the healthcare facilities we support – find out about how one of our hospice clients got on with transitioning to e-Works…

“For many years our Hospice has known that we needed to move forward with our prescribing methods in order to make the data more secure, give staff more confidence and provide a greater degree of governance. This has not been easy due to many factors, one of which has definitely been financial.

We then came across the Ashtons e-Works EPMA system and started discussions to see if this system could be a solution for us. After various meetings with the Ashtons team, having been given a good demonstration of the system and looked at alternatives, we felt that this would be a good fit for our Hospice. With all new systems the proof is in the pudding when the staff start to use it.

We then started on the journey of introducing the system into the Hospice which involved carrying out a full Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), arranging staff training and asking for small tweaks which were relevant to our processes. At every stage we found the Ashtons team to be extremely prompt and reactive to every single one of our requests. We then had a member of their team come to the Hospice to train super-users, prescribers and relevant nursing staff. The training was extremely good and was delivered in such a simple way that it persuaded even the least technically minded of our team that it would benefit both staff and patients. We were initially given access to a dummy data set to enable everyone to ‘play’ on the system before we went live.

On the big day, we went live and stood back waiting for the inevitable moans and groans. The silence was almost deafening! Yes, there were some minor teething problems, most of which were simple, and the super-users were able to resolve them. Those that we did need to report to Ashtons were corrected extremely quickly. We have now been using the system for a few weeks and are already seeing many advantages.

So, in hindsight, have we made the right decision?  Absolutely 100% yes! By using the Ashtons e-Works EPMA system, the staff are more efficient, there is far less paper floating around the Hospice, prescribers are able to prescribe more securely, especially compared to our previous out-of-hours processes and our staff are becoming far more comfortable using IT. Our only regret is that we didn’t come across this system earlier!

To summarise Ashtons e-Works in a few short words: Simple but Effective.”

Hospice Director at one of our client hospices