Regional ePharmacy
What is the project doing?
Regional IT Implementation Plans are being developed by the Northern, Midland, Central and Southern Regions to outline priorities and timelines for implementing a common regional platform to deliver on Phase 1 of the National Health IT Plan. Hospital Pharmacy Information Systems (e-Pharmacy) form part of the platform.
The regions will consolidate to a single instance of the e-Pharmacy solution on a regional level. The transition will follow a phased approach with DHBs on legacy systems implementing first, and then based on priorities within each region.
Those DHBs replacing or upgrading will follow the lead from the current e-Pharmacy implementation underway in Taranaki DHB and to be rolled out in the Midland region. DHB Pharmacy clinicians will work together to define the pharmacy processes and business rules within each region.
Pharmacy information will populate regional CDRs. The messaging and viewing of pharmacy data will conform to relevant HISO standards which have been developed by the national e-Medications programme of work.
The iSOFT ePharmacy hospital system is the target platform for all regions. It will form the foundation for future work around medications management such as e-Prescribing and Medicines Reconciliation
Why is it being done?
Currently District Health Boards operate a variety of individual Pharmacy Systems, some of which are now obsolete and due for replacement.
A hospital Pharmacy System supports and manages the internal workflow of a hospital pharmacy service. It is one of the key systems supporting the dispensing function as part of the management of medications and will integrate with other key components currently under development and implementation - Medicines Reconciliation and e-Prescribing.
Having a single instance of e-Pharmacy across each region will make it easier to implement consistent standards for medications. Maintaining one system version will reduce the cost and effort of upgrades for the DHBs and the vendors, and create economies of scale for smaller DHBs.
What change will be noticed
Consolidating Pharmacy Systems at a regional level will mean common business processes and rules are followed within each region, and it will be easier to share information regionally and nationally.
The hospital e-Pharmacy system will use the NZULM (universal list of medicines) and support the NZMF (Medicines Formulary) making it compatible with shared care systems and retail pharmacy systems.
Clinicians will have access to medication lists either from their system, or through Clinical Workstation.
Project Phase
Scoping and Design
Milestone Dates
See Regional IT Plans
Governance
Regional IT Governance Groups
Who is Involved
Regional CIO Chairs, Northern, Midland, Central, Southern
Contact Us:
If you have any feedback or questions please email the project team on enquiries@ithealthboard.health.nz with the name of the project and your comments. We will respond to you within 5 working days.
