Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT), serving a population of 1.5 million across England's vast expanse of 2400 square miles, has achieved a milestone in healthcare innovation. Recognised for its leading Electronic Prescribing Service (EPS), MPFT has won the Sustainable Impact Award.
MPFT serves a population of 1.5 million and is spread geographically across England, covering an area of 2400 square miles, with services ranging from Staffordshire to the Isle of Wight. According to MPFT’s carbon footprint baseline 2019/20, Patients travelling to appointments contribute to the second largest proportion of the carbon footprint (17.2% as per 2019/20 baseline), while patient travel across NHS represents only 5%. Medication is the third largest carbon footprint contributor in MPFT (11% as per 2019/20 baseline), which is lower than NHS carbon footprint (20%). EPS contributes to reducing patient travel, medication and paper, which is a carbon footprint contributor for another supply chain. The number of patient appointments in MPFT from 2018 to 2023 has increased by approx. 20% and prescribers have fed back on increasing workloads; having the ability to send prescriptions electronically will help streamline the processes of requests and collections of prescriptions.
Prescribers recognised that existing processes lacked standardisation, resulting in inefficiencies, wasting valuable time and resources. Patients would either attend site to collect prescriptions, have them posted or staff had to make trips for drop-offs and medication collections. Handwritten prescriptions introduced safety risks such as handwriting illegibility that could result in incorrect or delayed medication. Paper prescriptions also incurred environmental challenges, including use of fuel to deliver prescriptions resulting in mileage costs, increased stationary and recorded delivery costs, as well as travel time.
EPS has removed these risks of illegibility, which could result in the wrong medication being dispensed, and delays, whilst the pharmacy checked with the prescriber what they had prescribed. It has also removed sustainability issues and problems relating to lost or stolen prescriptions, resulting in additional processing, postage, delivery time, and costs to cancel and reissue. This has resulted in approx. 80 incidents logged per year that must be tracked and progressed.
In addition to the remarkable achievement of winning the sustainable healthcare award, MPFT Digital has also been recognised as finalists in seven categories at the HSJ Digital Awards, with the winners to be announced on the 6th June 2024. These nominations span across various categories:
- The Digital Angels - Digital Literacy, Education and Upskilling Award
- From reactive chaos to successful delivery of our co-produced MPFT Digital Transformation Strategy - Digital Organisation of the Year
- From reactive chaos to successful delivery of our co-produced MPFT Digital Transformation Strategy - Digital Team of the Year
- Enhancing Back-Office Processes Through Advanced Automation - Improving Back-Office Efficiencies through Digital
- Transforming Mental Health Care through Electronic Prescribing Service - Improving Mental Health through Digital
- Leading the Way in Digitising Secondary Care Prescriptions for a Greener Future - Moving Towards Net Zero through Digital
- A Cultural Shift and Collaborative Approach in Digital Innovation - Digital Clinical Safety Award
We are really proud of our Staffordshire Community Dental Service for all their hard work, as they have also been shortlisted for two HSJ Digital Awards: Moving Towards Net Zero through Digital and Improving Back-Office Efficiencies through Digital.
MPFT's success in EPS implementation and its multiple nominations in the HSJ Digital Awards highlight the Trust commitment to enhancing care through digital innovation and sustainability.