Practice Plus deploys MICS with UK manufactured smart cupboards at the Royal South Hants Hospital, giving full visibility of stock, expiry dates and product recalls.
Practice Plus runs Southampton Urgent Treatment Centre at the Royal South Hants Hospital, giving patients fast access to care for injuries and illnesses that need prompt attention. Clinicians at the centre dispense medicines directly to patients, so safe, accurate and well managed medicine stock is essential to the service.
The challenge
Before MICS, medicines at the centre were managed with paper registers, manual stock counts and Excel spreadsheets. Medicine cupboards were secured with physical keys, which had to be issued, tracked and accounted for throughout every shift.
In this busy environment, this created problems. Staff time went on counting and recording stock rather than on patients. There was no real time visibility and keeping records complete enough for compliance was a constant challenge. Managing the keys themselves added a further layer of risk and admin.
The solution
Building on the success of MICS at Practice Plus in Portsmouth, ExPD installed a complete medicine control system tailored to the centre’s needs.
At its heart are tailor made smart cupboards built with ExPD Smart Locker technology. Instead of keys, clinicians access medicines through the MICS system, and every opening is recorded against the user, so there’s a full audit trail of who accessed what and when.
Controlled drugs have an extra layer of security: access requires a second level of authorisation using a PIN on the clinician’s mobile device, so only authorised staff can open the controlled drug cupboard.
Clinicians use Android PDAs to scan items as they’re received, stocked and dispensed. Each product is uniquely identified by scanning its barcode, confirming the right medicine is being given and that it’s in date and not subject to a recall.
The MICS database is populated directly from dm+d (the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices), keeping product information accurate, up to date and consistent with the rest of the NHS.
The result
Installation was completed in just a couple of days, with minimal disruption to the service. The centre now benefits from:
- Enhanced stock management, with paper registers and spreadsheets replaced by a single live system
- Full visibility of stock, so staff always know what’s available and were
- Reporting on expired and expiring items, so stock can be used or replaced before it goes out of date
- Visibility of batch numbers and product recalls, so affected items can be identified and removed quickly
- No more physical keys, with secure, audited access to every cupboard
ExPD’s Phil Snook, Will Harris and Nigel Tilyard worked closely with Danny Wroe, Paramedic and Clinical Lead at Southampton Urgent Treatment Centre, to deliver the project.
Danny Wroe, Paramedic and Clinical Lead at Southampton Urgent Treatment Centre, said: “Moving from paper registers and keys to MICS has transformed how we manage our medicines. We can now see exactly what we have, what’s due to expire and which batches are affected by a recall, all in one place. The ExPD team made the installation quick and easy, and they’ve been responsive and supportive throughout.”
If you’d like to find out how MICS could benefit your healthcare setting, our ‘Expert’ team is ready to help. Get in touch.
