EPS in Practice
Manpreet Pujara
GP National Clinical Lead &
Clinical Director EPS
The size of the problem
Items
Items per person
1,600.0
20.0
1,400.0
18.0
16.0
1,200.0
14.0
1,000.0
12.0
800.0
Items
10.0
Items per person
8.0
600.0
6.0
400.0
4.0
200.0
2.0
0.0
0.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
The size of the problem
• 926.7 million prescription items in 2010 an
increase of 4.6% (40.7 million items) on 2009
and 67.9% on 20001  1.5 billion by 2020
• 2.5 million per day
• 73 per day/GP
• 293 per week/GP
1Prescriptions
Dispensed in the Community: England Statistics for 2000-2010
Information Centre
Repeat prescribing workload
Problem/Symptom
High number of
repeat scripts
Not all items considered
at once
High
workload for
front desk
High GP
workload
Increased
pressure to
meet QOF targets
Why upgrade
- EPS functionality
Nomination
Electronic
submission of
reimbursement
endorsements
Electronic
signatures
Electronic
cancellation
Electronic repeat
dispensing
What’s in it for me & my practice?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Makes me efficient!
Less printing, less noise & more time to talk!
More efficient prescribing/signing
Electronic repeat dispensing
Less wastage
Write a message for patient and/or pharmacist
Make more use of telephone consultations
Electronic cancellation means more control of
medication regime
What’s in it for me & my practice?
•
•
•
•
•
No need to sort and file prescriptions
Less traffic at the main desk
Fewer phone calls from patients asking for meds
Cannot lose the prescription – you know where it is
No hanging around outside consulting rooms for a
signature/lost prescription
• No sticky notes!
• Cost saving, printing, phone calls, less wasted time
• Better clinical safety
So what do I need to do?
To maximise the benefits of using
EPS you must review and change
your business processes
Routine repeat request – Practice 1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Reception issues one of repeat regime e.g. 3 of 6
Paper FP10 printed
FP10’s divided between GPs
FP10s put into GP’s pigeon holes
GPs collect from pigeon holes
GPs checks and signs after surgery
GP takes signed FP10s back to reception
Routine repeat request – Practice 2
Routine repeat request with EMIS Web & EPS
Release 2
So what do I need to do?
Review your current repeat request process
•
•
•
•
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•
Prescription duration 28 or 56 days
Single review date or number of issues?
Are review dates set as a default 6 or 12 months
or dependent on clinical review?
Synchronising issues/drugs
Do you use compliance figures or date of last
issue?
Do you post date prescriptions?
So what do I need to do?
( Review your current repeat request process)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Do you use paper repeat dispensing?
Who signs the prescriptions & when?
Decide if you will print token for co-located
pharmacies
Training
Engage – with patients
Communicate with your local pharmacists –
nominations are the key to a successful
deployment
Practice decisions - streamlining
• Choosing the GP for EPS signing e.g. buddy
system when one on holiday
• GPs signing prescriptions between patients
• Ensuring all outstanding prescriptions are signed
by duty doctor at the end of the day
• GPs consider amending items in patient record as
requests come in
• Consideration of different ways of notifying GP of
immediate acute/repeat request for action
• Benefits of using instant messaging
What’s EPS like in Web?
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•
•
•
•
Safety warnings
Compliance figures
Nomination
Cannot always change urgency on the fly
Cannot write a reason when rejecting a
prescription – so no one knows why?
• Notes to patient/Pharmacy not recorded/visible in
the electronic record
Compliance figures
Adding a message for patient or
pharmacist
Nomination
Cancel an item in task screen
EPS Release 2 statistics
291
GP practices live
6,331
pharmacies live
20
dispensing appliance
contractors live
613,763
patient nominations
3,298,925
items dispensed
and claimed
Supplier status
Dispensing systems
6 dispensing systems have achieved FRA
(full roll out approval )
2 dispensing systems yet to achieve FRA
Prescribing systems
4 prescribing systems have achieved FRA
1 prescribing system yet to achieve FRA
All Isle of Wight GP and dispensing sites live
All dispensers in Bexley live
cfh.nhs.uk/epsstats
Process for EPS Authorisation Directions restart
33 PCTs gain SoS Directions
Second closing date for applications:
21 September 2012
www.cfh.nhs.uk/eps/sos
Keep in contact……and sign up for
the EPS bulletin!
manpreet@nhs.net
EPS R2 Benefits Questionnaire
www.cfh.nhs.uk/eps/feedback