ePMA
electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration
ePMA Testing
June 2014
Presentation outline
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About Stockport
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Our ePMA Journey
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System build and associated QA processes
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System testing and processes/documentation
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Lessons learnt
About Stockport
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Stepping Hill Hospital based in Stockport
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736 beds
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Look after a population of over 396,000
in Stockport & High Peak
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Over 5,600 staff
Our ePMA journey
System build - Approach
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Where to start?
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We split into 5 areas
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Formularies
Order sentences (QuickLists)
Order sets (Protocols)
Rules/intelligence
General configuration
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Focussed on initial areas of rollout and evolved during rollout
- Top 200 drugs for first 2 wards and worked from there
- Shared Trust/GMMMG formulary
- Project team fed into a lot of the configuration decisions
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Ensure someone responsible for each area to help make decisions and for QA purposes
- e.g. we have a Pharmacist for each BNF Chapter
System build – QA process
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QA process approved by Trust Prescribing Committee (Drug & Therapeutics)
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Involved lots of printouts, screenshots and persuasion
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Mainly Pharmacists, but Clinicians involved for Protocols
Medchart Quicklist checking
Data entry by:
Date:
Checked by: (sign) ___________
Date:
___/___/___
EACH PAGE NEEDS TO BE SIGNED
Annotate comments and feed back to Sarah
System build – Going forward
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Don’t think you’re done on day 1 of go live
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Constant refinement and adjustment in initial months
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Have a process for requesting changes & document everything
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Don’t relax your standards from initial data build
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Spend time getting ready for surgical areas
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Everything in test first, sign off, then live use
Our anaesthetists have really embraced protocols/order sets
Now everyone can see the potential
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Requests for development and fresh ideas
System testing – Our approach
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Real life scenarios with real life examples
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We have 20 example patients that we prescribe review and administer medications
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Complex patients covering lots of different medications
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Simulate ward environment, follow usual processes (3 days of administrations)
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Ensure each and every element of the system is tested, documentation is key
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Use different logins testing each user role
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Don’t forget to test user permissions
System testing - Documentation
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Testing log and issue log are essential
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Log each and every action that is completed
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We split into
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Configuration
Meds on admission
Prescribing
Administration
Pharmacy review &
ordering
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Clinical Review
Drug data
Rules
New features & fixes
Issues resolved since last
version
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Careful consideration of headings e.g.
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Dual monitor workstation has been indispensable!
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Reporting
Support module
(back up charts/system
monitoring)
‘Other’
System testing – Recording issues
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Record each and every issue
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No matter how big or small
Whether able to replicate or not
Document which user role you were logged in as
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Keep issue log up to date, review daily during testing period
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Clear screenshots and replication steps are best way of explaining issues
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Where possible share issues and testing experience with other sites
System testing – At point of upgrades
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Once upgrades are complete a basic
set of testing is required to release the
system back to users
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Have a list of basic functions that need
to be tested as part of this process
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The start of ours is shown here, it is 43
steps in total but covers all basic
functions
System testing – Lessons learnt
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Ask supplier for details of known issues
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Study release notes and write testing script based on new features and fixes
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Screenshots are key
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Learn from other sites
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Real life charts with real life examples
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Don’t aim to do in one sitting
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Log everything
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Always test printouts, don’t just look at them onscreen
Thank you