Electronic medication management is embedded in our health system and has had genuine impact on prescribing decisions, safety, workflow efficiencies, quality assurance and audit capacity. The Australian Digital Health Agency’s consultation on its Digital Medicines Safety Blueprint highlighted that digital medicines safety is not a new field, but that digital systems are just the platforms that can assist us to have greater impact and influence on reducing harm from medicines if properly developed and implemented.

The Australian Digital Health Agency’s Medicines Safety Program will be guided by its Digital Medicines Safety Blueprint and is the Agency’s operational response to the National Digital Health Strategy in relation to medicines. Electronic prescriptions and Pharmacist Shared Medicines Lists (PSML) are just two of the initiatives within our Medicines Safety Program that will provide tangible improvements in patient protection from medicine related harm.

• What it took to get to HM7 and lessons learnt from the journey
• How HM7 worked for us and where we are at now
• What closed loop electronic medication management looks like at Hervey Bay
• The impact of CLEMM on nursing workflows
• How we report on the use of this closed-loop electronic medication system
• Measurable improvements in patient safety by eliminating common errors that occur in hospitals
• How we engaged with staff to achieve >95% barcode scanning rates

• True service re-design and quality and service improvement – what does this really look like?
• Getting the medical team involved at an early stage
• Lessons learnt on engaging senior junior doctors – what works and what doesn’t
• Comparing and contrasting change management strategies –what has been tried and worked and what didn’t at different sites
• What is good to know and plan for before you begin the journey
• Recommendations and tips for future

• How to measure prescriber alert burden? What is the threshold for alert fatigue?
• Using simulation to assess burden associated with DDI alerts at varying severity levels
• Challenges associated with DDI alerts – lack of specificity, knowledgebase variations, clinical outcomes

• Identifying high risk prescribing and managing high risk issues
• Medication safety alerts – what is being done? Where is it leading to problems and how do we report alerts and share information?
• What happens when you have hybrid systems in place and how do clinicians interact with multiple systems?
• Common reasons clinicians make errors in electronic systems – what are the ramifications to patient safety and if so, how can/should they be mitigated?
• How can we create support and tools to make change?
• Does EMM actually improve patient safety? – what are the value adds and what problems does it create?

• Doctors’ prescribing practice is a key step in the safe delivery of medications to patients.
• Electronic prescribing is a vastly different experience for doctors than paper prescribing.
• Understanding the user experience of doctors when prescribing is vital to the design of safe eMedication Management systems.
• This presentation will share some of the lessons from the recent implementation of an eMedication Management system in the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne

• Experiences and learnings with CDS in sites around the country
• What studies have been done?
• Is there an overreliance on clinical decision support? If so, how can we discourage this and emphasize the need to apply clinical judgement?
• Alert fatigue:
  – How do you manage differing clinician preferences and measure if there have been improvements?
  – Where are people ignoring the alerts and what are the impacts of this?
  – What can be done about this?
  – Is it resulting in change in clinical practice?
• Optimisations with CDS: How can we effectively utilize feedback from users and clinicians, develop reviews and use to inform updates and ensure effective re-design?

• Utilising user feedback to optimise system functionality
• Examples of redesign to support clinical practice

This session is designed to provide a brief glimpse into what is happening at different sites across the country – both large and small. Implementation experiences – what has been trialled, what has worked and what has failed.

Speakers will give a 5-10 minute presentation including details on the scope of eMeds at their site (e.g.are any medications still on paper?), medication safety alerts – how are these being sent out? Running reports and how to utilize reports. What sites do complex meds? Barcode scanning? Clinical decision support? Closed loop medication management?