Fujitsu integrate JAC pharmacy at Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes NHS Foundation Trust has become the first trust to receive a JAC pharmacy system from local service provider Fujitsu, integrated with its Cerner Millennium patient administration system.

The JAC system is now being offered as one of Fujitsu’s best of breed options until similar functionality becomes available within Millennium. The JAC system originally went live at the trust on 14 May 2007.

Working with JAC, Fujitsu has since developed and installed a demographic interface between the pharmacy system and Millennium.

Fujitsu’s business development director, Andy Hall, told E-Health Insider: “Our first choice of system for trusts is the Millennium product suite, but as EHI has reported, we are looking at a list of best of breed options for alternative systems, and this implementation of the JAC pharmacy system just re-emphasises this.”

Hall added: “At Milton Keynes we have an HL7 interface between JAC Pharmacy Stock Control and Millennium for the one way provision of demographic information – as under current Connecting for Health governance rules the only automatic demographic updates for Millennium must come from the Spine, so a two way interface is not currently allowed.”

The JAC Pharmacy Stock Control and Drug Accounting System has been developed to provide hospital pharmacies with a comprehensive range of facilities for all user levels. It gathers information on drugs, patients, prescribers, suppliers and finance, all of which is instantly available in real time.

A trust spokesperson told E-Health Insider: “The advantages of the transition to this system are that it is possible to record consultant related information which is more helpful when reporting on various drug use related issues specifically costs of prescribing.

“The JAC system uses the Milton Keynes Hospital number to locate patient details on the PAS to populate a patient record on the system. The drugs dispensed are then recorded against the patient number and name.”

Using the system, all stock control is handled automatically with manual override options at each stage. Stock levels are maintained at all locations for every pack size of each drug, including broken bulk.

Each time a drug transaction takes place such as dispensing, ward stock box issues, clinic issues, stock returns, stock transfers etc. the system updates stock levels immediately.

The spokesperson explained the benefits of the new system: “We are experiencing improved costing and reporting mechanisms using this system. The system is used by practically all of the pharmacy department, which is about 40 users. The main benefit to them is that only one record is created per person and the patient’s name is spelt the same way on the records and dispensing labels.

“This ensures that retrieving any information relating to patient is easier and can be confirmed on either hospital number or date of birth.”

The central pharmacy at Milton Keynes hospital processes an average of 20,000 transactions a month and serves over 20 acute locations throughout the trust as well as a community hospital and a broad community of smaller healthcare providers.

The deployment follows Winchester’s implementation of JAC’s ePrescribing & Medicines Administration (EPMA) system in November 2006, which is also now linked to their Millennium PAS.

Fujitsu’s latest Cerner release plans for Millennium show that Pharmacy Stock Control is not part of the core suite package, but an additional service, not scheduled for release in the suite until Release 2 and/or 3 at the earliest.  

JAC say that further benefits will be encountered when a project to interface to the Trust’s EDI [Electronic Data Interchange] ordering and invoicing system is completed.

JAC and Fujitsu say that trusts using the system will benefit from the detailed and flexible reporting functionality, which is helping them uncover valuable information within the transaction records, of which 75% are from dispensing, it collects each month.

By analysing customised transaction reports, right down to individual consultant level, in conjunction with ward stock audits by technicians, the trust will be able to monitor for duplicate stock orders as well as for older stock being left unused, which has the potential to expire.

Discussions are now underway with other trusts in the Southern cluster to implement the system