Southern Health launches EPS for outpatient community services
- 24 September 2024
- Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has implemented the CLEO SOLO EPS across several outpatient community services under a two-year contract
- The system replaces paper prescriptions and is expected to improve patient safety, clinical efficiency and support remote prescribing
- Following a successful proof of concept, CLEO SOLO is live in urgent care, mental health and perinatal services
Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has deployed CLEO Systems’ electronic prescription system (EPS) across some of its outpatient community services.
The move to digital prescribing is intended to reduce Southern Health’s reliance on paper-based prescriptions, which the trust said had historically caused administrative and reporting delays, as well as security issues.
Following an initial proof of concept, electronic prescribing was deployed across the trust’s urgent treatment centre, older people’s mental health, community perinatal, urgent community response, frailty and child and adolescent mental health services in August 2024.
Carol Ingham, digital transformation programme manager at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We wanted to implement an electronic prescribing system to support the prescribing process and ensure accurate, safe prescribing and dispensing.
“We’re really looking forward to delivering benefits directly to our patients, enhancing patient safety and improving patient experience and our staff, improving health and wellbeing by removing cumbersome paper processes.”
Southern Health awarded the contract to CLEO Systems after a successful tender process. It will run for an initial 24-month period, with three optional 12-month extensions.
The EPS is hoped to deliver benefits, including supporting remote prescribing processes, improving the patient experience, increasing clinical efficiency and reducing paper processing.
Emma Dew, sales and marketing director at CLEO Systems, said: “We are really excited about this deployment, after such a successful pilot.
“Benefits are already being recognised across the settings where CLEO SOLO EPS is being used.”
CLEO SOLO’s EPS was launched in 2022 and first went live at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in July 2024.
The system is also live at Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and four north east London trusts Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, East London NHS Foundation Trust and North East London NHS Foundation Trust.
CLEO Systems also has a contract with NHS England to provide the electronic prescribing solution for pharmacies participating in the Independent Prescribing in Community Pharmacy Pathfinder Programme.
