Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest NHS Trusts in the UK and offers a full range of specialist and general services with good clinical outcomes for patients.
Part of the trust is St James’ University Hospital, most famous for being Europe’s largest teaching hospital. The St James’ Institute of Oncology provides a world-class service to cancer patients from across the region.
Episys, the global communications company, has worked with the Pharmacy Manufacturing Unit to implement a high quality, improved labelling and worksheets solution.
The main function of the unit is to make a range of sterile aseptic products and provide an over-labelling service. The unit mostly supplies internally to the trust, but also externally to the Yorkshire region.
Peter Wedgwood, Deputy Production Manager for the Pharmacy Manufacturing Unit, says “We are inspected by the MHRA every two years and we have to ensure all systems meet their requirements and are MHRA compliant.”
The unit produces over 600 lines and previously had a worksheet and label built for every single product, which caused problems with incorrect selecting of worksheets and labels, as well as poor quality.
Peter continues “We had been looking for a solution to hold a master copy of our worksheets and provide a better quality, improved labelling service. I attended the Episys convention at Wembley, whereby I viewed the Episys solution and was very impressed with what I saw and how this could help.”
Following his attendance at the Episys convention, Peter was very keen to purchase the Episys Enterprise Communication Suite™ Ultimate for Healthcare solution and worksheet module. The unit also purchased hardware and consumables through the Episys Alliance Program.
Peter goes on to say “We picked the Episys solution purely because no one else could offer us a joined up worksheet and labelling system quite like Episys, which is also MHRA compliant. The audit process is excellent and we can go back and view what has been done and when. The Episys solution has reduced errors relating to worksheets and labels by around 70%.”
“The labels are very robust and the print quality is far superior to the previous method we used. It has improved our ability to put more information on the label. The security of the system is also very valuable, as it allows me to set all employees at various levels of access.”
Going forward, Peter has expressed that the Approvals module would be a huge advantage to the aseptic unit, as at present they do not have any official approvals process for their worksheets and labels and they simply approve them in house.
Derek Buchanan, CEO of Episys says, “We are delighted to be working with Europe’s largest teaching hospital to better their worksheet and labelling process, which will undoubtedly save the trust much time and money leaving it able to focus on its main priority of patient care. We very much look forward to furthering our relationship with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.”
