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Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is now able to manage a much larger workflow following an upgrade to the Ultimate™ Platinum Server Licence model – from Episys, the global information technology solutions and services company. The upgrade will enable more users to access the system and make required changes, critical as it starts to win more drugs contracts.
Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been using the Episys Ultimate™ software for a number of years now and previously had the software installed on specific PCs which limited access. Software was held on a dongle and if this was lost effectively the licence was lost as well. With the upgrade to Ultimate™ Platinum Server Licence, the increased –number of licences allow users to log on from different PCs within the department, speeding up the process of producing labels as it’s not limited to specific PCs already in use.
Sue Gissing, Chief Pharmacy Technician at Southend Hospital, said, “We have been using Ultimate™ for a while, but wanted a multi-licence function so we could access the software via other PC’s. Previously we had the software on just two PCs which was proving difficult if updates or changes needed to be made, interfering with people already working on the PC needed to print from. By upgrading the server license we can access the software elsewhere which is great. From a managerial point of view, I can dip in and out and review labels and answer any queries without disrupting someone’s work flow. If I or a selected member of staff wants to make changes they can do it from one terminal. We then just go to the terminal which is connected to a printer and print off selected labels. Any changes made on one PC will automatically update across the system.”
Gissing added, “We have just won a large contract supplying an organisation with pre packaged drugs which means new label lines will be added to our system. We do lots of pre packaged medication and the majority of labels are over labels or medication that goes to the other hospitals we supply to. We also produce chemotherapy medication where we use a separate system to produce the labels, if this were to go down the Episys system could support this so we would never run the risk of production grinding to a halt. Episys have been great to work with and are always available at the end of the phone if we ever have any queries.”
The Trust has already had positive feedback from the nurses; the labels are clear and easy to read making their job of administering the drugs to patients a smooth one.
Derek Buchanan, Chief Executive Officer at Episys, said, “Often faced with the same commercial imperatives as businesses in the private sector, hospital trusts are recognising the benefits of networked, integrated systems for their communications.”
