The RCP has adopted a slightly modified form of the successful all-Wales e-prescribing chart, attached below, and we urge you to consider introducing it into your trust as part of the journey to e-prescribing.
The all-Wales chart was also referenced as an example of good practice in the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges’ standards for hospital in-patient prescription charts. The benefits, particularly for trainees and locums moving between hospitals, are clear, and supported by the RCP's Committee for Clinical Pharmacology and Sir Michael Rawlins, until recently chairman of NICE.
While the RCP supports the national use of the in-patient prescription chart we would like to emphasise our proactive approach to e-prescribing. We still believe that the paper-based chart would be useful in training and as a back-up to e-prescribing.
e-prescribing
The RCP's Health Informatics Unit (HIU) has developed standards for the structure and content of medication records, which are included in the latest version of the clinical record standards, published in July 2013 by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. As part of this work, they produced a detailed analysis of the requirements for the exchange of medication data between primary and secondary care.
Subsequently, the HIU hosted several meetings of experts in the field of e-prescribing to identify where further work is required to develop standards to ensure safe e-prescribing and communication of medication information between hospital and primary care. They are currently developing proposals to progress the development of standards in this area.
