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Using informatics to optimise a medicines saving programme in a large NHS trust

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European Statement

Selection, Procurement and Distribution

Author(s)

Julie Featherstone, Alice Lo, Golnaz Douraghi-Zadeh

Why was it done?

The dashboard was initiated to provide accurate and timely expenditure data to the Medicines Value Team (MVT) which could then be appropriately interrogated and fed back to all relevant Trust and pharmacy staff. The aim was to quickly identify unexpected variance and progress on CIPs that allowed review with clinical and procurement teams.

What was done?

With the informatics team, a dashboard was developed to monitor medicines expenditure and Cost Improvement Plan (CIP) savings on a monthly basis. The dashboard incorporated varying tracking methods to provide timely data on biosimilar switching, contract price changes and individual medicine optimisation schemes at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust (EKHUFT).

How was it done?

The dashboard required many hours working with the informatics team to ensure good understanding of the information required. Different CIPs had to be tracked and reported in different ways. A mixture of reporting and visual styles were needed to represent the data in a user-friendly way. It was recognised that data validation was required to ensure the accuracy of the dashboard, using a variety of recognised resources, e.g. RX Info.

What has been achieved?

A full, multi-tabular dashboard is available on the Trust Information Portal. Tracked expenditure data is reported monthly by the MVT at pharmacy and Trust meetings. This has enabled realistic and timely data to be included in overall financial forecasting and feedback to clinical teams on their CIPS. The dashboard has been designed to support the rapid addition of new schemes as they are identified to track potential savings and report at the earliest opportunity. The combined use of the dashboard with close MVT oversight has resulted in closer working with clinical and procurement teams. This has led to better identification, tracking and reporting of all medicines saving opportunities in the Trust, saving over £1 million in 2022/23.

What next?

The dashboard will continue to be developed further by the MVT to maximise the capture and reporting of CIPs at EKHUFT. It will also be used to support regular medicines value reviews with senior clinical pharmacists and their teams to help identify future medicines savings opportunities – essential in this challenging financial climate in the National Health Service (NHS).

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