Patient Safety Awards 2016: Best emerging technology and IT

Winner: East Lancashire Hospitals Trust

Referral-to-Pharmacy is East Lancashire’s cutting edge electronic referral service that enables hospitals to refer patients to community pharmacists after discharge.

The devil was in the detail of the information governance and training, which took nearly two years to negotiate

It means that some of the most vulnerable patients – older people whose medication has changed in hospital – can now benefit much more easily from community pharmacy expertise.

In its first three months to February 2016, over 1,100 referrals were made using the service with demonstrable patient safety benefits.

It’s a classic example of a nutty problem with a simple IT solution. The technical solution of transmitting the hospital electronic discharge letter to the community pharmacy was relatively easy. The devil was in the detail of the information governance and training, which took nearly two years to negotiate.

The judges said: “Integrating hospital pharmacy with the community pharmacy is often the missing link in effective discharge planning. This is a low-cost, easy to use solution that improves patient safety.”