Taranaki District Health Board’s Hāwera Hospital has launched its pilot for the Better Meds eMedicine system, trialling the system across the Emergency Department, inpatient wards and maternity unit until the end of January 2022.

Alcidion partnered with Taranaki District Health Board to pilot Better’s secure eMedicine system, Better Meds, which provides a clear overview of patients’ medication records in a single, shared location. Better Meds is a modern cloud-based platform with specific configuration to integrate with the New Zealand ePrescription Service (NZePS) for prescriptions and the New Zealand Formulary for decision support. The Hāwera Hospital pilot will be the first deployment of Better Meds in the Southern Hemisphere.

Kate Quirke, Managing Director of Alcidion, commented, “We are very pleased to achieve this significant milestone with the Te Manawa Taki region in the pilot of Better Meds in New Zealand.  We have worked successfully with Better to deploy integrated eMedicines Management capability in the UK and we look forward to the benefits and learnings that will now be realised in New Zealand”.

Dr Alex Bray, Head of the Emergency Department at Taranaki Base Hospital, says eMedicine systems like Better Meds are a key enabler in improving quality care and clinical outcomes.

“Empowering clinicians with this technology can reduce clinical risk, provide consistency in practice and a more collaborative and coordinated approach to patient care between healthcare providers throughout the health system. Overall, this supports the delivery of quality, patient-centred care,” says Dr Bray.

While Taranaki DHB has completed partial eMedicine system implementation, other Te Manawa Taki region DHBs currently using paper-based medication management processes will begin transitioning to the Better system.