Record breaking project at Cumberland Hospital

Cumberland Hospital has welcomed an electronic medications management system eMEDs with open arms, with staff and the eMEDs team celebrating a record breaking project roll out.

Part of the Digital Health Clinical Program, eMEDs has been a crucial upgrade to the way doctors and nurses order and dispense medications for patients since being implemented at Auburn, Mount Druitt and Blacktown Hospitals.

“On average our doctors have to write four charts per week, which averages out to 40 per month … eMEDs is going to provide a lot more time for patient engagement rather than writing charts,” Cumberland Hospital Acting Director of Medical Services Dr Pradeep Jarabandahalli said.

And while the benefits of the system are recognised by clinicians across the district, the positive impact of eMEDs is felt particularly strongly amongst the mental health staff at Cumberland Hospital.

“The roll out of eMEDs is a big change for Mental Health clinicians here at Cumberland and a very positive one … It means you can track the health of the patient, which is particularly important at Cumberland because the length of stay for patients is quite long,” eMEDs Site Change Manager for Cumberland Sajid-Paul Casimsiman said.

It is also much easier to access patients’ medications profile, another key change that is particularly important for Cumberland Hospital’s longer-stay patients.

“We have discovered that longer length-of-stay patients can have more adverse drug reactions, so being able to easily see the toxicity levels of each medication being prescribed is a major positive at this facility,” Mr Casimsiman said.