Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation Award

Medicines Optimisation in Orthopaedic Enhanced Recovery : Northern Devon Healthcare Trust

The pharmacy department of a district general NHS hospital worked with the multidisciplinary team in orthopaedics to reduce variation in medication use among elective hip and knee replacement patients.

The project focussed on the following points to optimise medication use:
1) Reducing variation in anaesthetic techniques
2) Standardising post-operative analgesia
3) Developing evidence based post-operative prescribing protocols
4) Providing pre-labelled medication in patient ready bundles as ward stock to be dispensed to the patient on admission
5) Setting up "order sets" on the electronic discharge summary to speed up medical staff writing of discharge prescriptions.