Improving Nursing Efficiency & Traceability of Controlled Drugs

Context

London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust provides care across Northwick Park, Ealing and Central Middlesex hospitals, serving a population of more than one million people. Having already transformed medicines management through automated dispensing cabinets, the Trust sought to further improve controlled drug governance, reduce administrative burden on clinical teams and strengthen patient safety.

To achieve this, the Trust implemented MedXpert electronic Controlled Drug Registers (eCDR) across all three hospitals, creating a fully digitised, auditable process for controlled drug management.

Challenges

To further advance medicines management and controlled drug governance, the Trust aimed to:

1. Release more nursing time for direct patient care by reducing time spent on controlled drug administration and documentation.
2. Replace paper-based controlled drug registers with a secure, fully digital process.
3. Improve traceability and accountability with a complete electronic audit trail for every controlled drug transaction.
4. Enhance patient safety and compliance through greater visibility, faster discrepancy resolution and stronger controlled drug governance.

Benefits

More time for patient care

Reduced the time required to prepare and administer controlled drugs, saving approximately 128 minutes per controlled drug round on a typical 30-bed ward.

Paperless controlled drug management

Replaced paper-based controlled drug registers with a fully electronic, auditable process across all three hospital sites.

Improved discrepancy management

Enabled faster identification and resolution of controlled drug discrepancies, contributing to a 46% reduction in discrepancies and a 60% reduction in unresolved issues.

Enhanced compliance and governance

Provided real-time visibility, complete audit trails and robust controls to strengthen controlled drug governance and regulatory compliance.